When writing about kingfishers, my first thought is all the time to provide you with some lame assertion about kingfishers being the poor man’s pittas – however that’s nonsense. Many kingfishers match the wealthy colours of pittas. In truth, there are some causes to choose kingfishers to pittas – there are extra species (117 in comparison with 47 pittas), and not less than a few of them don’t insist on staying in the dead of night undergrowth on a regular basis.
Tangkoko is an effective place to see just a few of those kingfishers.
Proper – you don’t want to go to Sulawesi to see this one, the Collared Kingfisher. In truth, I had simply seen it in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis just a few months earlier.
Whereas the scientific title Todiramphus chloris suggests this must be a inexperienced chicken (chloris means inexperienced or greenish), I might name this blue.
However with 50 subspecies, I’m positive there are some that look extra greenish than this one.
I had solely seen Ruddy Kingfisher as soon as earlier than (in Singapore), so seeing it kind of straight from the restaurant desk the place I used to be having lunch at Tangkoko was a really optimistic shock.
As it’s breeding within the Koreas and Japan, it must be potential to see it in Shanghai as nicely, and there are one one or two experiences – however I’ve by no means seen it.
It’s a shy chicken, so discovering it could be simpler through acoustic monitoring of websites such because the one described in a paper.
Some Japanese researchers made synthetic nestboxes from polystyrene, two of which had been used …
… however this brought on some criticism (Takeda, Okay.. A criticism towards the utilization of the styrene foam for chicken nest packing containers. Japanese Journal of Ornithology. 2006, Vol.55, No.2, p.117.) …
… which was then replied to by the unique initiators of the research (Ueda, Okay., Yano, H.. Reply to the criticism towards our utilization of the bogus nest constituted of styrene foam for Ruddy Kingfishers. Japanese Journal of Ornithology. 2006, Vol.55, No.2, p.119.)
That’s how science works, I assume.
Nevertheless it was the subsequent two kingfishers that basically made me take into account going to Sulawesi for birding – specifically, the Inexperienced-backed Kingfisher.
Like many colourful pittas, it prefers staying very a lot within the shade – a little bit of a waste given its colours.
The scientific title Actenoides monachus turns the species right into a monk (monachus) – a reference to the darkish cap of the chicken.
It’s listed as Close to Threatened.
Luckily for photographers given the dim gentle within the forests, it perches patiently on branches not too excessive up and – not less than in Tangkoko – doesn’t appear to be significantly shy both.
In accordance with the HBW, it primarily feeds on giant centipedes and beetles.
I noticed a Sulawesi Lilac Kingfisher simply twenty meters or so away from a Inexperienced-backed one, which was a bit stunning provided that they each appear to have very related looking strategies and prey objects. My information instructed me that the bigger Inexperienced-backed Kingfisher is able to coping with bigger prey, so perhaps this creates the separate niches for the 2 species to exist subsequent to one another.
As so usually in chicken names, the cyanotis (darkish blue) within the scientific title Cittura cyanotis is just not a really apparent characteristic of the species.
In accordance with the HBW, its feeding method is as follows: “It sits quietly and virtually immobile in darkish decrease and center storys of the forest, or subsequent to lately cleared land, scanning the bottom for protracted durations.”
You’ll be able to see that for your self in a number of totally different movies.
Apparently the comparatively quick invoice of this kingfisher signifies that it doesn’t eat fish (supply: HBW).
For the sake of completeness, right here is the Nice-billed Kingfisher. To see it at Tangkoko, you want to take a ship experience, which I’ll describe in a separate submit.
And equally, not seen at Tangkoko however somewhat at Tomohon: the Scaly-breasted Kingfisher, one more reason to go to Sulawesi.
