With a birding tour of East Java beginning within the night, I made a decision to fly into Surabaya in East Java at some point earlier and to fowl by myself on the primary day. That was a superb determination, each by way of decompression after the flight and since the Wonorejo–common space (fishpond and mangroves), an eBird hotspot, turned out to be relatively good, yielding a number of species that I didn’t see as properly afterward the journey.
The hotspot is generally pretty open, a plus for reasonably expert birders like me. It has a superb variety of birds and the standard ambiance of such mangrove locations – smelly, sizzling, and trashy – however few folks, so for birders preferring birds to folks, it’s a relatively good place.
For instance, to see the Cerulean Kingfisher, a “tiny sky-blue kingfisher” (eBird). Certainly, Wonorejo appears to be a very good place to see this species – I noticed it afterward the journey, however by no means as shut.
There’s even a paper on the courtship conduct of this kingfisher that describes observations at precisely the identical location, Wonorejo, Surabaya (although 7 years earlier than my go to there).
One other paper hypothesizes that by hovering, the Cerulean Kingfisher can even discover prey at areas with out handy stakeout posts – similar to bigger fishponds – and thus survive even in areas with hardly any pure habitat left.
Alternatively, areas with giant quantities of inorganic trash result in decrease numbers of Cerulean Kingfishers (supply). This isn’t contradicted by later seeing the kingfisher in some waste therapy crops on Bali, the place the trash presumably is sort of completely natural.
Oh sure, and the scientific identify Alcedo coerulescens simply signifies that the fowl is bluish (which given the depth of the colour sounds a bit like an understatement). Higher choices would have been caeruleissima or ultracaerulea (stated he within the obscure hope of impressing readers together with his virtually forgotten classical schooling).
The skilled woodpecker reviewers at eBird aren’t impressed with the Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, which they describe as a “relatively unremarkable and typical-looking small black-and-white woodpecker.”
“Unremarkable, me?”
Learn how to distinguish the sexes inside the species? It’s just like many different woodpecker species. However in the event you have no idea about this, you’ll be able to merely observe considered one of them to the bathroom. The males at all times use these bogs marked with the signal on the left within the illustration under.
Certainly, for a male woodpecker to finish up in the bathroom on the fitting may be fairly embarrassing.
The species as an entire can also be a bit embarrassed by its scientific identify Dendrocopos analis – Cornell tactfully explains analis as “of the vent”.
One other species sad with its identify – although on this case, the widespread English one – is the Plain Prinia.
That made me marvel in regards to the origin of the time period Plain Jane. Apparently, it could have originated from Jane Seymour, who was thought of the least engaging of Henry VIII’s wives. Later, the phrase gained reputation after Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, the place the phrase “plain” seems 56 instances to explain Jane’s look. Brontë wished to create a heroine who was as plain as she was (supply). And she or he was fairly plain certainly, based on a recent description: “Miss Brontë is underdeveloped, skinny and greater than half a head shorter than I (with) a reddish face, giant mouth and plenty of tooth gone; altogether plain.”
In some way the phrase Gerygone as in Golden-bellied Gerygone invokes pictures of multi-headed beasts in me – I suppose it’s the similarity in sound to the Gorgons of Greek mythology, three monstrous sisters with snakes for hair who may flip anybody who checked out them to stone.
The etymology of the Gerygone is kind of totally different: “New Latin, from Greek gerygone, female of gerygonos born of sound, from gerys sound, voice + gonos that which is born, little one, from gignesthai to be born” (Merriam-Webster).
This reference to sound within the fowl identify isn’t any accident. One supply describes the Golden-bellied Gerygone as follows: “Its beautiful elfin music intrigues many although the situation of the songster could defeat them…. Its music is an ethereal plaintive warbling. The relatively weak notes carry an incredible distance. The rationale why it’s so tough to find is that the fowl turns its head backward and forward because it sings, producing a ventriloquist impact.”
There’s additionally some variation within the music between the totally different subspecies, as described right here (in a brief paper by Peter Boesman, a reputation acquainted to these utilizing xeno-canto).
Whereas in Shanghai I usually see Black-winged Stilt, on Java the equal is the Pied Stilt. Similar lengthy legs and total form, totally different distribution of the black and white components of the plumage (admittedly, a barely laymanish description of the variations).
Whereas the Pied Stilt largely inhabits wetlands of Australia and New Zealand, it has been slowly increasing its vary to southern Southeast Asia together with Java (supply: Cornell).
One paper on the variations between the Pied Stilt and the critically endangered Black Stilt lists some the explanation why the Pied Stilt is a way more profitable breeder. Elements embody the nesting location (Pied Stilts use swamps that are tough to entry for predators) and the shorter fledging time of the chicks. Subsequent time evolution or god designs a brand new species, higher maintain these components in thoughts, or you find yourself with one other critically endangered species.
Like different shorebird species, the Pied Stilt has an entire repertoire of defending its nest towards predators – these embody swooping, chasing, aggressive flight, furtive run, lure show, and false brooding. These are described intimately in a Ph.D. thesis from 1971.
A considerably shocking discover was a pair of Sunda Coucals, because the species is listed as Weak (although it appears to love mangrove habitat).
Cornell provides a inhabitants estimate of solely 2500–9999 mature people and considers it to be declining.
The scientific identify Centropus nigrorufus is a bit pointless – nigrorufus means black and purple, however it’s onerous to see how these two colours would distinguish this species from the opposite coucals such because the Lesser Coucal additionally discovered on Java.
I’ll solely briefly point out a number of species widespread not solely on this location however throughout Java and even Indonesia – the Yellow-vented Bulbul …
… Scaly-breasted Munia …
… and the Javan Pond Heron.
The Malaysian Pied Fantail seems to be fairly a bit like Depend Dracula (I do know the readers of 10,000 Birds respect such extremely scientific observations).
I didn’t see a nest of the fowl however a paper has some good photographs of 1 in Singapore.
Apparently, in Malaysia, the species is regionally known as murai gila, actually “loopy thrush” (supply).
An art work from 1795 exhibiting the species is outwardly on the market right here. The blurp praises “consummate talent demonstrated” in addition to the “spectacular show of painterly approach” – however I feel the art work doesn’t seize the vivid nature of the species in any respect, as an alternative rendering it flat and lifeless.
There’s not a lot printed analysis on the White-shouldered Triller (Lalage sueurii), so I’m glad it’s at the very least named after any individual I can write about: Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846), a French naturalist, artist, and explorer.
Whereas he died in 1846, the museum he labored for on the time of his demise took its candy time to publish its works and solely received round to it within the early 1900s. So in the event you suppose you’re procrastinating, you’re in all probability not the worst case on the market (supply).
My different favourite fowl of the Surabaya mangroves – other than the luxurious Cerulean Kingfisher – was the Savanna Nightjar. As eBird states, it’s certainly a “well-camouflaged nightbird, often encountered roosting on gravel riverbeds, open areas in grasslands, rooftops, or roadsides”.
And much more shocking, it appears certainly “pretty properly tailored to city life in some components of its vary and sometimes present in cities and metropolis edges” – in actual fact, having dinner someplace in a bigger metropolis afterward the journey, I requested for the origin of a particular sound, they usually informed me it was the decision of the Savanna Nightjar, proper in the midst of the town. (eBird additionally factors out that it’s “most frequently detected by its distinctive, high-pitched, burry ‘chree-ik’ music, repeated time and again”).
Apparently, the nightjars handle to transmit their particular person acoustic messages fairly properly even in noisy city environment, as described right here – the analysis paper calls this “one of many key preadaptations for this nocturnal nonpasserine to thrive so efficiently in its newly adopted city atmosphere” (a bit pompously expressed, for my part, however you get the purpose).
Additionally they appear to know rather a lot about acoustics, as described in a single paper: “Savanna Nightjars regulate their calling heights to achieve optimum constructing wall environment to make their calls reverberate and thus improve their name amplitudes, and the advantages of accelerating name amplitude could also be one of many very important selective forces for Savanna Nightjars to name preferentially in city areas with buildings.”
Lastly, the species additionally advantages from the truth that the roofs of tall buildings appear to be a really perfect nesting website for Savanna Nightjars (supply).
