Birding

Crested and Proud

February 19, 2024 by Kai Pflug 4 Comments

A crest is a “comb or tuft of feathers, fur, or skin on the head of a bird or other animal”. Birds use them for display purposes – they can be either recumbent (not noticeable when not erect) or recursive (noticeable in all states). Quite a few bird species have crests. In fact, crests occur in at least 20 of the 30 orders of extant birds, and in all major groups of passerines.

Crests are made of feathers. Their main use is to display – either to communicate with other members of the species or to scare other species, as a raised crest makes the bird appear larger.

So much for the educational part of the blog post.

For many species, their crest seems to be something not worth mentioning – for example, Eurasian Hoopoe, the Secretary, the Galah, the Northern Lapwing, or the Grey-crowned Crane. For others, they proudly make the crest part of their name – and are thus much easier to identify for me just by looking at the file names of my bird photos … and are the only species that really fit the blog title of “Crested and Proud”. Thus, let`s look at some of these.

Crested Myna (Shanghai, China)

 

 

Black Crested Bulbul (Nonggang, China)

 

Crested Barbet (Letaba, Bateleur, Kruger Park, South Africa)

 

 

Crested Bunting (Nonggang, China)

 

 

Crested Dove (somewhere in Australia)

Crested Finchbill (Tengchong, China)

 

 

Crested Fireback (Taman Negara, Malaysia)

 

Crested Francolin (Ndumo, South Africa)

Crested Goshawk (Shanghai, China)

 

 

Crested Honey-buzzard (Nanhui, China)

 

 

Crested Kingfisher (HongAn, China)

 

Crested Lark (Delhi, India)

 

Crested Serpent Eagle (Yunnan and Guangxi, China)

 

Grey Crested Tit (Wawushan, Mengbishan, China)

 

Crested Tit-Warbler (Mengbishan, China)

 

 

European Crested Tit (Visselhoevede, Germany)

Great Crested Grebe (Shanghai, China)

 

Long-Crested Eagle (Drakensberg, South Africa)

Greater Crested Tern (Nanhui, China)

 

Hair-crested Drongo (Nanhui, China)

 

 

 

Purple-crested Turaco (Mkuze, South Africa)

 

 

 

 

Sulfur-crested Cockatoo (Brisbane, Australia)

 

 

White Crested Helmet Shrike (Mkuze, South Africa)

 

White-crested Laughingthrush (Hongbenghe, China)

 

Comb-crested Jacana (Brisbane, Australia)

Goldcrest (Shanghai, China)

 

 

Firecrest (Bannetzer Moor, Germany)

 

 

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 21 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well.He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.