Red-whiskered Bulbuls--birds from afar.
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| Pycnonotus jocosus L. (photos by JP Donahue) |
Two Red-whiskered Bulbuls announced their arrival in our yard with a loud-ish series of melodious notes that stood out among the other more common calls and chitterings from our native California Towhees, White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, House Finches, Northern Mockingbirds, and Western Scrub-Jays. They perched in our Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis), looked around, preened a bit, and flew off--maybe looking for likely nesting sites.
We first ran across them in L.A. area while strolling around the Huntington Library. The tale we heard from our ornithologist friends was that a pair escaped from the L.A. Zoo and immediately set up housekeeping. Being prolific breeders, there were soon baby Bulbuls about.
The Red-whiskered Bulbul is an aristocrat in the taxonomic realm. Its name was sanctified and made inviolable by Linnaeus when he described the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, 1758. As is often the case, it is named for its rather inconspicuous red whisker mark just by the eye, as opposed to its more prominent red vent (the area under the tail). A related species in the same genus is called the Red-vented Bulbul--however it was described later in 1766.If you want to see them, the Huntington is a sure bet. So take your binoculars to the lovely gardens of the Huntington and experience a bit of Asia.
such handsome birds. i enjoyed seeing them last summer at the huntington with you.
ReplyDeleteclare.
We live a couple of miles southeast of the Huntington. A pair of bulbuls arrived in our yard a few weeks ago. They have built a wonderful little nest in one of our camellia bushes and the nest now has three eggs. It's close to our bird bath, so hopefully the scrub jays and mockingbirds that bathe there will not find the eggs. We've been putting out orange slices for our pair of hooded orioles. Perhaps that and our backyard jungle is what drew them here.
ReplyDeleteJust had 2 in my courtyard in Monterey Hills/Hermon this PM... Took forever to find out what they were. Quite pretty birds.
ReplyDeleteWe saw at least 8 in our backyard sitting on the wires.
ReplyDeleteTook awhile but our neighbor recognized them. We had
never seen them before (LA near Pasadena border).
I have been concerned with how invasive these birds have become in the San Gabriel Valley. At least the west side of the San Gabriel Valley. I can't go for a bike ride anywhere in these parts without hearing its call! Here's an old article from 1985, when they stopped killing these birds. I just hope they don't cause damage to native species or fruit. http://articles.latimes.com/1985-12-29/news/ga-25787_1_annual-christmas-bird-count
ReplyDeleteI recently photographed one at the Arboretum in Arcadia. I had never previously noticed one before this sighting. I'll be keeping an eye opened for future sightings. They're strikingly pretty little birds and I was fortunate to snap several very nice photographs.
ReplyDeleteMy cat has spotted a lot of birds for us. He chitters and looks out the window and I grab my camera. Got two decent photos and was able to identify the bulbul, though he's not as pretty as some of the examples I've seen. Spotted on top of a tree in the morning on the hill above Monterey Road in South Pasadena.
ReplyDeleteI was relaxing on by bed around 3pm today and heard a bird song that was foreign to me. I slowly pulled back the blinds to see a bird with a prominent pointy black Crest,a thin black line starting between the eyes and the beak sweeping across a white cheek an throat,a small red patch near the eye. I also see a red patch under the tail. My first sighting of a Red Whiskered Bulbul. Calabasas, CA.
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