Yibin is a typical smallish Chinese language metropolis (which in China means barely above 850,000 folks within the metro space, which might make it the fifth-biggest metropolis in Germany however doesn’t get it into the highest 100 in China). Birders come right here for Laojunshan Nationwide Park, a location well-known for the uncommon and endangered Sichuan Partridge, which I solely heard throughout my keep right here (once more with Bella and Philip from Alpinebirding).
As sound pictures has not been invented but, I’ll due to this fact deal with the opposite birds encountered right here.
The eBird cartoonists name the Spot-breasted Parrotbill a “bulbous-headed brown fowl with a comically giant invoice”. As a foreigner dwelling in China and thus used to having my nostril dimension ridiculed, I undoubtedly really feel with the parrotbills.
(Sadly, the people fable associating male nostril dimension with the scale of sure reproductive organs appears to be much less well-known in China. What a pity.)
In distinction to being amused by the Spot-breasted Parrotbill, eBird appears to be barely creeped out by the Ashy-throated Parrotbill we noticed on the similar spot: “A small long-tailed fowl with vaguely unnerving pale eyes”.
Sadly, this fowl is closely traded in locations like Guiyang (source).
The Latin species title alphonsiana refers to Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835-1900), a director to the Nationwide Museum of Pure Historical past in Paris, whose research of fowl fossils led to the invention of tropical birds equivalent to trogons and parrots from prehistoric France.
In fact, the Purple-billed Leiothrix is a species native to Sichuan – in Britain, it’s now mentioned whether or not to treat it as an invasive species (source).
Plainly the Purple-billed Leiothrix could be vocally dominant (it accounts for 37% of a whole fowl group soundscape in northern Italy) and may affect the singing conduct, significantly of native Eurasian Blackcaps and European Robins (in Portugal and Italy).
eBird admits that the black chin of the Black-chinned Yuhina is “not very noticeable”.
However it’s a cute fowl. And who needs birds with extremely seen Hitler mustaches anyway?
The Silver Pheasant typically feels inferior to the Golden Pheasant however relishes its superiority over the Bronze Pheasant.
And its eBird description as a “giant and spectacular pheasant”, which – you guessed it – most likely refers back to the male. However then, would a girl pheasant be happy to be described as “giant”?
Based on the McMurray hatchery, the “Silver Pheasant is taken into account a superb ‘starter’ breed for individuals who wish to study extra about elevating pheasants”. Hm. What a bizarre world. Higher watch them within the wild. Saves 187.5 USD for a juvenile pair, too … no less than there is no such thing as a rebate on bulk shopping for, 16 pairs value 3000 USD.
There might even be some reverse sexism among the many prospects of the hatchery – the Q&A bit of the web site has the next passage: “Q: Would I have the ability to get 2 females of the silver pheasants at the moment? A: No, the silver pheasants are solely out there in pairs at the moment.”
Luckily for males, in Fork-tailed Sunbirds, sexism remains to be alive and nicely. In different phrases: I used to be disenchanted to solely see the feminine at Yibin.
And it doesn’t also have a forked tail.
Whereas the Buffy Laughingthrush is a nice-looking fowl, its Latin species title berthemyi is kind of unlucky.
The title is to honor Jules François Gustave Berthémy (1826-1902), a French diplomat who as the top of the French delegation to the USA after the Civil Struggle, overcome by his aversion to the concept of latest freemen, feared {that a} “race warfare” would carry a “black oligarchy” to energy (supply: “France and the American Civil Struggle – A Diplomatic Historical past”, ISBN 9781469649955).
One other particular person no person ought to ever have named a fowl after.
A couple of Noticed Laughingthrushes had been touring alongside the flock of Buffy Laughingthrushes.
Certainly a “good-looking, giant laughingthrush” (eBird).
The Latin species title ocellata (“marked with eylets”) for as soon as works moderately nicely.
eBird calls the Chinese language Bamboo Partridge a “loud and colourful partridge”.
The species title thoracicus (“of the chest”) presumably refers back to the grey-blue colour of the fowl’s breast.
Considerably counterintuitively (no less than to me), the genetic range of Chinese language Bamboo Partridges was larger in a extra secure local weather concerning rainfall and temperature (source). Nonetheless, it’s not clear to me why a paper on such a subject was revealed within the “African Journal of Biotechnology”.
The Mountain Bulbul can also be described as a loud fowl – particularly, a “giant, noisy, conspicuous bulbul” (HBW).
The Latin species title mcclellandii refers to John McClelland (1805-1875), a British zoologist and geologist who – as you would possibly anticipate for a British particular person – in 1835 was despatched to north-eastern India to test if tea may very well be grown there (source).
It appears he was principally an ichthyologist, which makes naming a decidedly non-fishy fowl after him a bit bizarre.
True to its title, the Mountain Bulbul was seen at a a lot larger elevation than the Brown-breasted Bulbul additionally encountered at Yibin.
It appears some Chinese language researchers had an fascinating hypothesis – possibly cleansing up a nest (“nest sanitation” to the ornithologists) would additionally make it simpler for the parasitized fowl to eject an egg laid by a parasitizing cuckoo. So, they recruited some Brown-breasted Bulbuls longing for some additional revenue and divided them into two teams (for as soon as, grad college students weren’t suited as experimental topics). In a single group, they added a blue egg to their nests. Within the different, they added each such an egg and a peanut half-shell.
The peanut shell was shortly ejected by all bulbuls in that group – sadly (for the researchers presumably wanting to confirm their speculation), the rejection fee of the added egg was the identical (barely above 50%) for each teams. So, taking out the trash appears not that will help you eliminate different crap, equivalent to a cuckoo egg. Preserve that in thoughts when someone (Marie Kondo?) stresses the significance of order.
Alternatively, some order is an efficient factor when doing fowl pictures. Sadly, some mammals often disturb this order with their photobombing.
Effectively, mammals, what do you anticipate?
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