The common cuckoo is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, Cuculiformes, which includes the roadrunners, the anis and the coucals.
The Taiwan blue magpie, also called the Taiwan magpie, Formosan blue magpie, or the "long-tailed mountain lady", is a bird species in the crow family. It is endemic to Taiwan.
The brown shrike is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the red-backed shrike and isabelline shrike. The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The specific cristatus is Latin for "crested", used in a broader sense than in English. The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to the shrill call.
Calonectris is a genus of seabirds. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek kalos, "good" and nectris, "swimmer".
Jean Théodore Delacour was a French ornithologist and aviculturist. He later became American. He was renowned for not only discovering but also rearing some of the rarest birds in the world. He established very successful aviaries twice in his life, stocked with birds from around the world, including those that he obtained on expeditions to Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. His first aviary in Villers-Bretonneux was destroyed in World War One. The second one that he established at Clères was destroyed in World War Two. He moved to the United States of America where he worked on avian systematics and was one of the founders of the International Committee for Bird Protection. One of the birds he discovered was the imperial pheasant, later identified as a hybrid between the Vietnamese pheasant and the silver pheasant.
The Nilgiri laughingthrush is a species of laughingthrush endemic to the high elevation areas of the Nilgiris and adjoining hill ranges in Peninsular India. The mostly rufous underparts, olive brown upperparts, a prominent white eyebrow and a black throat make it unmistakable. It is easily detected by its loud series of nasal call notes and can be hard to spot when it is hidden away inside a patch of dense vegetation. The species has a confusing taxonomic history, leading to a range of names. In the past the species was considered to have two subspecies, the nominate form in the Nilgiris and jerdoni with a grey upper breast and found in the Brahmagiris of Coorg and Banasura range of Wayanad. They are omnivorous, feeding on a range of insects, berries and nectar.
The Taiwan partridge or Taiwan hill partridge is a species of bird in the family Phasianidae. It is found only in Taiwan, and its natural habitat is broadleaf forests. It is threatened by habitat loss, but at present is categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as being of least concern.
The Chinese hwamei or melodious laughingthrush is a passerine bird of eastern Asia in the family Leiothrichidae. The name "hwamei" comes from its Chinese name 畫眉, which means "painted eyebrow", referring to the distinctive marking around the bird's eyes. The species is a popular cagebird because of its attractive song.
The little spiderhunter is a species of long-billed nectar-feeding bird in the family Nectariniidae found in the moist forests of South and Southeast Asia. Unlike typical sunbirds, males and females are very similar in plumage. They are usually seen in ones or twos and frequently make a tzeck call and are most often found near flowering plants, where they obtain nectar.
The bare-headed laughingthrush is a species of bird in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae. It is endemic to highland forests at elevations of 750–1,800 m (2,460–5,910 ft) in the mountain ranges of north-central Borneo, along with some outlying peaks. It is 25–26 cm (9.8–10.2 in) long, with both sexes similar in appearance. The head is brownish to greenish yellow and featherless. The area along the lower mandible has a bluish tinge. The rest of the body is dull blackish-brown tinged with grey. Juveniles have more feathers on the head, extending from the forehead to the crown.
The plain laughingthrush or Père David's laughingthrush is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is endemic to central and northeastern China. Its natural habitat is temperate forests.
The Palani laughingthrush is a species of laughingthrush endemic to the hills of the Western Ghats south of the Palghat Gap in Southern India. Found in the high montane forests, this grey bibbed, rufous bellied bird with a prominent dark eyestripe and broad white brow was grouped along with the grey-breasted subspecies of the black-chinned laughingthrush and known as the grey-breasted laughingthrush. This species is found in the Palni Hills while another closely related form, the Ashambu laughingthrush with a shorter white brow is found in the high hills south of the Achankovil Gap and was treated as a subspecies. The two forms were together treated under the name of Kerala laughingthrush.
The Himalayan prinia is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It was formerly lumped in with the striped prinia as the striated prinia.
The white-collared blackbird is a species of bird in the family Turdidae.
The red-throated thrush is a passerine bird in the thrush family. It is sometimes regarded as one subspecies of a polytypic species, "dark-throated thrush", black-throated thrush then being the other subspecies. More recent treatments regard the two as separate species. The scientific name comes from Latin. Turdus is "thrush" and the specific ruficollis is derived from rufus', "red", and collum, "neck".
Pterorhinus is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae.
The striped prinia or Swinhoe's prinia is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It was formerly lumped with the Himalayan prinia as the striated prinia, but was split from it following a study published in 2019.
The Burmese prinia is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It and the Annam prinia were formerly lumped with Deignan's prinia as the brown prinia.
Frederick William Styan was an English tea merchant who spent many years in China. During his stay he obtained numerous specimens of fauna which were donated to the British Museum. Several species such as Styan's bulbul are named after him.
Sushkin's goose is a putative species of goose now thought to be extinct. The status as a species has remained contested. It has sometimes been considered a subspecies of the bean goose but some have proposed, based on descriptions in life and specimens, that it was distinctive enough to be treated as a full species. It has been suggested that the Tunguska event of 1908 may have wiped out most of the breeding population in the Taiga region resulting in its dwindling to extinction. Some geese with "neglectus" type characters have been recorded suggesting that the last few populations hybridized with other geese such as the tundra and taiga bean goose in the breeding region.
