Birding Tanjung Aru Seashore, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia – 10,000 Birds
Because the rice paddies close to Kota Kinabalu described in an earlier put up, Tanjung Aru seashore just isn’t actually a significant birding spot in its personal proper. Nevertheless, it is just a brief taxi experience away from the airport the place most vacationers will arrive at – higher to see birds as a substitute of simply consuming quick meals whereas ready for a connecting flight.
Tanjung Aru seashore is a well-liked spot for the locals to benefit from the seaside, watch the sundown, and select between an enormous number of fruit juices bought at a barely chaotic meals market. Even higher, just some meters away from the meals distributors, it’s not too crowded, and the palm bushes entice various birds, together with two species of parrots. The primary one is the Blue-naped Parrot.
The HBW describes the inhabitants of the Blue-naped Parrot at Kota Kinabalu as feral – sounds a bit harsh to me given the proximity of Kota Kinabalu to these areas the place the species is deemed a correct resident.
That’s primarily the Philippines, as indicated by the species title lucionensis (Luzon is the Philippines’ largest island).
It’s listed as Close to Threatened, partly as a result of typical prevalence of unlawful commerce for the pet market.
It appears there’s not a lot analysis accomplished particularly on Blue-naped Parrots – the solely paper I might discover that includes the species was from 1981 and had the considerably unappealing title “A Preliminary Examine Evaluating the Pharmacokinetics of Ampicillin Given Orally and Intramuscularly to Psittacines: Amazon Parrots (Amazond spp.) and Blue-Naped Parrots (Tanygnathus lucionensis)”. As an alternative of studying that paper, perhaps watch the video?
A paper by the Division of Atmosphere and Pure Sources of the Philippines argues that trapping the parrot is basically a means of losing cash. Apparently, the shopping for value per Blue-naped Parrot in Bataraza city in Palawan is barely about US$ 4 whereas its worth for commerce and tourism is about US$ 100 and its ecological worth in forest ecosystems is US$ 3600 per fowl. Sadly, this will likely not impress the villager who can earn US$ 4 for a trapped fowl. Or US$ 8 for the pair under.
The Lengthy-tailed Parakeet can typically be seen right here feeding proper subsequent to the Blue-naped Parrot.
It’s listed as weak, once more as a consequence of unlawful commerce and habitat loss. There’s a track by a band named Godspeed You! Black Emperor titled “Bosses grasp”. As it’s solely an instrumental, I believe we are able to for our functions simply rename it to “Chook Trappers Hold”.
Wikipedia describes the Lengthy-tailed Parakeet as “an especially social fowl, at all times seen speaking with different birds of its species”, …
… including that it is also “a curious species, as it’s usually seen enjoying with sticks or different supplies present in its setting”.
There are additionally two species of pigeons. The Inexperienced Imperial Pigeon is described as a “stately giant pigeon” on eBird, most likely as a result of calling it an “imperial-looking pigeon” would sound a bit silly.
It has an in depth entry within the HBW (for instance, there’s an entry on its molt that’s longer than the entire species entry for a lot of different fowl species), indicating that it most likely lives in comfy proximity to numerous ornithologists.
Alternatively, some information that one would assume is comparatively straightforward to acquire, such because the incubation interval, appears to be unavailable.
As typical when species are well-examined, the variety of subspecies appears to multiply, although apparently a few of these subspecies have lately been culled in an effort to simplify the lifetime of birders.
Perhaps some subspecies equivalent to this one described in a paper from 1947 merely fell out of style.
Inexperienced Imperial Pigeons have additionally been noticed exposing their “armpits” within the rain. I try this too, although normally within the bathe after working, not exterior within the rain. Wonderful parallels. Nevertheless, there are not any movies of me obtainable on-line, which is completely different to the pigeon – it may be watched right here and right here and right here (although all three movies look very related).
One other pigeon at Tanjung Aru seashore is the Pink-necked Inexperienced Pigeon. Like many people, it’s presumed to be monogamous (supply: HBW).
The US firm NE Pigeon Provides presumably is concerned in supplying supplies to maintain and breed pigeons. In addition they have a web page devoted to the Pink-necked Inexperienced Pigeon. Nevertheless, the primary photograph on that web page exhibits not a Pink-necked Inexperienced Pigeon however slightly a Frequent Emerald Dove, which one way or the other makes me doubt their experience.
A research performed in Singapore discovered that forest-edge frugivores such because the Pink-necked Inexperienced Pigeon are particularly weak to constructing collisions.
A Malaysian paper consists of the Pink-necked Inexperienced Pigeon in an inventory of “aesthetically useful city fowl species” and lists the species because the second commonest one inside this class and in city areas. Nonetheless, a bizarre and uncomfortably human-centric means of categorizing fowl species, in case you ask me, which I’m fairly positive you’ll not.
In any case, I wonder if the feminine – not fairly as colourful because the male, see under – additionally qualifies as an “aesthetically useful city fowl species”.
The third pigeon species round right here is the Zebra Dove.
I might think about that if I lived in Kota Kinabalu, I might ultimately get uninterested in watching and taking pictures of sunbirds, equivalent to this Brown-throated Sunbird …
… or this Olive-backed Sunbird.
However it might take a few years.
When Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers need to get pleasure from a time out on the seashore, in addition they come to Tanjung Aru.
For completeness’ sake, just a few extra species that may simply be seen right here: Asian Shiny Starling …
… White-breasted Waterhen …
… and Yellow-vented Bulbul.
Whereas birds have developed a technique of coping with gravity, flying, different animals have discovered other ways, for instance, simply ignoring it.
A few of the distant family of this lizard presumably have been styled by a cubist painter who switched jobs to develop into a minor god within the division for evolutionary design.
