25 : Ceylon Small Barbet

Ceylon Small Barbet - Megalaima rubricapilla (?)

June and I am still here ! Believe you me I am the most suprised. Perhaps I should declare on facebook or this site that I will lose weight and that might happen.

I had the humility to attach a question-mark to the citation on this bird when it first went up as in all honestly I wqas not sure if this is correct or if it is Crimson Headed Barbet (Meglalaima haemacephala indica) which is the Ceylon sub-species I think of Coppersmith Barbet (the main indian race I think). As no passing Barbet expert from the Ceylon bird club has yet put me right I have removed the question-mark. I will amend my post after some more research but for now thats my call and I am not going to beat myself up if I am wrong. The lady at Ellertons in Kandy Sri Lanka had never seen a Barbet in her garden so there you go. I put a few ticks in that lodges' bird book (visitors would tick new birds form the garden against the picture - that was a red-rag to a bull !).

When I first downloaded a list of the birds of the world, probably a good 10 years ago, I would sit at work and get quite bemused flicking through and planting ticks next to names of "British Birds" only to find that they sat alone on a whole sheet of the list. I used to take delight in reading the names to my wife at home - imagine if I could see a Scaly Breasted Munia or a White-rumped Shama ? - those would be the sort of names I would pour over imagining that everything was flitting somewhere in the sunshine waiting to be discovered by Adventure Neil - my imagined alter ego. I have discovered it is more pottering Neil when my bins are on but there you go - I like a nice 'Potter' around a bird reserve followed by a something to eat and a nosy around the shop. Walking around a concrete resevoir in the desert in fourty degree heat here in Dubai I quite miss a cup of tea and a piece of cake and a purchase of the London Wildlife Trust annual bird report. Better still fish and chips. You have to suffer for your birds out here - but I still Potter. I stopped at Whitards in Festival City recently for a pot of earl grey after I had been thrashing around some scrub in the back of beyond. No restaurant and gift shop you see. I need to speak to Sheikh Mohammed about mass birding culture - give us tea and cake and we will be out in droves. We potter !!

I digress as ever - Barbets were certainly one of those names that conjured up something magical and judging by this fine fellow they did not disapoint. This was my first Barbet and I have 82 species to go. These are forest birds mostly eating fruit like figs up in the canopy. They are related to woodpeckers - I can see they have a short stiff tail which I am sure they can use for propping themselves when hanging of a tree. I can see why they are in a family - Capitonidae - with woodpeckers e.g. who also have that stiff tail. They also nest in a hole in a tree (a few in holes in banks) - again like woodpeckers and Hornbills (another member of that larger bird family).

One Barbet is endangered - please hang on in there Colombia's White-mantled Barbet ! The ranches and farming are taking away its habitat and it is hanging on in fragmented populations. Another 9 are near threatened.

A lot of money from the big organisations like the WWT and RSPB makes its way overseas into research and work to help endangered species. You've done your bit by being a member. Also - when you are pottering about on a Sunday morning and you end up in a reserve gift shop look out for books endorsed by Birdlife International or signs of money going overseas as well for habitat protection - birdfood for example - you can do it whereever you go - rainforest coffee for example which they grow sympathetically. I can't see it hurts and birders are a force for good in this world. Birds are a good bell weather of a places' health. See how many species you get in a monoculture. I am from East Anglia and saw my first Corn Bunting in Spain ! I get irritated at the thought that the size of this task might get smaller over the next 27 years.

With that thought I leave you with a random picture of my last British post bird-potter lunch. I played hooky from work on a business trip and dipped into Barn Elms for an hour (Faringdon to Hammersmith on the Circle and 10 minutes on a taxi or a bus - sorted - at least I worked it out on the way back). Pottering is good - get out and potter - buy a book to read with your lunch rather than the Telegraph and help that Colombian Barbet.

Ceylon Small Barbet - Megalaima rubricapilla
Ellertons Lodge, Kandy, Sri Lanka
12 April 2011