Good morning, Newdists!
Yay! It’s a Caturday!
Diary Bird — The Nicobar Pigeon — Caloenas nicobarica
It is the only living member of the genus Caloenas and may be the closest living relative of the extinct dodo, and the extinct Rodrigues solitaire.
It is a large pigeon, measuring 40 cm (16 in) in length. The head is grey, like the upper neck plumage, which turns into green and copper hackles. The tail is very short and pure white. The rest of its plumage is metallic green. The cere of the dark bill forms a small blackish knob; the strong legs and feet are dull red. The irides are dark. LINK
Spectacular ground-dwelling pigeon with long, extravagant plumes trailing down from the neck. Dark green intermixed with gray, blue, and bronzy orange, depending on the light. Tail is snow-white, but only readily visible when the bird is flushed. Generally shy, quiet, and difficult to see. Inhabits small, densely forested offshore islands from the Indian Andamans to the Solomons and New Guinea. LINK
A big Caturday welcome to you all!
Grab a cup of coffee or tea, something to eat, and please join us.
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There’s 1 in 500 chance that you would encounter a pink cricket in the wild. They do exist and can occasionally be found.
This incredibly rare fuchsia-colored katydid is the result of a condition called erythrism—a genetic mutation that allows for abnormal amounts of red pigment in the absence of “normal” green pigment.
Katydids are large, leaf-shaped, and usually green, allowing them to camouflage into the surrounding environment and hide from insect-chowing predators. However, pink katydids stand out brightly from green foliage, making their survival much more challenging. Perhaps this is the reason behind their rarity, which is why spotting one in the wild is so special. LINK. [If you click on the link, you can watch a video of it.]
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West Java, Indonesia is a country where fowls can be found all about, pecking for food. And some of them are incredibly expensive:
"I sold a rooster for $4,000 in the past," he proudly tells me.
This is a country where fowl can be found nearly everywhere, either pecking away on street corners or being fried up for plates of street food. For perspective, the price of Wira's rooster represents nearly twice the GDP per capita of the average Indonesian.
But this wasn't any ordinary chicken. Wira fetched his fortune for a prized ayam cemani, a jet-black beauty whose status in Java and abroad borders on the mystical.
Renowned for their rarity and defined by a genetic mutation that makes them completely black from feather to bone, the ayam cemani holds a special place in Javanese culture. Originating from Central Java, they are considered status symbols, good luck charms and are used in traditional medicine preparations to cure a variety of ailments across the island. They are even believed to have magical powers. LINK
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