From my dwelling in Shanghai, it’s a couple of four-hour drive to the North to Yancheng, a spot to search for Crimson-crowned Cranes in winter. Whereas these birds are very a lot appreciated by Chinese language birders, the species may lamentably not be named the Nationwide Chicken of China because the Latin species identify of the chicken is Grus Japonicus. Frankly, if the identify of the Bald Eagle was North Korean Eagle (Haliaeetus coreaseptentrionalis?), it might not be the nationwide chicken of the USA both.
Primarily based on my pictures, I must conclude that the Crimson-crowned Crane prefers black-and-white pictures. Incompetent photographers can at all times blame the chicken.
That is type of the “poster baby” crane – or as eBird states, “the crane mostly depicted in Chinese language and Japanese work and ceramics”.
The Crimson-crowned Crane is listed as Susceptible regardless that grownup birds don’t have any pure predators, however after all, there are birds and mammals consuming their eggs and small nestlings.
In line with Wikipedia, these birds are good at multitasking, being “in some elements of its vary … generally known as an emblem of luck, longevity, and constancy”.
As in people, “the social implications of dancing [among the cranes] are complicated in that means” (supply).
There’s a nice music by The Chills titled “Advanced“. Nice hyperlinks, proper?
The usual rationale – which I at all times discover a bit unconvincing because it doesn’t appear to clarify issues actually – is that the duets of Crimson-crowned Crane pairs are “serving to to ascertain formation and upkeep of the pair bond” (Wikipedia).
(I bear in mind I as soon as learn in a e book – in all probability by an ornithologist – that he acknowledged that he was going to write down a postcard to his spouse or girlfriend to be able to “strengthen their pair bond”. Sorry, forgot the precise supply)
Generally, wanting on the titles of scientific papers makes me really feel a bit uneasy. Take “A multiscale method to figuring out spatiotemporal sample of habitat choice for red-crowned cranes”. I assume it’s about how cranes determine the place to remain. However possibly that is too easy a title on condition that the paper has 13 authors.
Alternatively, if a paper titled “The fecal virome of red-crowned cranes” has 17 authors, then 13 for the primary paper sounds fairly affordable.
In the event you ever wished to know extra in regards to the abdomen of Chinese language Grosbeaks, here’s a paper for you. To not give the entire content material away, however one of many highlights actually is the assertion that the “proventriculus glands have been constituted by many spherical or elliptical glandular lobules”.
apparently, Crested Mynas ceaselessly use snake slough (the pores and skin shed by snakes) as a part of their nest-building supplies. It’s not fairly clear why they do that because it apparently doesn’t have an effect on breeding success. Even though it doesn’t appear to work, the authors nonetheless speculate that “snake slough in crested myna nests could serve to cut back nest predation, enhance the immunity of nestlings or function a post-mating sexual sign eliciting differential reproductive funding in mates ” earlier than ending with the basic comment “these speculations require additional investigation”.
Many males like toys – the extra technical and the dearer, the higher. Ideally, nonetheless, you need to both discover any person else to pay for these toys or not less than persuade your spouse that these toys are usually not toys however extremely helpful. Plainly two Italian males have discovered a strategy to do each. They’ve written a paper on the “Feasibility of counting breeding Pied Avocets and Black-winged Stilts utilizing drones”.
It appears to work, really – although about 20 p.c of breeding pairs are being missed by drone surveys.
The Oriental Stork is endangered, with round 3000 people left. Threats embrace aquaculture (supply) and the truth that the silly birds don’t perceive the idea of boundaries (supply), as a substitute simply going the place they prefer it greatest. If everyone did this, the end result could be chaos.
In people, persona traits resembling boldness versus shyness partly decide whether or not you find yourself being wealthy and standard or poor and lonely (okay, that could be a little bit of a simplification, however in all probability broadly true). In Daurian Redstarts, persona traits (particularly, whether or not a chicken is shy or daring) partly decide how good a person is in rejecting cuckoo eggs in its nest. Apparently, birds which are quick in exploring new issues – daring birds – are higher at rejecting parasitic eggs (supply).
One other examine associated to brood parasitism – this one on Vinous-throated Parrotbills – confirmed that on this species, each men and women reject parasitic eggs, not simply the females. A pleasant instance of gender equality of types. Sadly, the summary ends with a relatively bland “additional research are nonetheless wanted to substantiate the egg recognition mechanism on this species”.
The Rustic Bunting is listed as Susceptible – and there are ominously-titled papers resembling “The subsequent widespread and widespread bunting to go? International inhabitants decline within the Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica“.
Luckily, the Little Bunting – which seems a bit like a sanitized and, ahem, much less rustic model of the Rustic Bunting – doesn’t appear to be threatened.
Aside from the crane, some Lengthy-eared Owls have been the spotlight of this quick journey for me.
Regardless that I’m fairly positive eyes like these can’t be actual and have been taken from some outsized teddy bears.
I not too long ago watched an internet commercial for The Economist. The punchline went one thing like “The actually necessary folks learn The Economist as a result of they don’t have a lot time”. Possibly they even mentioned that the actually actually necessary folks solely learn the primary few sections of The Economist.
In case you are a very actually necessary individual within the space of Lengthy-eared Owl food plan analysis, as a substitute of taking a look at a whole bunch of particular person papers, I like to recommend studying the paper “Synthesis of 312 Research on the Weight loss program of the Lengthy-Eared Owl Asio Otus“.
