It’s onerous to not be sexist whenever you solely see a feminine Hearth-breasted Flowerpecker.
eBird rubs it in, speaking concerning the “brilliantly crimson patch like a bloodstain on the breast [of the male] and persevering with “Feminine is far plainer”.
The feminine Little Pied Flycatcher will get an identical drubbing by eBird: “Feminine is exclusive in her plainness” …
… significantly compared to the reward heaped on the male: “Male is strikingly distinctive along with his daring black-and-white patterning”.
The scientific identify Ficedula westermanni refers to Dr Gerardus Frederik Westerman (1807-1890), a Dutch zoologist and writer who was additionally a co-founder and Director of the Amsterdam Zoological Gardens.
Initially, the zoo may solely be visited by the members who financed it, however from 1852 onwards non-members have been allowed to go to the zoo throughout September (supply). That is the type of data you collect whenever you spend an excessive amount of time googling.
However, the feminine Gray Bush Chat is arguably extra enticing than the black-and-white-only male.
In any case, I take it as a praise to my very own masculinity that it appears simpler for me to see the females of all these species.
The Black-throated Bushtit round right here is the subspecies Aegithalos concinnus annamensis, the Black-throated Tit (Grey-crowned).
It may be acknowledged as a full species ultimately, which for me has no relevance in any way as I’m not a lister.
There additionally appears to be some uncertainty whether or not the identify of this chook is Black-throated Tit or Black-throated Bushtit. To be on the protected aspect, the HBW merely makes use of each phrases on the identical web page. Genius.
It’s most likely a bit onerous to make the Mountain Fulvetta sound attention-grabbing …
… and certainly, eBird solely manages to name it a “plain fulvetta”.
The Giant Niltava is a species through which the feminine is extra enticing than the male – at the very least for my part.
Can’t be far more elegant than this mixture of brown and light-weight blue.
That’s not to say that the male seems to be dangerous.
NepalDesk appears to have once more requested ChatGPT to write one thing on niltavas: “In conclusion, the Niltava genus gives an interesting glimpse into the variety of life that thrives inside our planet’s wealthy ecosystems”.
The Rufous-browed Flycatcher appears to be extraordinarily good at hiding its nests, if the instance on this paper is typical.
One would suppose that it’s simple sufficient to discover a good scientific identify for a chook with such a definite white throat.
However one could be incorrect. The solitaris in Anthipes solitaris simply means “solitary, alone”.
I don’t suppose I’ve something attention-grabbing to say concerning the Snowy-browed Flycatcher. It’s a cute chook although, significantly the male.
The feminine, considerably much less so.
I’ve most likely talked about this in a earlier put up, but when your reminiscence is as dangerous as mine, it shouldn’t matter. So, I’ll repeat some reasonably attention-grabbing analysis on the Verditer Flycatcher.
This analysis reveals that the Verditer Flycatcher has no rejection mechanism for cuckoo eggs. So why doesn’t the species then find yourself being the perfect host for cuckoos?
It appears they feed their chicks solely bugs with thick exoskeletons (beetles, grasshoppers). These are roughly inconceivable to digest for many chicks together with cuckoo chicks – so any cuckoo chicks hatching within the nests of Verditer Flycatchers merely starve in a short time. The paper even has a considerably offputting picture of a useless cuckoo nestling crammed with undigested bugs.
Why a 5-page paper must have 10 authors stays a thriller to me, although.
On the one hand, eBird appears fond sufficient of the Clicking Shrike-babbler, calling it a “good-looking little chook”.
However, the chook will get some flak for not being very sporty: “Like most different shrike-babblers, tends to be reasonably gradual and never significantly acrobatic, typically trailing alongside on the sides of blended flock”.
It will have made extra sense to direct any criticism at whoever gave the species its scientific identify Pteruthius intermedius: intermedius means intermediate or between two others, indicating species which have intermediate plumage, measurement, or distribution – definitely no prize for creativity right here.
The eBird description of the Gray-bellied Tesia is a sign that the author could have spent an excessive amount of time studying “The Lord of the Rings”: “Lengthy-legged and short-tailed, this tiny chook strikes quickly and unseen by way of darkish, dense undergrowth like a pint-sized shadow”.
Thus for as soon as, eBird virtually manages to match the web page on the species by NepalDesk with the title “Gray-bellied Tesia: Whispers of the Undergrowth”.
The Gray-bellied Tesia can be parasitized by some cuckoo species (supply), despite the fact that it’s onerous to think about how such a small chook can efficiently increase a a lot greater cuckoo. Anyway, it makes for cute images.
The Brief-tailed Scimitar Babbler is listed as Close to Threatened.
Although the images right here recommend that this standing could also be the results of a considerably grumpy angle towards life, in actuality, having a restricted forest vary that’s topic to degradation appears to be the larger challenge.
The scientific identify Napothera danjoui even gives a tenuous hyperlink to my hometown Shanghai. François André Gustave Abel Danjou [at that time, people erroneously believed that there was a link between the length of a man’s name and that of his private parts] was a French diplomat and amongst different positions was a Vice-Consul in Shanghai from 1906 to 1916.
As with many of those chook names, it’s unclear what the rationale for naming a chook after this man is.
The Rufous-throated Partridge discovered on this a part of Vietnam refuses to evolve to stereotypes comparable to having a rufous throat.
Presumably, this makes it the subspecies Arborophila rufogularis annamensis (despite the fact that I normally insist I’ll solely trouble with subspecies after my retirement).
Life is simply too brief to stuff mushrooms or to trouble with subspecies.
eBird explains that “it strikes about in medium-sized convoys by way of the dense undergrowth”, which -as I’ve learn too many books on navy historical past – sounds fairly cool and in some way suggests cute tiny Humvees are concerned.
It’s superb what sort of matters are the topic of scientific analysis. I discovered one paper titled “How the colour of reflective supplies influences the incidence of mammals and birds”, which has a cameo look by the partridge.
The conclusion is that such reflective supplies could repel birds and thus needs to be averted in protected areas – although they may be helpful at locations comparable to airports.
Outdoors the hides of Dalat, fruit bushes entice barbets such because the Indochinese Barbet.
eBird describes the species as “loud however sluggish”.
The genus identify Psilopogon sounds prefer it may very well be identify for an AI-based logistics optimization software program. Possibly it’s best to try to reserve the area www.psilopogon.com, assuming it’s nonetheless obtainable.
Arguably, the Necklaced Barbet is a extra enticing barbet species, sporting intense yellow elements reasonably than the yellowish throat and crown of the earlier species that make it seem like it has been washed a bit too often at excessive temperatures.
The Necklaced Barbet refuses to cooperate with the HBW in quite a few analysis initiatives as it’s described as being “chunky”. Apparently, the HBW authors didn’t study something from their previous expertise of calling their companions “chunky”.
Its vocalization appears to be roughly indistinguishable from the Golden-throated Barbet despite the fact that the latter seems to be considerably completely different – that appears to verify a paper on barbets claiming that visible alerts are extra divergent between intently associated species than acoustic alerts.
All images taken round Dalat in early April 2024
