Shanghai in March remains to be time to see quite a lot of buntings earlier than they migrate North. Most of them are simple to see – the Japanese Reed Bunting will not be. Certainly it’s listed as Close to Threatened, which is a pity as it’s sort of a soulmate of mine (eBird: “Not as social as Reed and Pallas’s Buntings and doesn’t expose itself as usually; normally solitary”).
And naturally, its essential subject mark is invisible, or as eBird says, “Ochre rump is seen in all plumages and is diagnostic, however it may be tough to see”.
Different buntings (for which on the finish of a barely overlong winter season I can’t be bothered to dig out additional semi-interesting info) embody the Pallas’s Bunting aka Pallas’s Reed Bunting (extra social than the Japanese one, see above) …
… Yellow-throated Bunting …
… Yellow-browed Bunting …
… Black-faced Bunting …
… Little Bunting …
and Tristram’s Bunting.
If you’re extra keen on moist tits than in buntings, listed here are some Japanese Tits.
Black-throated Bushtits don’t lend themselves to unhealthy jokes fairly as properly. However they’re cute …
… significantly when reenacting a painting by Caspar David Friedrich, “Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer” (Wanderer over the ocean of fog). Okay, minus the fog.
Opposite to what I wrote in my February post, a number of Hooded Crane {couples} have now chosen to have two chicks. Perhaps the grandparents assist.
Chinese language Penduline Tits usually are not significantly woke birds. For 80% of all nests, uniparental care was observed, primarily by the feminine (71% vs. 9% by the male). Presumably, nearly all of males have plenty of mediocre jokes about their chick-caring conspecific males.
White’s Thrush is described as “burly” on eBird – not completely unjustified, I suppose, however this description fails to seize the way in which the intricate patterns of the fowl make for nice camouflage and in addition for its personal sort of magnificence.
The Widespread Pheasants in Shanghai are all wild – there is no such thing as a program of supporting the wild inhabitants by releasing hand-reared birds. Such applications are considerably inefficient anyway – in one study, the breeding success of untamed male pheasants was 2-5 occasions larger than for hand-reared and launched ones whereas for females, hand-reared birds have been 3 occasions as susceptible to predation because the wild ones. Makes you wonder if kindergartens are such a good suggestion. Perhaps youngsters ought to simply be launched into the wild as quickly as potential.
A Pale Thrush with a foul hair day.
Its temper will not be helped by the ambiguous assessment on eBird: “Though not truly pale, this brownish songbird is likely one of the plainer thrushes in its vary”.
The Latin species title of the Dusky Thrush is eunomos (I suppose that’s Greek, however no matter) – which means well-ordered. Apparently, this title is derived from the well-ordered patterns of the male.
And naturally, the pictures right here present a feminine, so far as I can inform.
Apparently, there’s a web site simply exhibiting stamps depicting fowl species. One page is devoted to the Lengthy-tailed Shrike. It’s a bit arduous for me to think about a lot of an overlap between birders and stamp collectors, but when it didn’t exist, why would (for instance) the Republique Federale Islamique des Comores subject shrike-themed stamps?
I’m not certain how it’s in male opera singers – do older singers sing longer? At the very least that’s how it’s amongst Widespread Rosefinches: older males sing with an extended strophe size than yearlings.
In fact, this factoid ought to be offered with a photograph of a male, not a feminine rosefinch. Alas, it appears they have been already gone from Tianmashan in March.
It could not sound truthful, however high-quality particular person Gray-capped Greenfinches choose to mate with one another (source).
What among the much less engaging birds then assume might be alongside the traces of “If I’m Not Sizzling, Are You Sizzling or Not?”, which by some outstanding coincidence can also be the title of a paper on “Bodily-Attractiveness Evaluations and Courting Preferences as a Operate of One’s Personal Attractiveness” (amongst people, not Gray-capped Greenfinches).
That paper raises an fascinating query: “When much less engaging individuals settle for much less engaging dates, do they persuade themselves that the individuals they select up to now are extra bodily engaging than others understand them to be?”, with the reply given “Much less engaging individuals don’t delude themselves into pondering that their dates are extra bodily engaging than others understand them to be”. So, individuals presumably find yourself being depressed and real looking relatively than joyful and delusional.
In my expertise, individuals eat extra meals they’re conversant in than meals that’s unfamiliar. In addition they eat extra when along with different individuals. Lastly, they’re extra prepared to eat new sorts of meals when different individuals they’re along with eat these new meals as properly. All this was verified in a study.
Wait, the research was not carried out with individuals however with Eurasian Siskins.
Chinese language Blackbirds are among the many most typical birds within the Shanghai compound the place I reside (and the place happily this yr I’m not truly locked in, a distinction to the state of affairs one yr in the past). It was my impression that they’re thriving right here, and a really current (2023) paper confirms that certainly Chinese language Blackbirds do properly in cities. 16% of city nests have been invaded by predators however 43% of rural nests have been.
They’re described as “bigger and extra highly effective than the Widespread Blackbird of Europe” – I can think about some Chinese language nationalists rejoicing that “my blackbird can beat your blackbird” …
In keeping with Wikipedia, the distribution of the Crimson-billed Leiothrix stretches over India, Bhutan, Nepal, Burma, and elements of Tibet. In fact, it’s current in lots of elements of China (not talked about) however probably not in Tibet. This leads us to the surprising realization that there’s a mistake on the web. Thoughts you, this isn’t the primary time – this has occurred earlier than, as reported by The Onion. Nonetheless, I’m shocked. What’s subsequent? Mendacity US-Ex-Presidents?
Unusually, the HBW calls the Crimson-billed Leiothrix a “medium-sized, inexperienced and yellow babbler” – to me, the outline of the fowl as inexperienced appears fairly far-fetched. Notes on colorblind ornithologists half 1.
“It ain’t simple being known as inexperienced”
Notes on colorblind ornithologists half 2: a fowl with orange legs (Noticed Crimsonshank) and one with yellowish ones (Widespread Inexperiencedshank).
(I attempted to think about a joke devoted to George Santos – one thing in regards to the legs of the Greenshank not being yellowish however yellow-ish – however couldn’t make it work. Any solutions?).
Notes on colorblind ornithologists half 3: Inexperienced (?) Sandpiper.
Notes on colorblind ornithologists half 4: Black Bulbul.
(sure, I do know that is the white-headed morph – however that’s the one most simply seen in Shanghai, and don’t you assume that mentioning that solely a selected morph makes the title of the species nonsensical is relatively a lame excuse?)
To be truthful, the title of the Chestnut Bulbul appears acceptable – apparently, not all ornithologists are colour blind.
The Chinese language title of the Rufuous-faced Warbler mysteriously interprets as Brown-faced Flycatcher Warbler (Zong Lian Weng Ying) – colorblind Chinese language Ornithologists?
Maybe to keep away from additional criticism, the identical Chinese language colorblind ornithologist then selected a color-free title for the Brown(ish)-flanked Bush Warbler?
Certainly, the Chinese language title interprets as Robust-footed Tree Warbler (Qiang Jiao Shu Ying). Really, that’s extra aligned with the Latin species title (fortipes) than the English title.
So possibly the English-speaking ornithologists simply needed to point out off their non-colorblindness.
The Gentle-vented Bulbul apparently advantages from being a social animal, which I personally (being not very social) discover a bit unfair. A paper with the largely self-explanatory title “Consuming Extra and Preventing Much less: Social Foraging Is a Potential Benefit for Profitable Growth of Fowl Supply Populations” hyperlinks the profitable vary growth of the Gentle-vented Bulbul in comparison with the same species (Collared Finchbill) to the bulbuls being extra more likely to forage in bigger teams than the finchbills.
And right here is the Collared Finchbill, who like me suffers from being much less social than others. Which limits each its and my vary growth (although in my case, not having children is a crucial further issue).
For pretty apparent causes, the Northern Shoveler jogs my memory of the wide-mouth frog joke I heard as a child. It appears this joke even made it into academia – there may be a paper titled “Jokes and covert language attitudes – The curious case of the wide-mouth frog”.
If you wish to cheer up Kaily Meek and Drew Bender (presumably undergraduates at Metropolitan State College of Denver), you may wish to view their on-line paper “Dynamics of cooperative feeding in northern shovelers”. For the time being, the stats for this paper are (grammatically incorrect) given as “Views: 1).
It’s arduous to say a paper on the displacement of Little Egrets at high-quality places throughout the nesting colonies with out utilizing the outdated and relatively drained joke of “Location, location, location”. Notably because it appears to be true – Cattle Egrets exclude Little Egrets from the perfect (most central) spots in heronries, which ends up in decrease breeding success.
Apparently, in Europe Bramblings are the species showing within the largest flocks and are thus “an fascinating case research for discussing quantity estimates” (source). This isn’t a problem right here in Shanghai – I’ve solely seen them in very small teams this winter.
In my (happily relatively restricted) expertise, Chinese language karaoke singers adapt their singing primarily based on the chosen music, the viewers, and the quantity of alcohol of their blood. Equally, Oriental Magpie-Robins adapt their music to the atmosphere (city or rural) by various parameters reminiscent of frequency, size of strophe, the interval between strophes, and the variety of parts per strophe (source).
Scaly-breasted Munias appear to be pretty eclectic of their alternative of habitat. One paper describes them dwelling within the cemeteries of Yogyakarta in Indonesia.
The lead creator – presumably because of the big success of the paper “Public cemetery as a fowl habitat in Yogyakarta, Indonesia” – then ready a sequel paper, “Campuses in Yogyakarta as a fowl habitat” and (shock) additionally discovered Scaly-breasted Munias. Most college students would in all probability see themselves as completely different from lifeless individuals, however the munias don’t appear to make such a distinction.
Scaly-breasted Munias are in all probability followers of Christopher Hitchens, who acknowledged that “faith poisons all the pieces”. The species is likely one of the most targeted for the benefit fowl commerce – birds which might be captured for cash after which offered to (Buddhist) believers who launch the fowl in an try to realize benefit.
In fact, for the birds concerned, this usually results in death. Sarcastically (and personally, provided that I’m not significantly keen on the human race, additionally deservedly) this may occasionally assist the unfold of ailments carried by birds, reminiscent of avian influenza (source). Thankfully, some Buddhist temples no less than in Thailand have now spoken out in opposition to the observe (source).
The Scaly-breasted Munia has a bigger head measurement than the White-rumped Munia, and a research paper speculates that this can be a purpose for its wider distribution vary.
The broader distribution vary additionally appears to have an effect on the size of every species’ Wikipedia entry – the one for the White-rumped Munia is barely about one-third of the size of the Scaly-breasted Munia.
Whereas you will have heard about issues in China’s development trade, spring brings some hope to the sector – as evident from this Silver-throated Bushtit …
… and this Gray-capped Greenfinch.
Apparently, there as soon as was a Buick mannequin named Buick Skylark. From the pictures I’ve discovered on-line, it’s fairly a showy automobile – in contrast to the birds named skylark, which are typically described as “a relatively non-descript species” (source) or “inconspicuous” (eBird). The widespread skylark species right here in Shanghai is the Oriental Skylark, a fowl with the doubtful honor of being talked about final on this months’ put up.
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