Every time I am down and out
as life gives me my share of blows and raps
I watch you soar, swift and high
an acrobat, soaring in the sky
My troubles leave me, just for a while
and my mind soars with you, leaving my
troubles far behind, just for a moment
just for a while, just for a while
What art thou called, I know not, bird
A swift? A swallow? Mearnsi? Apus?
All I know is that, you are to me
Hope, just for a while, just for a while.
- (c) The City Warbler
If you know the name of this bird, do let me know.
Is it not amazing how, once one has learnt to identify the bird call of a particular bird, that one suddenly ends up spotting it everywhere?
Can you identify the tree? 10 points to the person who can identify the tree this shrike is perched upon (Clue : It is a tropical tree endemic to Philippines)
I spent no more than ten minutes today, looking at the trees, listening keenly, armed with my new found knowledge of what a brown shrikesounds and looks like, and how to spot the difference between the brown shrike and yellow vented bul bul (they look surprisingly similar from a distance the uninitiated - that is me!)
Listen to avocet's recording of the brown shrike's incessant chatter in the Philippines here And there - to my glee - I spotted no less than a dozen (well, actually it might have been closer to six each - always alone - but it felt equally good!) brown shrikes and yellow vented bul buls, perched on different branches at different times.
Here are some photos I took. Yes, they are all taken in Washington Sycip park - a patch of greenery right in the midst of Makati, a suburb of bustling Manila (Philippines).
And all over, all I could hear (in the midst of the gurgling sounds of the bulbul) was the cheep cheep bird call of the brown shrike (always sounds like an alarm call - even when not in alarm!)
Arkive reminds me of how similar the brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) looks to the eurasian sparrow - both are equally cute! Avibase has some cute photos and bird calls of this masked bandit (!). I like the maps posted on Xeno Canto - but can someone please remind them to add Philippines as one of the places where the brown shrike is seen?
Surprisingly, the brown shrike did not make it to ebon's list of Ten most common urban birds (the bulbul did make it to this listing)
Oops - By now, avid birders must have spotted the error in the title of this blog - the bulbul is not the nightingale (a common mistake, though not as common as mistaking the maya bird for the eurasian sparrow!). The nightingale is really Luscinia megarhynchos, while the Bulbul we see commonly in Manila is the yellow vented bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier). But "of shrikes and nightingales" sounds far better as a blog post than "of shrikes and bulbuls" - don't you think? Or do you have different views? Do let me know. Twenty points to the most diverse opinion.
A note to the ultra particular birder :
Staunch birders will probably (correctly) correct me that this bird (and any brown shrike spotted in the Philippines, for that matter) is more precisely called Lanius cristatus lucionensis. Yes - the ones we see in Philippines belong to lucionensis - one of the four subspecies of the brown shrike.
A commonly heard and seen (and oft mistaken for a sparrow), I spotted this brown shrike (aka tarat and pakis-kis) perched on the branch of a Calachuchi tree
The brown shrike is a traveller, migrates to Philippines often from China and Taiwan, and makes a distinct cheep cheep bird call.
A Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus)
Traveller in the city - Photos of brown shrike by the city warbler
Hmmm... that looks like an interesting insect... shall I eat it?
Five shrill notes of different pitches sounding a lot like a naughty child imploring you...
Golden bellied Flyeater (Gerygone sulphurea) I hear this bird's unique call every morning - right from around 5:45 am. I have been hearing it anonymously (a lot like hearing a tune without knowing who sang it or what it is called ) for quiet some time. That was, until today, when I chanced upon the identity of this hitherto unknown mystery singer, quiet by accident, on the internet (Bird call here with the best You tube videohere).
A.k.a : Gerygone sulphurea Size : Terribly small - some guides to spot it can be found here as per birdwatch Philippines (I wonder if I will be able to ever spot it!) Bird call : Here on Xeno canto
Disclaimer : All photos on this page were taken by the city warbler in Makati, Manila, in the midst of active city life. No birds were harmed when shooting these photos. All copyrights with God and Nature who created this bird.
Yellow Vented Bulbul - Washington SyCip park, Makati, Manila, Philippines. Photo by the city warbler
This cute chappie was sitting on a tree, on the edge of the park, patiently waiting for me to adjust my camera and take a photo of him. A few hundred photos later, I ran and opened my bird guide (a.k.a Google to the uninitiated!) and there it was - easy to spot ... the yellow vented bulbul. The yellow vent itself is difficult to notice (unless you shamelessly stare there!) as it is at it's ..... ummmm...nether regions.... but the rest of the bird is pretty distinct to identify.
A Yellow Vented Bulbul(Pycnonotus goiavier) in the midst of greenery Spotted in Makati, Philippines by the city warbler
After listening to it's bird call, though, I wish I could have heard it, as it sounds like the fresh tinkering of handheld chimes.
Here are some more photos of the yellow vented bulbul that I took later -
The yellow vent is seen quiet clearly
Thinking up it's next melody...
The yellow vented bulbul, partly hidden in the midst of leaves and fruits
... and here is a pair of them!
Further information -
Wikipedia, the ultimate source of information (and misinformation) introduced me to Pycnonotus goiavier, and led me to Naturia's informative page on the Yellow vented Bulbul.
Oiseaux showed me more photos of the yellow vented bulbul, thus making me surer of my paltry information.
This and this were some interesting blogs about it
A note of Thanks - Thanks to all the above (and many more, all of whom it would be impossible to name) for posting information on the net, to Tim Berners - Lee for the world wide web, to Larry Page and Sergey Brin for Google, to Nature for making all of this possible, and to God for enabling us to appreciate her beauty.
(a.k.a the pied fantail, a.k.a Rhipudira Javanica)
Hello,
Tweet tweet
My name is Maria Capra.
I am a pretty black and white bird. What? You say monochrome is out and colour is in? How dare you! TWEET! I will bite you, for I am known to be territorial and aggressive. So beware, watch your tongue!
Maria Capra (Pied Fantail) with Senor Capra. Photo by Adri Constantino. Doodling by The City Warbler
Through the ages, I have fought with beasts and giants of all kinds - cats, dogs, even that big menace people call homo erectus or human being! I have even fought with my own reflection!
Ah - yes, it is ok. I can hear your apologies. That is better.
My food....
Well, you can make me happy by inviting me for lunch. I love insects - especially the flying winged variety (Mmmm.... their winds are so crunchy!) - But do remember, I like them fresh. (Yes - I follow Confucious in that matter). If you look close, my bill is ringed with spines (rictal bristles) which help me catch insects, even in dim light. Now, my mother (her name is nature) is smart, is she not?
Pied fantails like to eat winged insects
It has been suggested that by revealing the white tips of the tail, insects are startled into movement
Is it true that you are among the Top Ten Most Common Urban Birds?
Yes - I received that distinction, along with my friends, including the Eurasian tree sparrow (who many urban idiots mistakenly call the Maya bird - the Maya bird is actually the Chestnut Munia seen so commonly in rice fields even today), the Yellow Vented Bul Bul (yeah - she has a wonderful tinkling gurgling voice) and the Olive Backed Sun Bird.
Can you tell us more about your name ?
Why am I called the pied fantail? Well, pied means "black and white"- which are my colours. Fantail of course is due to my tail, which I spread out like a fan or a Spanish abanico, and move it up and down, especially when I am dancing or hopping about. My broad tail helps me change direction quickly when I am hunting for insects. You see, I like to startle them with my movements, they move, they reveal themselves, I catch them quickly, I reveal my hunger, I revel in the delight of "fresh catch of the day".
In Tagalog (or rather, Pilipino, to be more politically correct), I am called Sipao, and when I fly around in the Visayan islands, the kids point at me and shout TarerekoyTarerekoy! But some people seem confused, as I have also heard people call the bushchat "Maria Cafra". Idiots! Don't they know that we are not even of the same family - let alone species?
Why am I called Maria Capra?
Ah - that is my romanticized name in The Philippines. (Though some people also call me Maria Cafra - due to the habitually intermixed "fa" and "pa" sounds - a hangover of the Spanish colonial era and the mass hispanisation that people indulged in - then and ever since.)
But that still does not answer WHY?
Well - it is nice, it is attractive, it is beautiful, it sounds a lot like Maria Clara, but much stronger than her. You do know who Maria Clara is, right? The heroine of Jose Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere who Ibarra falls in love with ? Have you read it? Yes - she looked beautiful in the TV series, but sadly turned out to be a real faint hearted wimp in the novel.
Fantail eat winged insects.
You read?
Of course I do! Have you not heard the phrase "bird brained"?
Well that still does not answer why Maria Capra...
Gosh - you are one pesky person. Well - it is time for me to fly away..
Tweet Tweet - and see you tomorrow - at a garden close to you..
The fantail is known by different names in different places - but the ones I like most are Maria Capra (Philippines) and Muray Gila (Malay - literally means crazy thrush!)
Note : Maria Capra / Cafra in contemporary times..
Maria Cafra is the name of a 1970s Pinoy rock band (Here on Facebook and You tube )
References -
Much of the information used in this post is from the below references, to whom I am indebted. If not for them, I would not have been able to figure out any of the above No copyright violations are intended. All information posted under Creative Commons License.
That, in an amateur poetic way (with all due apologies to Wordsworth, who must have just turned in his grave) is the Pied Fantail for you. I spotted my first pair today morning - straight out of the blue. Or shall I say green? For after the recent rains, the Washington Sycip park was resplendent, with every possible shade of green.
Right there, a black bird flew out of the bushes, rapidly. Jumping here and there, like a restless child (or like many adults, you may say!). As it hopped around a bit on the grass, I could make out a tail which was different from any I have seen so far - like a peacock in a black and white movie!
I rushed back to my field guide.
Could it have been a Shrike? A Flycatcher? Perhaps a Magpie Robin? Nay - they all looked different from what I had seen... or could remember having seen!
Then I went back to refer to my bigger field guide - the baby of Vint Cerf - with some help from a certain Larry Page and Sergei Brin! Yes - you are right... A google image search made things a bit easier. (Trivia : Interestingly the google spell check reminds me that google should be spelt with a capital G, thus Google. So the question that seeks to be asked is .. when did Google become a proper noun?)
A different key word here A few distinguishing features... Could adding the tail in the search terms help? It was black and white, for sure. Voila - that is it!
The Philippine Pied Fantail (Rhipidura Nigritorquis) - called so, due to tail which spreads out - fan like, is a common bird found in the tropics. However, it had taken me a long time to see a bird said to be common! It is found all over South East Asia - from Brunei and Indonesia (you would have never guessed by the Java in it's name. Ha ha!) right upto Thailand and Philippines.
Javanica or Nigritorquis?
For more than a month, I laboured under the misconception that I was seeing Rhipudura Javanica. It was after some more looking around (and most probably an accidental search result - you never know what was accidental on the net) that I realised that it really was the Philippine pied fan tail (Rhipidura nigritorquis) that I was watching the antics of! I have made appropriate corections in this psot thence, where ever it was possible.
The Pied Fantail is found all over South East Asia (Image from this really cool map on http://maps.iucnredlist.org Correction Sept 2013 - this bird was really nigritorquis - not javanica!)
The Pied fantail is not a rare bird. By conservation standards, it falls under LC - Least concern. Which is a cute way of saying that Mama Pied Fantail and Papa Pied Fantail are having a lot of fun, and have lots of kids to show it!
However, I like it's Colloquial Filipino name more -
Much of the information used in this post is from the below references, to whom I am indebted. If not for them, I would not have been able to figure out any of the above No copyright violations are intended. All information posted under Creative Commons License.
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