The Grandala – 10,000 Birds

Balangshan – barely beneath the cross at 4500 meters – appears to be place to see Grandalas, no less than in summer season. And they’re a species effectively price seeing, no less than (sexism alert) the males.

Richard Wagner – of “The Ring” and silly antisemitism fame – apparently known as Beethoven’s seventh symphony (my private favourite) the “apotheosis of the dance”. That sounds rather more educated than “one of the best or most excessive instance of the dance”, regardless that that’s what apotheosis means.

With that – so far as the Grandala is worried – largely irrelevant data, I wish to introduce the male Grandala because the apotheosis of blue.

Different reviewers typically agree. eBird states that the species is “in contrast to some other. Grownup male is a deep, virtually eye-searing blue with jet-black wings”.

An internet site with the considerably puzzling identify “roundglass maintain” calls it “a gem of a hen” and expands this to “dazzling blue gem-like birds”. And on Fb, self-declared “Britt the Chicken Skilled” describes the Grandala as “a stunningly stunning hen from the Himalayas”.

Solely Wikipedia manages to explain the species with out even a slight trace of enthusiasm. Perhaps they centered on the feminine, which is described as “brownish” (certainly not a ringing endorsement).

Actually, some male Grandalas complained to me that they’re bored with seeing their brownish wives all day – they suppose that evolution is considerably sexist, offering solely the females with fixed engaging sights. However then, males all the time prefer to complain anyway.

I requested my Tibetan hen information, Philip from Alpinebirding, whether or not the Grandala has any particular symbolic which means or related mythology in Tibetan tradition – surprisingly, it doesn’t. A wasted alternative, in the event you ask me – or an opportunity to make one thing up in a future submit that includes the Grandala.

Because the Grandala is the one species in its genus, each the genus identify Grandala (which means one thing like “giant wings”) and the species identify coelicolor (heaven coloured – once more referring to the male, until the climate may be very dangerous, by which the brownish feminine may additionally function a namesake) are price explaining.

Not like me however like most Chinese language, it is a very social hen – gregarious being the marginally extra high-brow time period utilized by the HBW. In winter, they’re usually present in big flocks, one thing that my photographs completely fail to reveal. Properly, they had been taken in summer season.

If all that is too constructive for you, why not research a paper titled “Debilitating Cutaneous Poxvirus An infection in a […] Grandala”? In case you are a critical hypochondriac, possibly yow will discover a few of the signs described for the contaminated hen on your self.

The Grandala is a high-altitude specialist, with the best breeding recorded at 6600 meters (supply). Apparently, the people breeding on the highest altitudes will not be younger or inferior people which have been excluded from higher-quality low-elevation habitats – no less than primarily based on analysis on different species.

Being a high-altitude specialist signifies that the Grandala could also be affected by local weather change, which can seemingly shift its decrease elevation restrict upwards. As a consequence, a few of the much less clever Grandalas assist Donald Trump as he tells them what they need to hear – that local weather change just isn’t an enormous risk (supply).

After which there are research that present that hen species such because the Grandala are well-adapted to their particular environments. Shock. However then, that is what no less than 90% of all pure science is about – proving that the apparent is true.

Lastly, there are some amateurish movies right here and right here.