10,000 Birds

There really are some wonderfully-named birds out there - but how many of those twenty would you find in a bird book and how many were made up by a blogger stuck in a traffic queue?

• Blue-winged Leafbird. Yes, it’s real. Leafbirds are found from India across south-east Asia to China, and are a beautiful group of forest birds predominantly coloured green with splashes of gold or blue.
  

  All species have distinctive turquoise-blue shoulder patches as adults. They feed on insects and fruit (and perhaps nectar) which they find in the upper-storeys or canopies of trees. Here’s one of two photos of a female I took in Hong Kong - the other is right here

 

• Rainbow-bearded Thornbill. Yes, unbelievably it’s a real bird’s name, one of those hummingbirds that so bedazzled the first birder to see one that all they could come out with was “, Wow, it’s - um - rainbow-bearded and it has a bill like a thorn”. You’ll need to go to Ecuador (like these lucky folks) to see if you could have come up with something better…

 

• Black-rumped Flameback. Yes, it’s real. Flamebacks (or “Goldenbacks”) are a group of six woodpecker species found throughout south Asia. The common link between the six is a striking head pattern and a crest - despite the vernacular name two of the six have black rather than “flame-red” rumps, and one of them even has a black rump and a black mantle! For a photo have a look halfway down The Green side of Kolkata

 

• Botha’s Rock Pipit. No, I made this one up. There are plenty of pipits that prefer rocky habitats and Botha is a common name in South Africa (where pipits and rocks abound) - but no Bothas have had a rock pipit named after them.

 

• Fawn-breasted Marsh Sparrow. No, made this one up too. Sparrows come in all shapes and colours and they occupy all sorts of habitats (including marshes), but they’ve never had such features or preferences combined to create such a (IMHO) highly plausible name…

 

• Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner. Yes, it’s real. Foliage-gleaners are part of the huge group of furnariidae or Ovenbirds, a South American family that contains some of the most obscurely- and evocatively-named birds on the planet: who wouldn’t want to see a Lark-like Brushrunner, Scribble-tailed Canastero, or a Spectacled Prickletail for example?
  

  Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaners are common members of “bird parties”, usually seen in chattering groups poking around in dense foliage for insects. For a series of photos have a look at Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner

 

• Clamorous Reed Warbler. Yes, it’s real. The Clamorous Reed Warbler is a fairly common and widespread acrocephalus warbler, closely-related to the Great Reed Warbler its perhaps better-known western European counterpart. Both have extremely loud songs, usually given from cover on the edge of a reed bed. I tend to see the species only as a migrant in the Middle-East. For a set of photos have a look at Muscat: 21 March 2005

 

• Eastern Bearded Scrub Robin. Yes, it’s real. A predominantly southern African group of birds, the scrub robins are usually wary, keeping under cover in dense vegetation.
  

  Whilst all members of the group have broad white supercilia, unlike most birds given the name “robin” by early birders, none of the birds in this group have red breasts - but they are good songsters and are usually first found by picking up on their loud and often-repeated song.

 

• Moss-backed Tanager. Yes, it’s real. The evocatively-named Moss-backed Tanager lives in rainforest from sw Colombia to nw Ecuador. Can’t you just feel the poor thing shivering in the permanent drizzle as a carpet of damp moss envelops its upperparts (or is that just me I wonder)…?

 

• No, made this one up - Formosan Shearwater: plenty of shearwaters fly over the world’s oceans, but none are specifically named after “Formosa” (the old Portugese-derived name for Taiwan).

 

• Golden Whistler. Yes, it’s real. Whistlers are a Wallacean/Australasian group of forest birds. The Golden Whistler is a very widespread and common species, with - depending on the taxonomist - subspecies on many small islands throughout Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific.
  

  As its name suggests it is a beautiful bird, and its loud call is familiar to anyone who visits, for example, the rainforest around Sydney. This photo appears near the bottom of a trip report I wrote on Sydney’s Royal National Park

 

• White-eyed Slaty Flycatcher. As real as you and I (philosophers can argue that point somewhere else please) the cumbersomely appended W-eSF is a fairly common species easily found in gardens and woodland/forests around eg Nairobi. Much as I find them intriguing little birds, they’re not half as splendid as their name implies (though you may disagree of course - check out some photos I took in Nairobi here.)

 

• Grey-headed Bristlebill. Yes, it’s real. Bristlebills are a predominantly West African group of “greenbuls” - themselves members of the huge and very varied Pycnonotidae or Bulbuls. Bristlebills are strongly coloured but in tones of green, yellow, and grey, and as with most greenbuls can be quite hard to see as they often forage on the ground following ant swarms or blend into the background amongst similarly-coloured vegetation. For a (rather poor) photo have a look at a trip report on a small reserve near Lagos I visited: Liking Lekki

 

• Mascarene Blue Parrot. No, made this one up: whilst the Mascarenes (Mauritius and Reunion) have a number of parrot species (living and extinct) this isn’t and wasn’t one of them…

 

• Masked Water-tyrant. Yes, it’s real - and nothing to do with an aquatic Dick Turpin! Tyrants are a widespread group of mainly South American flycatchers - many of them terrestrial. Amongst the most common and familiar is the yellow Cattle Tyrant (which as it’s name suggests is found in pastures and fields following livestock and picking up flushed invertebrates) and the striking and rather Northern Wheatear-lookalike Masked Water-tyrant, which is usually found in well-watered areas - including gardens and parks - looking for prey. For two photos have a look at this report on birding Rio’s Botanic Gardens

 

• Orange-throated Longclaw. Yes, it’s real. “True” macronyx Longclaws are an African group of grassland birds generally placed between wagtails and pipits, and included with them in the Motacillidae. Larger than typical pipits, most species are brightly-coloured and have markedly bright throats framed with a gorget of dark streaks.
  

  The Orange-throated or Cape Longclaw is usually seen striding around in short-grass habitats, and its peculiarly cat-like alarm call is a common sound in the highveld. For a series of photos have a look at Orange-throated Longclaw

 

• No, made this one up - Sooty-browed Laughing Thrush: there are plenty of laughing-thrushes found throughout Asia, but this isn’t one of them!

 

• Pink-necked Green Pigeon. Yes, it’s real. Pigeons come in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and colours - which often comes as a surprise to novice birders who associate “pigeons” with the ubiquitous Feral Dove Columba livia. Forest species understandably tend to be mostly shades of green or brown, but many have evolved fabulous patches of colour to enhance an otherwise fairly dull design. The Pink-necked Green Pigeon is common in parts of south-east Asia and is sexually dimorphic - the males having a beautiful orange breast and pink neck, both of which the females lack. For photos of both have a look at Pink-necked Green Pigeon

 

• Common Jery. Yes, it’s real - even I wouldn’t have thought up a name as at once “common” and unusual as that. If you want to see one you’ll have to board a plane to Madagascar where this yellowish passerine (which looks something like an unremarkable cross between an Old Warbler warbler and a New World vireo but sounds like a clever quiz-bloggers corruption of two well-known quarreling cartoon characters) is said to be - suitably - common.

 

• Superb Starling. Yes, it’s real. Surprisingly, there really is a starling that is not only called “superb” but looks it too!

  One of a beautiful group of African starlings in the genus Spreo, the Superb Starling is easily seen around, eg Nairobi, Kenya, where it commonly visits gardens and parks. A glorious mix of metallic blue and orange, this is a beautiful bird (and certainly makes a change to the garrulous Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris most Europeans and North Americans get to see on a daily basis).

Like to get back to the questions and try again now you know all the answers (it’s the only way I managed to get 20/20, and I set the quiz!): click this Little bit of a quiz link.