Bird notes and sketches from Nepal-ID help please (1 Viewer)

[Joern Lehmhus]

Hi Rob,
sorry have been ill for a week , therefore no answer...

With the Hornbills our guide (that was in Chitwan national park) said it was extremely surprising that we saw Great Hornbill at all, Oriental pied was much more common , though also rare-the guide wasn´t with us at that trip, so he was also unlucky
Also, he said Great HBs normally live only deep in the djungle and fly nearly never over clearings (that´s why I wasn´t fully sure if this was what we saw- also I painted both Hornbills directly after the ride, it´s nearly impossible to do a sketch on a moving elephant, but I think I got the main points from memory)

The sighting was during an elephant ride through the jungle and 2 Great Hornbills were passing by quite close (in about 3 elephants length distance!!!), flying over a clearing ; later during the ride 2 Oriental pied Hornbills passed by in much greater distance, flying over another clearing -so we were really lucky on that elephant ride, because we could compare the differences and we were sure we had seen both species - there were some fruiting trees at the edges of the clearings, Ficus spec, Trewia nudiflora and something not IDable- maybe this had attracted the Hornbills...
Both species were really fascinating, looking strangely archaic in flight...With the great Hornbills we even heard the wingbeats...And I´d say they were one of the strangest and most exciting animal during the whole trip for me- hopefully you also will see them one day; good luck for that!

With the pipit I only know I saw it on the trek and I think I saw it together with the Rosy pipits in the higher regions of the trek, but I am not sure-I´l check my notes...

 

[njlarsen]

but a general problem is that they are all made with pencil on what is not always the best paper and with some I just have problems with scanning-like with this one...

Joern, especially for thin paper, I have found that I get a better result with taking a photo using my Nikon CP4500 than I do using a scanner. The scanner often includes details from what is on the back of the paper.

Hope this helps
Niels

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Hi Niels,

Agreed,
but I suppose your Nikon is a digital camera? I don´t have one...

Jörn

 

[edenwatcher]

If you saw it on the trek then I'll stick with upland pipit.

Rob

Hope you're fully recovered.

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Rob, thanks,
but it did not get that much better
(it´s an infection in the ears)

nevertheless i had to start work again because so many things need to be finalized before Christmas

But never mind -so I can also go on with my Nepal Bird Questions-here is one more-i think that one may be an abberrant bush warbler then, according to what we discussed before?

The pipit was indeed at the trek, somewhere between base camps-between lots of rosy pipits

 

[edenwatcher]

Yes that looks like Aberrant Bush Warbler.
I have done some more research into the rosefinch. I guess it is impossible to be sure, but the other option is Dark-rumped rosefinch Carpodacus edwardsi which is seldom seen in Nepal (usually further east). Pink-browed would be more likely.
Between basecamps is quite high for upland pipit, will look into other possibilities (passage Blyth@s???)

Rob

 

[Edward woodwood]

Rosy Pipit Joern?

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

IAmSorry I don´t get it ,Tim-what do you want to say?

Or do you want to say it was another Rosy pipit?

I think that´s unlikely because of the light coloured breast with small spots and the thicker bill than Rosy pipits

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Actually I rechecked my scarce notes from 12 years ago and I have to admit that the location for the pipit is not fully clear (I should have taken better notes-but we were there for the trekking mainly)
There are 2 possibilities-either I sketched the pipit on the trek between base camps (as I said already) or at one evening during the trek at Ghandruk at the helicopter landing area (that would be much lower altitude)- but what I wrote down is that it had a very thick bill for a pipit.
So I think it was probably Upland-
that comes closest.

Tim , I thought again about Rosy pipit, but the bill of rosy pipit is much thinner and longer, and even the rosy pipit in breeding plumage with the rosy breast without the heaviy spotting/streaking also looks different to me .

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Hi again;
for a change Here are some swallows/martins and a warbler-I guess the brown ones may be dusky crag martin, the other one house martin and the warbler a Seicerus species? all seen at the trek

thanks

Jörn

 

[edenwatcher]

Hi Joern
First martin would be Asian house martin, dusky crag martin is fine of the second. Seicercus would be grey-hooded warbler (S. xanthoschistos).

Rob

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Thanks!
What´s the difference to Euro house martins? I don´t think I saw one....

And here is what a page of my sketch pad looks like-took quite some time to upload....

 

[edenwatcher]

Underwing colour is the main difference I think. Fortunately European House Martin is rare in Nepal. In the overlap zone in Ladakh I found it more-or-less impossible.

Any on the page you haven't got yet?

Rob

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

I´d like you to give a name to each of them , if you don´t mind (except the one in the upper right-we already agreed on abberrant Bush warbler there),
so that I can check if my ideas were right.

Gracias,

Jörn

 

[edenwatcher]

Ok here goes:
Top left - white-tailed nuthatch
Bottom left - Dark-breasted Rosefinch (Carpodcacus nipalensis)
Bottom right - as you have written red-headed bullfinch
Phyllosc - are those wingbars?
Bottom middle - how big? tailorbird is feasible.

Rob

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Yep, on the phyllosc these were 2 wingbars

bottom middle was a small bird , roughly about chiffchaff size i would say, but with longer tail- i was fairly sure this is tailorbird because this species we saw several times (in chitwan as well as on trek at lower altitudes) and our guide in Chiwan pointed this out to me as Tailorbird (allthough i think not this individual-i painted this on the treK). Or are there more than one species of tailorbird?

 

[edenwatcher]

In Nepal I think there is just one species of tailorbird: common tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius). It is very widespread up to perhaps 1800m.

Will think about the phyllosc.

Rob

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

Here´s some more; i am fairly sure the dove was Streptopelia tranquebarica, but the shrike like bird? I cut the tail tip off during scanning, but the tail was not so long as in Lanius shrikes.

 

[edenwatcher]

Hi Joern,
Streptopelia tranquebarica looks fine. The shrike-like bird is, I think, common woodshrike Tephrodornis pondicerianus

Rob

 

[Joern Lehmhus]

I´ll have to look it up- does it belong to the shrike family?

what about these, are they black Ibis, Pseudibis palpebrosa ? seen in Chitwan on a boat tour...

And the songbird, seen from the bus from Chitwan to Pokhara for a short moment (and therefore the fdrawing not finished), could it be crested bunting?