After lacking a Rufous-bellied Woodpecker 3 times in January, I lastly noticed it in February.
eBird is impressed, calling it a wonderful woodpecker.
The person I noticed was a feminine – as frequent amongst woodpeckers, the male has a purple head, not a black one.
It’s the solely sapsucking woodpecker in Asia, creating sap-wells on bushes (supply) and apparently spending various effort on these.
One paper subsequently calls the Rufous-bellied Woodpecker an Ecosystem Engineer: “Rufous-bellied Woodpeckers exhibited a particular conduct of drilling quite a few small holes round tree trunks, usually forming ring-like constructions. These ‘sap-wells’ have been meticulously created by drilling dense rows of small holes encircling the tree trunks and served as the first meals supply for the woodpeckers. They attracted a wide selection of bugs and supplied a helpful supply of protein.”
It’s fairly stunning to see this woodpecker in Shanghai at the moment of the yr – its breeding vary is much additional north whereas its non-breeding and all-year distribution is much additional South. In any case, the in depth rows of holes at its Shanghai location point out that the woodpecker might have been round for fairly a while already.
February continues to be an excellent month to see buntings in Shanghai. I used to be glad to see a largish flock of Rustic Buntings at Nanhui – my impression is they’re getting rarer on Chongming Island.
Much less of a fear: Pallas’s Bunting …
… Yellow-throated Bunting …
… Tristram’s Bunting …
… Yellow-browed Bunting …
… and Black-faced Bunting.
It’s also time to indicate two quite common however enticing species once more. One is the Lengthy-tailed Shrike.
A Bangladeshi web site explains why Lengthy-tailed Shrikes don’t make good cage birds: “The Lengthy-tailed Shrike has not turn out to be a pet within the Indian Subcontinent, maybe, as a result of it’s a meat-eater and never very congenial to maintain indoors. “
Our mates from Nepaldesk apparently have mastered ChatGPT very effectively by now, yielding the next assertion in regards to the Lengthy-tailed Shrike: “In abstract, the Lengthy-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) is undeniably an enchanting hen, with its beautiful look, enthralling looking strategies, and extraordinary vocal mimicry. Its in depth presence in Nepal offers hen fans an opportunity to witness and admire the distinctive qualities this species has to supply. So, when planning your subsequent birdwatching journey in Nepal, be looking out for this awe-inspiring feathered buddy.”
The opposite is the Crested Mynas have good style – they like to include black feathers into their nests reasonably than white feathers (supply). Admittedly, this isn’t solely as a consequence of their good style – apparently, black feathers set off a worry response in different mynas (they assume the nest has been preyed upon) and thus scale back the danger of nest usurpation.
One blogger calls the Zitting Cisticola “desperately annoying, with the male’s incessant ‘zitting’ name and zig-zag flight, touring his territory”.
A male Blue Rock Thrush exhibits up pretty reliably on the Nanhui seawall close to the resort.
The species is reported to increase into city areas, each in Tokyo …
… and on Malta. Effectively, in case you love concrete and rocks …
The male Purple-flanked Bluetail prefers a reasonably completely different tone of blue.
It’s a frequent hen in Shanghai in winter (although admittedly, the females are rather more frequent than the males) – however by some means, the HBW distribution map doesn’t appear to pay attention to that. They may need to often examine the eBird lists when getting ready their vary maps.
The species profile within the HBW additionally has some weirdly human notes: “The tune of the Purple-flanked Bluetail is among the most distinctive sounds of the Siberian taiga forests. Its easy tune with a melancholy ring appears effectively suited to the habitat”.
Whereas this sounds romantic, I can add from my very own expertise that at the least the females behave reasonably viciously towards one another, with the dominant hen chasing the others off though Shanghai is just not their breeding territory and even when there’s loads of meals round.
The Silver-throated Bushtit is expounded to the Lengthy-tailed Tit and likewise shares a few of its cuteness.
Just like me not having the ability to see the distinction between human infants (all of them look equally ugly to me), Silver-throated Bushtits can’t acknowledge their very own offspring if this examine is to be believed.
Unusually, an individual promoting for one thing referred to as Japan Dreamscapes Images Excursions talks in regards to the Silver-throated Bushtit – after which illustrates it with a photograph of a Lengthy-tailed Tit (which appears to be the species he/she actually has in thoughts). In any case, this actually takes a little bit of the credibility of his/her declare to “assist visiting birding photographers discover these bonny birds within the discipline.”
At Wusong Wetland Park, I noticed an attention-grabbing mixed-species flock consisting of Silver-throated Bushtits, Pallas’s Leaf Warblers, Black-throated Bushtits …
… a Speckled Piculet …
… in addition to a single Lengthy-tailed Tit, a uncommon hen in Shanghai (it was the primary time I had ever seen one in Shanghai, briefly making it Quantity 382 on my Shanghai listing – however see beneath).
Apparently, it appears that evidently the native eBird reviewer didn’t handle to see this species, which inevitably resulted within the Shanghai sighting being categorised as an escaped hen though the distribution map makes vagrancy more likely.
The Gray-backed Thrushes on this park are surprisingly tame.
Whereas the cranes on Chongming Island appear to have largely gone, there are nonetheless some attention-grabbing birds there: Chinese language Gray Shrike …
… Eurasian Bittern …
(I believe that the people in Shanghai are residents, however in different international locations such because the Netherlands, there’s a gender break up – males are far much less prone to migrate than females, probably as a result of bigger dimension of the males – supply)
… and Brown-cheeked Rail.
Much less attention-grabbing there: Frequent Shelduck …
… Pied Avocet …
… Frequent Snipe …
… and Dunlin.
On Tianmashan, there was nonetheless a male Frequent Rosefinch together with some females or immature …
… and one in all my favorites, the White’s Thrush.
My late mom as soon as remarked that she significantly favored hen pictures on which the birds have been partly hidden – I then ascribed this assertion to her starting dementia (of which she later died), however now I can often see her level:
Different frequent birds there: Swinhoe’s White-eye …
… Brambling …
… Eurasian Siskin …
… Pale Thrush …
… and the lovable and apparently reasonably hygiene-conscious Rufous-faced Warbler.
One examine checked out how playback impacts breeding birds – whereas reasonable playback didn’t considerably have an effect on the nestlings’ well being, heavy playback diminished the load of the nestlings, presumably because the dad and mom expend power on reacting to the playback.
One other examine regarded on the impact of heavy rainfall throughout the breeding interval – it lowers the nesting success.
Now that this species is known as Cinereous Tit, it may be included into this submit with out this website vulnerable to being blocked for underage viewers.
Nanhui introduced a Saunder’s Gull (categorised as Weak) …
… as an increasing number of of its habitat vanishes – one supply states that the
frequent seepweed habitat, wherein this species nests, decreased in space by 79.1% inside 15 years …
… a Gray Heron posing on a pedestal, wanting as if fabricated from recycled plastic …
…. and extra thrushes: Dusky Thrush …
… and the reasonably enticing Naumann’s Thrush – a male …
… and a feminine.
It’s named after Johann Andreas Naumann (1744-1826), a German farmer and naturalist. And the creator of a guide with the exact title “Naturgeschichte der Vögel Deutschlands, nach einigen Erfahrungen entworfen : Durchaus umgearbeit, systematisch geordnet, sehr vermehrt, vervollständigt, und mit getreu nach der Natur eigenhändig gezeichneten und gestochenen Abbildungen aller deutschen Vögel, nebst ihren Hauptverschiedenheiten”
Google interprets this as “Pure historical past of the birds of Germany, drawn up on the idea of some expertise: totally revised, systematically organized, enormously enlarged, accomplished, and with hand-drawn and engraved illustrations of all German birds, along with their foremost variations”.
Perhaps he was paid primarily based on the phrase depend. In contrast to me, I’m afraid.
