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Yibin is a typical smallish Chinese city (which in China means slightly above 850,000 people in the metro area, which would make it the fifth-biggest city in Germany but does not get it into the top 100 in China). Birders come here for Laojunshan National Park, a location famous for the rare and endangered Sichuan Partridge, which I only heard during my stay here (again with Bella and Philip from Alpinebirding).
As sound photography has not been invented yet, I will therefore focus on the other birds encountered here.
The eBird cartoonists call the Spot-breasted Parrotbill a “bulbous-headed brown bird with a comically large bill”. As a foreigner living in China and thus used to having my nose size ridiculed, I definitely feel with the parrotbills.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Spot-breasted-Parrotbill_DSC6489_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C606&ssl=1)
(Unfortunately, the folk myth associating male nose size with the size of certain reproductive organs seems to be less well-known in China. What a pity.)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Spot-breasted-Parrotbill_DSC6350_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C464&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Spot-breasted-Parrotbill_DSC6459_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C464&ssl=1)
In contrast to being amused by the Spot-breasted Parrotbill, eBird seems to be slightly creeped out by the Ashy-throated Parrotbill we saw at the same spot: “A small long-tailed bird with vaguely unnerving pale eyes”.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashy-throated-Parrotbill_DSC6601_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C474&ssl=1)
Unfortunately, this bird is heavily traded in places like Guiyang (source).
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashy-throated-Parrotbill_DSC6565_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C420&ssl=1)
The Latin species name alphonsiana refers to Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835-1900), a director to the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, whose study of bird fossils led to the discovery of tropical birds such as trogons and parrots from prehistoric France.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashy-throated-Parrotbill_DSC6661_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C450&ssl=1)
Of course, the Red-billed Leiothrix is a species native to Sichuan – in Britain, it is now discussed whether to regard it as an invasive species (source).
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It seems that the Red-billed Leiothrix can be vocally dominant (it accounts for 37% of an entire bird community soundscape in northern Italy) and can influence the singing behavior, particularly of native Eurasian Blackcaps and European Robins (in Portugal and Italy).
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Red-billed-Leiothrix_DSC6293_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C480&ssl=1)
eBird admits that the black chin of the Black-chinned Yuhina is “not very noticeable”.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Black-Chinned-Yuhina_DSC8841_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C471&ssl=1)
But it is a cute bird. And who wants birds with highly visible Hitler mustaches anyway?
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Black-Chinned-Yuhina_DSC8816_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C471&ssl=1)
The Silver Pheasant sometimes feels inferior to the Golden Pheasant but relishes its superiority over the Bronze Pheasant.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Silver-Pheasant_DSC7471_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C392&ssl=1)
And its eBird description as a “large and spectacular pheasant”, which – you guessed it – probably refers to the male. But then, would a lady pheasant be pleased to be described as “large”?
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Silver-Pheasant_DSC7604_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C353&ssl=1)
According to the McMurray hatchery, the “Silver Pheasant is considered a good ‘starter’ breed for people who want to learn more about raising pheasants”. Hm. What a weird world. Better watch them in the wild. Saves 187.5 USD for a juvenile pair, too … at least there is no rebate on bulk buying, 16 pairs cost 3000 USD.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Silver-Pheasant_DSC8421_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C432&ssl=1)
There may even be some reverse sexism among the customers of the hatchery – the Q&A section of the website has the following passage: “Q: Would I be able to get 2 females of the silver pheasants at this time? A: No, the silver pheasants are only available in pairs at this time.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Silver-Pheasant_DSC8312_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C403&ssl=1)
Fortunately for males, in Fork-tailed Sunbirds, sexism is still alive and well. In other words: I was disappointed to only see the female at Yibin.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Fork-tailed-Sunbird_DSC8493_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C460&ssl=1)
And it doesn’t even have a forked tail.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Fork-tailed-Sunbird_DSC8475_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C464&ssl=1)
While the Buffy Laughingthrush is a nice-looking bird, its Latin species name berthemyi is quite unfortunate.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Buffy-Laughingthrush_DSC6733_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C444&ssl=1)
The name is to honor Jules François Gustave Berthémy (1826-1902), a French diplomat who as the head of the French delegation to the USA after the Civil War, overcome by his aversion to the idea of new freemen, feared that a “race war” would bring a “black oligarchy” to power (source: “France and the American Civil War – A Diplomatic History”, ISBN 9781469649955).
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Buffy-Laughingthrush_DSC7094_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C439&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Buffy-Laughingthrush_DSC7214_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C444&ssl=1)
Another person nobody should ever have named a bird after.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Buffy-Laughingthrush_DSC7256_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C429&ssl=1)
A few Spotted Laughingthrushes were traveling alongside the flock of Buffy Laughingthrushes.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Spotted-Laughingthrush_DSC6788_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C465&ssl=1)
Indeed a “handsome, large laughingthrush” (eBird).
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Spotted-Laughingthrush_DSC6760_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C452&ssl=1)
The Latin species name ocellata (“marked with eylets”) for once works reasonably well.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Spotted-Laughingthrush_DSC6771_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C442&ssl=1)
eBird calls the Chinese Bamboo Partridge a “loud and colorful partridge”.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Chinese-Bamboo-Partridge_DSC7401_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C461&ssl=1)
The species name thoracicus (“of the chest”) presumably refers to the grey-blue color of the bird’s breast.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Chinese-Bamboo-Partridge_DSC7412_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C469&ssl=1)
Somewhat counterintuitively (at least to me), the genetic diversity of Chinese Bamboo Partridges was higher in a more stable climate regarding rainfall and temperature (source). However, it is not clear to me why a paper on such a topic was published in the “African Journal of Biotechnology”.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Chinese-Bamboo-Partridge_DSC7425_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C439&ssl=1)
The Mountain Bulbul is also described as a loud bird – specifically, a “large, noisy, conspicuous bulbul” (HBW).
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The Latin species name mcclellandii refers to John McClelland (1805-1875), a British zoologist and geologist who – as you might expect for a British person – in 1835 was sent to north-eastern India to check if tea could be grown there (source).
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It seems he was mostly an ichthyologist, which makes naming a decidedly non-fishy bird after him a bit weird.
True to its name, the Mountain Bulbul was seen at a much higher elevation than the Brown-breasted Bulbul also encountered at Yibin.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Brown-breasted-Bulbul_DSC9110_Yibin-Feb-04-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C532&ssl=1)
It seems some Chinese researchers had an interesting hypothesis – maybe cleaning up a nest (“nest sanitation” to the ornithologists) would also make it easier for the parasitized bird to eject an egg laid by a parasitizing cuckoo. So, they recruited some Brown-breasted Bulbuls eager for some extra income and divided them into two groups (for once, grad students were not suited as experimental subjects). In one group, they added a blue egg to their nests. In the other, they added both such an egg and a peanut half-shell.
The peanut shell was quickly ejected by all bulbuls in that group – unfortunately (for the researchers presumably eager to verify their hypothesis), the rejection rate of the added egg was the same (slightly above 50%) for both groups. So, taking out the trash seems not to help you get rid of other crap, such as a cuckoo egg. Keep that in mind when somebody (Marie Kondo?) stresses the importance of order.
On the other hand, some order is a good thing when doing bird photography. Unfortunately, some mammals regularly disturb this order with their photobombing.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Silver-Pheasant_DSC7598_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C376&ssl=1)
Well, mammals, what do you expect?
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.10000birds.com/wp-content/uploads/Other_DSC6693_Yibin-Feb-03-2023.jpg?resize=630%2C446&ssl=1)
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About the Chinese Bamboo Partridge: Its call/song? is like the Chinese word “dizhupo“ (meaning landlady) thus it has this nickname.