Balangshan – barely beneath the cross at 4500 meters – appears to be a very good place to see Grandalas, at the least in summer season. And they’re a species nicely value seeing, at the least (sexism alert) the males.
Richard Wagner – of “The Ring” and silly antisemitism fame – apparently known as Beethoven’s seventh symphony (my private favourite) the “apotheosis of the dance”. That sounds rather more educated than “the perfect or most excessive instance of the dance”, though that’s what apotheosis means.
With that – so far as the Grandala is worried – largely irrelevant info, I want to introduce the male Grandala because the apotheosis of blue.
Different reviewers usually agree. eBird states that the species is “not like every other. Grownup male is a deep, virtually eye-searing blue with jet-black wings”.
An internet site with the considerably puzzling identify “roundglass maintain” calls it “a gem of a hen” and expands this to “dazzling blue gem-like birds”. And on Fb, self-declared “Britt the Fowl Skilled” describes the Grandala as “a stunningly stunning hen from the Himalayas”.
Solely Wikipedia manages to explain the species with out even a slight trace of enthusiasm. Possibly they targeted on the feminine, which is described as “brownish” (certainly not a ringing endorsement).
In actual fact, some male Grandalas complained to me that they’re uninterested in seeing their brownish wives all day – they assume that evolution is considerably sexist, offering solely the females with fixed enticing sights. However then, males at all times prefer to complain anyway.
I requested my Tibetan hen information, Philip from Alpinebirding, whether or not the Grandala has any particular symbolic which means or related mythology in Tibetan tradition – surprisingly, it doesn’t. A wasted alternative, should you ask me – or an opportunity to make one thing up in a future publish that includes the Grandala.
Because the Grandala is the one species in its genus, each the genus identify Grandala (which means one thing like “giant wings”) and the species identify coelicolor (heaven coloured – once more referring to the male, except the climate could be very unhealthy, through which the brownish feminine may function a namesake) are value explaining.
Not like me however like most Chinese language, this can be a very social hen – gregarious being the marginally extra high-brow time period utilized by the HBW. In winter, they’re typically present in enormous flocks, one thing that my pictures completely fail to show. Effectively, they have been taken in summer season.
If all that is too constructive for you, why not research a paper titled “Debilitating Cutaneous Poxvirus An infection in a […] Grandala”? In case you are a severe hypochondriac, perhaps you will discover a number of the signs described for the contaminated hen on your self.
The Grandala is a high-altitude specialist, with the best breeding recorded at 6600 meters (source). Apparently, the people breeding on the highest altitudes are usually not younger or inferior people which were excluded from higher-quality low-elevation habitats – at the least based mostly on research on different species.
Being a high-altitude specialist signifies that the Grandala may be affected by climate change, which is able to seemingly shift its decrease elevation restrict upwards. As a consequence, a number of the much less clever Grandalas assist Donald Trump as he tells them what they wish to hear – that local weather change will not be an enormous menace (source).
After which there are studies that present that hen species such because the Grandala are well-adapted to their particular environments. Shock. However then, that is what at the least 90% of all pure science is about – proving that the plain is true.
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