Ready at a blind within the hills and guarded space of Banyuwangi in East Java, the primary goal was White-faced Partridge (different title Gray-breasted Partridge), a chook described by eBird as a “distinctive partridge of Java’s jap highlands”. Nevertheless, in what can solely be described as an affront to me and all readers of 10,000 Birds, it didn’t present up on two consecutive mornings.
That left me with a number of different species. My favourite amongst these was the Sunda Warbler, a “good-looking and distinctive warbler” in line with eBird …
… whereas Cornell goes for “sprightly little warbler”.
The scientific title Phylloscopus grammiceps presumably refers back to the two yellow bars shaped by the ideas of wing coverts (grammiceps means striped).
By the way, the opposite Phylloscopus warbler I noticed right here, the Mountain Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus trivirgatus), additionally has a scientific title referring to stripes – trivirgatus means three-striped.
The music of this warbler is described as “unmusical … fast, slurred and high-pitched phrases” by Cornell however as “extremely complicated” by one other supply. Perhaps among the music I like would even be described very in another way by different individuals.
The Javan Bulbul has a patchy, scary-looking distribution on Java, however it’s categorized as Least Concern.
The scientific title Ixos virescens doesn’t make it sound like a very thrilling chook (virescens means greenish). eBird appears to take the trace and calls it a “sombrely-colored bulbul”.
Neither I nor eBird are too enthusiastic about Mees’s White-eye both. eBird goes for “small warbler-like chook with a grey head, yellowish-green physique”, which sounds reasonably noncommittal. This White-eye doesn’t have the well-defined white eyerings of extra typical White-eyes.
Gerlof Fokko Mees (1926 – 2013) was a Dutch ichthyologist, ornithologist, and museum curator who sooner or later took a robust curiosity in white-eyes. Whereas he was of Dutch origin, it seems he solely stayed within the Netherlands so long as his place as museum curator required it, after which spent the remainder of his life in Australia. I’m wondering why.
Horsfield’s Babbler isn’t actually a really attention-grabbing species both, although I’d in all probability not say that had been a person of the species current.
Whereas there’s a Grasp’s (?) Thesis on the Darkish-backed Imperial Pigeon, it’s in Bahasa, with solely a quick and albeit not very attention-grabbing English summary.
In line with a paper from 2002, it’s intensely hunted all through its vary – one indicator is the reasonably unhealthy photograph of the species used within the Cornell profile.
Fortuitously, there have been additionally three smaller colourful passerine species – the sort of birds I like most. One was a flock of Sunda Minivets.
A household of Snowy-browed Flycatchers allowed direct comparability of the colourful male, the extra subdued look of the feminine, and the spotty (akne?) sight of the juvenile.
Sadly, I couldn’t get them to pose collectively for a correct household photograph, regardless that I provided to ship them the file. Would have made a superb Christmas card for them.
The scientific title Ficedula hyperythra signifies that the chook is reddish, which isn’t fairly the colour I see on my images. Too late to rename the chook now, I suppose.
Lastly, the Pale Blue Flycatcher has the identical cut up between a really strongly coloured male and a extra subdued feminine (they didn’t deliver any children to the conceal).
Primarily based on the distribution info on the Cornell web site, this needs to be the subspecies Cyornis unicolor cyanopolia, although I discover virtually no distinction between the illustrations of the completely different subspecies.
Whereas the unicolor within the scientific title is simple to grasp (“single shade”), the subspecies title cyanopolia (“dark-blue-grey”) appears to contradict it instantly.
