A bird in the bush is worth two in the hand....
...and don't them hungry traditionalists tell you n'otherwise.
Not sure my friends outside the hotel would agree with me (not even sure my friends would agree with me outside the hotel) but when a bird crashes into our Lobby and is lying prone on the floor they to get me and we can all agree it is beautiful and I try and find it in the book to show the guys.
Usually it is an uncommonly daft Blue-winged Pitta and I spend all my time trying to convince people that, despite the electric blue, it is not a Kingfisher of any stripe. Once we had a comically confused Red Jungle Fowl who, if the smaller birds can count themselves lucky to have survived the hand, was amazed not to have been shuffled to the kitchen - plump thing that he was.
This time, however, a new species for me (amateur that I am) and for the property a Black-backed Kingfisher (I think, though if it is him the book doesn't do him justice - I guess if they painted him iridescent everyone would accuse them of exaggeration)...
...identification...
...orientation...
...extrication.
Not sure my friends outside the hotel would agree with me (not even sure my friends would agree with me outside the hotel) but when a bird crashes into our Lobby and is lying prone on the floor they to get me and we can all agree it is beautiful and I try and find it in the book to show the guys.
Usually it is an uncommonly daft Blue-winged Pitta and I spend all my time trying to convince people that, despite the electric blue, it is not a Kingfisher of any stripe. Once we had a comically confused Red Jungle Fowl who, if the smaller birds can count themselves lucky to have survived the hand, was amazed not to have been shuffled to the kitchen - plump thing that he was.
This time, however, a new species for me (amateur that I am) and for the property a Black-backed Kingfisher (I think, though if it is him the book doesn't do him justice - I guess if they painted him iridescent everyone would accuse them of exaggeration)...
...identification...
...orientation...
...extrication.
That's what it is, a Black-backed Kingfisher (aka Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher if you don't split the red-backed and black-backed forms). Good record! It is at least partly a migrant and this one must be one of the earliest on record. They are a bit prone to fly into windows during migration. I'm glad that yours was still OK. A high proprtion of the few that I hear about manage to kill themselves. It may be new for the Chiang Saen area?
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