Tomohon is a city in North Sulawesi about 30 km south of Manado, town and airport the place birders are more than likely to reach. Given the situation of the roads and the upper elevation (700-1000 meters) in comparison with Manado, it takes about one hour to get right here from Manado.
One in every of its reasonably doubtful claims to fame is its market – solely in July 2023, canine and cat meat buying and selling was banned on the market, with merchants on the market agreeing to not promote or slaughter canine and cats.
Nonetheless, the hunt for what’s euphemistically referred to as “bushmeat” continues. I noticed some individuals within the fields who had simply caught some rats, and the native information talked about his neighbors in his village even looking pittas.
In an article, an area conservationist describes the awful state of affairs as follows: “Over-exploitation drives the decline of iconic species and their habitats attributable to looking for the unlawful wildlife commerce. The northern a part of Sulawesi is an unlawful wildlife commerce hub for the area, supplying wildlife to markets throughout Asia and past. Trying to find subsistence is widespread round forested areas and contains the gathering of maleo eggs for meals. There may be additionally a thriving bushmeat market for a lot of wildlife species.”
Three birds are the principle targets for visiting birders right here (a honeyeater, a kingfisher, and a pitta) – however among the different species are very fascinating as nicely.
The Sulawesi Myzomela is a near-endemic on Sulawesi, and a member of the honeyeater household – a household principally present in Australia.
It’s thus on the Wallacea aspect of the Wallace line, which Wikipedia defines as follows:
“The Wallace line is a faunal boundary line drawn by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that separates Asia and ‘Wallacea’, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia. To the west of the road are discovered organisms associated to Asiatic species; to the east, a mix of species of Asian and Australian origins is current.”
The reason for this borderline is that even when the ocean water ranges have been a lot decrease within the distant previous, there was nonetheless a deep-water hole between the 2 sides of the Wallace line, permitting for species differentiation.
Why anybody would name the Sulawesi Myzomela “yellow-winged” (Myzomela chloroptera is the scientific identify) is a thriller to me.
The Sulawesi Myzomela appears fairly considerable on the Gardenia Nation Inn, a considerably upmarket bungalow resort in Tomohon – thankfully, there isn’t a want to remain there in a single day as in addition they serve first rate lunch, which (as meals in Indonesian eating places are likely to take fairly some time in comparison with what I’m used to from China) offers you time to search for this and another species.
Two munias may also simply be seen within the gardens of the resort – the Scaly-breasted Munia …
… which can be present in Shanghai, regardless that the vary map within the HBW doesn’t appear to pay attention to this truth …
… and the reasonably elegant-looking Chestnut Munia, about which eBird is unusually unenthusiastic (“a small, plump reddish brown finch”). Perhaps the reviewer had some private points on the day of writing the entry.
A non-birder buddy with Afghan roots had the next affiliation: “Seems to be like a niqab! Some Muslim ladies seem like this.”
In fact, Sooty-headed Bulbuls are additionally simply discovered within the resort gardens.
One examine on their vocalization states “We assume that vocalizations play vital roles within the communication of the three species as a result of we famous these or these sounds in nearly all observations.” Hmm, vocalizations are related for communication, what an fascinating concept.
As these birds aren’t silly (a minimum of the people evolution has not weeded out over time), their flight initiation distance (i.e., how shut they let a human get to them earlier than flying away) is determined by the native looking strain (supply). As looking strain on Sulawesi usually is pretty excessive, this generally makes it tough to see birds correctly, although it doesn’t apply inside the resort gardens.
Admittedly, possibly the juveniles look a bit silly.
Whereas rails are tough to see in most locations, on Sulawesi (together with the resort gardens) the Barred Rail is widespread and straightforward to see.
Its scientific identify Gallirallus torquatus (torquatus means collared) doesn’t make an excessive amount of sense for the Sulawesi subspecies – different subspecies have a purple breastband which presumably gave the species its identify.
These rails share the gardens with the Isabelline Bush-hen, which is a Sulawesi endemic.
The isabelline in its identify (and in addition in its scientific identify) apparently signifies the colour (“isabelline-coloured, greyish-yellow”), although I might be hard-pressed to name the colour of the chicken greyish-yellow.
One other species one would possibly encounter on the resort gardens is the Sulawesi Hanging Parrot often known as Nice Hanging Parrot (that is regardless of eBird calling it a small parrot – Wikipedia explains that “With a complete size of roughly 15 cm, it’s a small parrot, however the largest species of hanging parrot.”)
Presumably the “stigmatus” (branded) within the scientific identify Loriculus stigmatus refers back to the purple throat patch.
The male additionally has a purple crown which the feminine lacks.
The resort gardens even have a minimum of three species of sunbirds – the Sahul Sunbird previously often known as Twitter …
… (probably not, it was cut up from the Olive-backed Sunbird although) …
… the Crimson Sunbird …
… and the Black Sunbird. I take it as a sign of my spectacular masculinity that of the latter two species, solely females got here to have their photograph taken by me.
At Gunung Mahawu, a mountain close to Tomohon, extra species will be discovered – a number of species of White-eyes together with the Black-crowned White-eye …
… and the Pale-bellied White-eye.
The HBW lists 109 totally different species of Zosterops White-eyes, a little bit of an overkill in the event you ask me. It exhibits within the similarity of names – other than the Black-crowned White-eye, there’s additionally a Black-capped White-eye (not proven). And that doesn’t even embody White-eyes exterior of the Zosterops genus such because the Streak-headed White-eye, which I additionally noticed right here. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem like a typical White-eye.
Whereas eBird describes the Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher as a “colourful blue-and-orange flycatcher”, that is much less apparent in my reasonably dangerous photograph. I’m completely satisfied accountable this on the dangerous gentle on that day.
It appears to be a reasonably underresearched species – the HBW states “Many facets of life historical past, together with habits and breeding, stay basically undescribed.” Perhaps that is additionally the explanation for the considerably puzzling scientific identify Cyornis omissus (omissus means disregarded).
The Snowy-browed Flycatcher got here out higher and was the principle leisure whereas ready for Sulawesi Pitta for a very long time over two days.
A paper by a Malayan birdwatcher describes how the flycatcher used the birder as a feeding station, using the attraction of the sweaty birder for small bugs.
There may be additionally the Citrine Canary-flycatcher.
Whoever gave the species its scientific identify Culicicapa helianthea will need to have had a barely poetic streak – helianthea combines the phrases for “solar” and for “blossom, flower”.
As for the Sulawesi Pitta, the primary three makes an attempt to see the chicken (of a complete length of about 12 or 13 hours) all led to full failure for a chicken photographer like me. A lister (which Grammarly tries to alter to “A-lister” as it’s apparently not conversant in birder-specific phrases) might need discovered comfort in the truth that I heard the decision of the chicken every time – however that solely meant I dreamt in regards to the chicken name, it didn’t give me the specified photograph.
That left the Scaly-breasted Kingfisher because the third foremost goal species – and thankfully, a really native chicken information discovered a pair. Not a straightforward job on condition that eBird states that the chicken is discovered “in dense understory of forests within the hills and mountains” (which turned out to be very true).
The feminine has a buff-colored eyebrow and mustache.
The scientific identify Actenoides princess honors Charles Lucien Jules Laurent 2nd Prince of Canino and of Musignano and Prince Bonaparte (1803-1857), a French ornithologist, taxonomist, and collector.
Whereas within the US in 1824, he tried to get the then-unknown John James Audubon accepted by the Academy of Pure Sciences, however this was opposed by the ornithologist George Ord who disliked Audubon’s dramatic chicken poses and thought of him to be “a back-country upstart who romanticized his subject material” (from Wikipedia, the main international supply of trivial data).
Seeing a Crimson-crowned Flowerpecker was one other compensation for lacking out on the Sulawesi Pitta. And naturally, the hunt for the pitta was not over but.
Autor Kai Pflug
