I’ve a robust suspicion that the one that named the Collared Laughingthrush solely had a black-and-white picture obtainable when deciding on the title.
In any other case, why concentrate on the (not even very distinctive) collar in such a colourful chook?
Not for nothing, eBird calls it a “Halloween-themed Laughingthrush: decked out in black, grey, and orange”.
eBird has one other fascinating comment: “Bizarrely reminiscent in patterning of a lot smaller Silver-eared Mesia and Golden-breasted Fulvetta” – see for your self (mesia and fulvetta pictures taken in China).
The Collared Laughingthrush is listed as Endangered – its vary on the HBW distribution map seems frightfully small.
Or to quote the HBW immediately: “Inhabitants estimated at 2500–9999 people and reducing; occupied vary estimated as being merely 720 km²”. That’s concerning the dimension of Singapore.
A paper on its standing has many slightly miserable pictures illustrating the destruction of its habitat (and that of the Gray-crowned Crocias – see under).
As with many birds on this space, its scientific title Trochalopteron yersini is derived from a French colonialist – Dr Alexandre Émile John Yersin (1863-1943), a Swiss-French bacteriologist and a Director of the Pasteur Institute in French Indochina.
He could also be happier with giving a reputation to this chook than with one other organism bearing his title. The bacillus chargeable for the bubonic plague, which he co-discovered, was later named Yersinia pestis.
The Black-hooded Laughingthrush is one other laughingthrush with a scientific title (Garrulax milleti) derived from a French colonialist – on this case, Fernand Victor Millet (1878-1946), the French Superintendent of Forests in Langbian Province, Annam, and a big-game hunter.
This sounds a bit skinny to advantage having a species named after him – and I’m not notably keen on hunters. If you’re an aged male with a want to indicate off your masculinity, simply purchase an overpriced sports activities automobile, don’t kill animals.
Both manner, laughingthrushes will snort at you, not with you.
I don’t fairly get the rationale behind eBird describing the Black-hooded Laughingthrush as unique-looking. To me, it doesn’t look that a lot totally different from the White-cheeked Laughingthrush featured subsequent.
And now for one thing fully totally different (Monty Python) – not likely: the White-cheeked Laughingthrush.
You might have guessed the place its scientific title Pterorhinus vassali is derived from.
Joseph Marguerite Jean-Baptiste Vassal (1867-1957) was a French surgeon, a researcher on the Pasteur Institute in Indochina, and a Director of Well being in French Equatorial Africa.
If Wikipedia entries are any indication, he was later overshadowed by his British spouse Gabrielle Maud Vassal, who collected many specimens, then entered the French Resistance in WW2, serving to downed airmen escape, and later grew to become referred to as a photographer, creator, and public speaker.
The Darkish-sided Thrush is simple to see in some Dalat blinds, so it got here as a shock to me to listen to that it’s apparently a really tough chook to see elsewhere.
As all the time, NepalDesk is nice for an overblown characterization of the species: “Darkish-sided Thrush: The Melodious Twilight Dancer”.
In actuality, tossing objects round on the bottom looking for meals, it has the grumpy but environment friendly look I most likely have when cleansing up the trash of earlier occupiers in a chook conceal.
eBird remarks on the unusually lengthy invoice of the chook – and certainly, the Chinese language title for the species interprets as Lengthy-billed Thrush.
Because the Siberian Thrush passes by way of Shanghai throughout migration, there’s most likely nothing I can say concerning the species that I’ve not mentioned in earlier Shanghai posts.
Nonetheless, it’s not a chook I thoughts seeing many times. So trendy.
The scenario is comparable with the Orange-headed Thrush – a really engaging species …
… however I simply wrote about it in one in every of my Di Linh posts (which hopefully shall be printed earlier than this one, if I don’t mess issues up).
Evidently the individuals operating the “Avifauna of Hong Kong” website don’t care a lot for cuteness – why else would they describe the Lesser Shortwing as a “pretty nondescript, small, brown babbler”?
Additionally it is shocking that each eBird and the HBW state that men and women look related – whereas on the identical time, the pictures and illustrations look fairly totally different (and that’s coming from any individual who normally actually isn’t superb at distinguishing between similar-looking birds).
Within the picture under, you’ll be able to see a justification for the scientific title Brachypteryx leucophris (leucophris means white-browed).
In a paper on the net marketplace for songbirds, the imply worth for a Lesser Shortwing is indicated to be USD 14.
Fortuitously for the Lesser Shortwing, it is just listed as quantity 88 within the species rating on the market inside the analysis interval – nonetheless, which means 163 poor birds of this species had been on the market.
eBird describes the Gray-crowned Crocias as resembling “a three-way cross of a shrike, a sibia, and a laughingthrush”.
The Gray-crowned Crocias is listed as Endangered – its vary is certainly very restricted.
In truth, for a very long time, it was solely identified from 4 specimens earlier than being rediscovered in 1995 (supply).
The explanations for the standing are depressingly acquainted – destruction and degradation of its montane evergreen forest habitat (supply).
The web site of Linda Corridor Library has a web page on Elizabeth Gould, the namesake of Ms. Gould’s Sunbird.
Here’s a direct hyperlink to her drawing of Ms. Gould’s Sunbird.
For far more data on her, learn Donna’s current assessment of the ebook “Birds of the World: The Artwork of Elizabeth Gould”.
I need to confess I used to be sort of hoping for my associates from NepalDesk to put in writing concerning the chook so I may make enjoyable of them (“Ms. Gould’s Sunbird: Shiny Jewel Of The Forest”?), however sadly, they ignore the species despite the fact that it may be present in Nepal.
If you’re pondering of canceling your Spotify subscription and getting a White-tailed Robin as a substitute, higher assume once more.
The males have a repertoire of 5-28 music sorts (supply), so in the event you decide the fallacious robin, the music choice obtainable to you’ll not be any greater than that of a division retailer round Christmas.
The feminine is described as “brown and slightly nondescript”, which appears a bit unfair.
Bulbuls are nonetheless going sturdy at Dalat, although in comparison with the lowlands, some species are a bit extra montane: Mountain Bulbul …
… Black Bulbul …
… Flavescent Bulbul …
… and Sooty-headed Bulbul.
The Hill Prinia is a slightly engaging species – for a prinia (The White Stripes: “You’re fairly good trying (for a woman)“).
I like to recommend not trying on the pictures in a analysis paper titled “A Pathological Report on Rupture of Crop Related to Parasitism in a Hill Prinia (Prinia superciliaris)” – at the very least not proper after a meal.
As most likely talked about in different Vietnam posts earlier than, many Siberian Blue Robins seen right here look comparatively crappy. I suppose they’ll afford to as they don’t breed right here.
All I can say about this one is that it’s a leaf warbler (Phylloscopus leafwarblerosus).
When Blue-winged Minlas have their annual conference, the attendants from South Vietnam (subspecies Actinodura cyanouroptera orientalis) usually get bullied for not having blue wings. This must cease.
