Amongst Chinese language birders, Tengchong – and significantly the monastery on the backside of Laifengshan – is called among the finest locations to see the Slender-billed Oriole.

I don’t fairly get the excitement concerning the Slender-billed Oriole because it appears fairly much like the Black-naped Oriole and apparently is even considered conspecific by some authorities.

Sadly, the HBW states that the species is “virtually extinct in some areas in China owing to searching and trapping for the cagebird commerce and taxidermy”.

The Maroon Oriole appears far more fascinating, although my photographs do probably not do it full justice.

Its scientific species title traillii is a uncommon instance of a scientist not made up by me, particularly Thomas Stewart Traill (1781-1862), a Scottish physician. In keeping with his Wikipedia entry, he was a powerful however unsuccessful supporter of girls attending the college, so he is among the higher folks to call a hen species after.

He shouldn’t be confused with Stewart Traill (1936–2018), the founding father of a cult-like group of evangelical Christians, the Church of Bible Understanding. Given the next description of this particular person, he’s definitely not value naming something after him: “Extra stunning was Traill’s therapy of his spouse, Shirley, and his youngsters. … on many events … Traill got here house and instantly obtained out a scale for his spouse to step on and be weighed. He then spanked his spouse for her obvious failure to fulfill his expectations. … Traill did this sufficient instances that Shirley started to cover the size.’

The Stunning Sibia is gorgeous even in Mandarin Chinese language (Li se qi mei, “Stunning babbler”) …

… and naturally in science (scientific title pulchella, “little lovely”).

The Black Bulbul is available in two morphs – one correctly black …

… and one with a white head.

As I noticed each of them on the similar spot in Tengchong, I wonder if the hen under is a results of a pairing of the 2 morphs.

It’s not mandatory to go away China and go to Nepal to see the Ashy Bulbul – despite the fact that I’m not positive the Chinese language birds are fairly as enchanting as those described at nepaldesk.com:

“[E]xploring Nepal’s wilderness for the enchanting Ashy Bulbul is an unforgettable expertise for avid hen watchers and nature fans alike”. However I can think about that nepaldesk says roughly the identical about some wonderful and enchanting leeches.

The description of the Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike on the identical web site shouldn’t be a lot much less exuberant:

“Whereas the Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike could not rank as Nepal’s most famous hen, its putting appears, fascinating habits, and contribution to the colourful hen group undoubtedly make it value noticing.”

Contribution to the colourful hen group. Oh my.

The poor Mountain Bulbul carries the scientific title mcclellandii, after Sir John McClelland (1805–1875) …

… despite the fact that stated man primarily labored as an ichthyologist …

… aside from additionally being despatched to north-eastern India to determine if tea could possibly be grown there. Unsure whether or not he wrote to his spouse about this vital mission, or even when he had a spouse.

It’s stunning to see an Elvis imitator in Tengchong however what different ecological area of interest may the Crested Finchbill probably occupy?

The Chinese language title of the Chestnut-vented Nuthatch is li tun shi, with the “tun” character within the center translated as “buttocks” by Google Translate. I at all times form of suspected “vented” is a euphemism …

Witout being requested, Google Translate additionally provides that Li tun shi means “I opened it once more” in Yoruba. Hopefully this info is beneficial for some readers, significantly these with plans to journey to Nigeria.

Usually I’d consider these photographs of a Chestnut-flanked White-eye as being fairly horrible however they do present the name-giving function of the species fairly nicely.

And – watch for it – there’s a paper on the mitochondrial genome sequence of Chestnut-flanked White-eye. Welcome to 10,000 Birds, the one web site on the planet the place such papers will be the topic of a working gag. A nasty one, admittedly.

This Nice Noticed Woodpecker isn’t even attempting to cover its spots. However why ought to it.

One paper on Nice Noticed Woodpeckers is titled “Necessities by the Nice Noticed Woodpecker Dendrocopos main for a suburban life”, however opposite to my expectation, it doesn’t state that the birds want a automobile (an SUV, maybe?) when residing in suburbia.

It appears that evidently on this species, the males do a lot of the onerous and the ugly work – particularly gap excavation and nest sanitation (supply).

Most birders most likely solely pay informal consideration to the Korean Journal of Parasitology and can thus have missed a paper on a newly recorded feather mite on a Gray-capped Pygmy Woodpecker.

Surprisingly, the authors declare that they haven’t any battle of curiosity with this text, indicating that the worldwide feather mite foyer shouldn’t be as highly effective as I believed.

In keeping with the paper cited above, feather mites are fairly host-specific, so this species of feather mites is not going to hassle the Gray-capped Canary Flycatcher. How is that for a hyperlink?

The monastery on the backside of Laifengshan can be an excellent place to see Verditer Flycatcher, a minimum of in winter.

Excellent news for many who are too lazy to make use of Google themselves:

I lastly appeared up “Verditer” on-line.

It means (supply: Oxford Languages):

“A lightweight blue or bluish-green pigment, usually ready by including chalk or whiting to an answer of copper nitrate, utilized in making crayons and as a watercolor”.

The Blue-winged Minla has a cameo position in a paper on a bird-pollinated Himalayan plant.

Apparently, the darkish shade of the plant nectar attracts the hen, as proven by managed experiments. Or within the language of the “science hippies” (Ze Frank ), the “purple nectar [acts] as a foraging sign”.

If you don’t like blue, right here is the Crimson-tailed Minla.

(To cite from “Duck Soup”, the Marx Brothers film: “These are my ideas, and for those who don’t like them… nicely, I’ve others”).

A complicated-looking restaurant in a village close to Tengchong has a goldfish pool put in at its entrance. I’m not positive what number of vacationers this pool attracts, nevertheless it definitely attracts a Tawny Fish Owl. From the restaurant roof, the owl presumably selects its dinner earlier than swooping down and grabbing it with none assist from the restaurant workers.

A 2004 paper wanting on the battle between this owl and cold-water fish farmers in Taiwan discovered that owls have been a problem at 1 / 4 of the farms noticed. Sadly, on the majority of those farms, owls have been trapped with metal leg-hold traps or mist nets, leading to 10 owls being discovered drowned within the fish ponds. On condition that the examine estimates that the owls take solely between 0.05% and 0.66% of the fish, the trapping looks like an overreaction, however then once more, I like owls a lot better than fish farmers.