I have less than a week’s worth of photos left, so please send me your good ones. Thanks!
Today we have part 4 of Ephraim Heller’s birding tour of Bhutan (part 1 is here, part 2 here, and part 3 here). His captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Here is installment #4 of photos from my April 2024 birding tour of Bhutan. We begin with a photo of a typical village home.
Today I post my photos of leafbirds (Chloropseidae). Descriptions of the species below are taken from Wikipedia. Leafbirds are found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Leafbirds are attractive birds and, combined with an attractive song and capacity to mimic sounds, they have become very popular cagebirds. The majority of the trade in this family is confined to Asia. Some populations have been locally depleted by the massive numbers captured for the trade. Leafbirds drop many body feathers when they are handled. This may confuse predators, especially snakes. We were lucky to be in Bhutan during the spring when many trees were blooming.
The golden-fronted leafbird (Chloropsis aurifrons):
The orange-bellied leafbird (Chloropsis hardwickii) is a bird native to the central and eastern Himalayas, Yunnan and northern parts of Southeast Asia. The scientific name commemorates the English naturalist Thomas Hardwicke. First, these males in beautiful but unidentified flowering trees:
These orange-bellied leafbird males are posing in a scarlet sterculia (Sterculia colorata) tree:
And now the orange-bellied leafbird females, also in a scarlet sterculia tree:
Equipment: All animal photos were shot using a Nikon Z9 camera and Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens. Landscape and architectural photos were shot either with a Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S lens or with an iPhone 11.
You can see more of my photos here.
Beautiful!
Nice!
WOW! What a gorgeous bunch of photos. The birds are magnificent.
Too bad people capture them.
Thank you for sharing these! I did not know about these birds.
Lovely birds I’ve never seen before. Thanks. Also love the coyote on Instagram (then it demanded I create an account, so I didn’t get any further).
Beautiful birds!
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here – start buying rounds of celebratory drinks.
Had this (minor) turn around happened 20 years ago there’d be hope this all was a passing lunatic fad.
BUT… in the last two decades there is now a huge bureaucracy established, as well as a large political constituency and tens of thousands of people qualified in nothing except “diversity studies” who have motivations all of their own. Backed by billions and massive white guilt. A generation of students that have been fed this poison.
It’ll take more than a few brand name schools playing footsie to turn this ship of turds around properly.
D.A.
NYC
“Typical village home” – wow. Look at that fuel-wood supply!
Beautiful!
Magnificent. I’ve said it before… I love this series. Thank you.