The primary cause for birders to remain in a single day at Kotamobagu is to see the Maleo on the Tambun Maleo Sanctuary – the topic of a separate submit. However there are additionally just a few attention-grabbing birds on the way in which between Kotamobagu and the sanctuary.
And even within the car parking zone of my lodge. Searching of the window within the morning, I predictably noticed a number of Eurasian Tree Sparrows. If the Sulawesi Tree Sparrow is ever acknowledged as a separate species, it will likely be a simple addition to the life listing I do probably not maintain.
The subsequent species noticed searching of my window was the equally ubiquitous Sooty-headed Bulbul.
Extra apparently, the car parking zone was additionally used as a foraging floor by a number of Barred Rails. To see them, I needed to step out on the balcony of my room.
These birds most likely will not be conscious of their HBW entry describing them as “very shy and retiring”. Or the HBW standards for being shy and retiring are considerably free.
The lodge had some flowering vegetation, attracting Sahul Sunbirds.
The Sahul Sunbird was previously thought of a subspecies of the olive-backed sunbird which has been renamed Backyard Sunbird.
(I nonetheless shudder once I hear papers speaking about, for instance, the “Olive-backed Sunbird advanced”)
Its vary stretches from Sulawesi east to the northern Moluccas, New Guinea, and northeastern Australia.
Presumably, Sahul refers back to the Sahul Shelf, part of the continental shelf of the Australian continent, mendacity off the northwest coast of mainland Australia.
Nonetheless, for me, probably the most attention-grabbing species within the car parking zone was the Java Sparrow.
It’s listed as Endangered in its native Java, however its total standing is considerably paradoxical (supply: HBW) as it’s common in a lot of its launched ranges (which presumably contains Sulawesi) however its native inhabitants has declined severely as a consequence of trapping for the cage chicken commerce.
The scientific identify Padda oryzivora sounds a bit extra attention-grabbing than it’s – it simply means rice-eating.
Whereas ready at a gasoline station, I noticed two munia species that had been truly consuming rice: Black-faced Munia …
… and Chestnut Munia.
A Hair-crested Drongo was seen having breakfast, or possibly (if it obtained up early and was a little bit of a Yuppie) brunch.
It appears to be like fairly totally different from the one I typically see in Shanghai – however then, life is simply too quick to hassle with subspecies.
Passing by rice paddies and fields introduced Purple Heron …
… and Javan Pond Heron.
Heronconservation.org makes the chicken sound like a depressing loner: “As a typical pond heron it’s a lonely, cryptic species”.
The significance of rice paddies for this and different species is highlighted in this paper.
Cattle Egrets typically look grumpy as they resent residing subsequent to cattle on a regular basis. I can form of perceive.
The Striated Herons I noticed steered nicely away from livestock …
… however as a substitute accepted residing subsequent to quite a lot of trash.
It’s the heron with the most important geographic plumage variation (supply) – the HBW lists 28 subspecies.
The Lesser Coucal is likely one of the chicken species Sulawesi shares with Shanghai …
… whereas sadly, we don’t have Collared Kingfishers in my hometown.
Lastly, there have been two swallows, one actual (Pacific Swallow) …
… (birds which can be apparently fairly tough to catch, see right here for an amusing report) …
… and one not fairly (White-breasted Woodswallow), as regardless of their identify, woodswallows belong to a special household than swallows. It’s much like some individuals being referred to as Truthers with out this having any relation with the reality.
eBird calls it a chunky chicken and thus could not be invited to any occasions hosted by the species. No, I’m not deducing this from my very own expertise of calling a feminine acquaintance chunky.
Autor Kai Pflug
