Why is this little bird wearing a “black mask”?

A bird's eye view of science

Quanzhou Association for Science and Technology

Quanzhou Bird Watching Society

Editor's Note

The ecosystem is like a grand and exquisite symphony. In this song of nature, birds, with their agile posture, colorful feathers and pleasant singing, have become one of the most eye-catching notes. Popular science protects our green home. The Quanzhou Association for Science and Technology has joined hands with the Quanzhou Birdwatching Society to launch a special popular science column called "Bird's Eye Science", which publishes bird science knowledge from time to time, selects and broadcasts student essays and paintings, guides the public to participate in ecological education, pays attention to bird protection and research, and jointly maintains ecological balance. Here are carefully drawn bird paintings, outlining their beautiful outlines with artistic brushstrokes; there are high-definition and realistic bird pictures, showing them flying, foraging, and playing in the woods, interpreting the vitality and agility of life. Let us step into the bird world full of wonders and surprises, and explore their unique value in the ecosystem.

Black-faced Laughing ThrushPhotographer: Chen Wensen

Black-faced Laughing ThrushPhotographer: Lu Tianmin

Essay appreciation: "Knowing the natural sounds of heaven and earth, accompanying the swallows and sparrows to fly with me"

2023 Luojiang District Essay and Painting Competition

Author: Luo Xinyi

Majia Middle School Senior 3 (1) Class

/ Instructor Yu Rongjun /

My family lives near Luoyang Bridge, so observing egrets has become a daily routine. Walking on Luoyang Bridge, the morning breeze blows on my cheeks, and a cool feeling comes over me. All around are the rushing Luoyang River and the lush mangroves. The breeze blows, and the river ripples. Suddenly, a few white dots come into view, like white flowers blooming among the green trees. Why are the little flowers moving? I look closely, oh! It turns out to be a group of naughty egrets. "How many springs have the erythrina flowers bloomed, how many years have the East and West Towers faced each other, how many people have walked across the Luoyang Bridge, how many ships have sailed out of Quanzhou Bay, and now it's my turn to walk on the bridge..." After reading this article by Grandpa Yu Guangzhong, I closed the page, but those words are still lingering in my mind. With my curiosity and longing for Luoyang Bridge, accompanied by the sunset that has already dyed the sky light crimson, I walked along the Luoyang Bridge with my family, savoring the nature and beauty of Luoyang Bridge. When you reach the treetops, you can see green leaves swaying in the wind like boats, and beautiful flowers under the trees, red, yellow, and purple, blooming beautifully in the sun and dancing in the wind. In the distance, little bugs are playing and chasing freely among the flowers, which is really fun.
The four seasons change, prosperity and failure are fixed, grass grows and flowers bloom, and the chirping of birds is like the rhyme of the four seasons, chanting the parallel prose of the four seasons. The poetic beauty of nature nourishes us, and with the chirping of birds as our companion, we grow secretly and transform into a roc, and walk to a green tomorrow.

I have lived in Quancheng since I was a child, and the animals I see most are birds.

When I was young, I knew that all kinds of birds fluttered their wings and flew alone in the streets and alleys, and flew side by side under the green tiles and red eaves. I was on this street, under this beam, accompanied by the chirping of birds, chasing and playing with my friends, and playing wantonly. Swallows also built nests under the beams of my house. When I was free, I looked up and watched the swallows in the nests, and the parents were busy feeding the chicks. At that time, I didn’t understand the term "deep love for the calf". I was just curious and couldn’t help but imagine the peace of the swallows living in the nest and the joy of flying in the clear sky. My thoughts were like swallows, and they had already flown beyond the blue sky and clear water.

Later, when I first read poetry and books, I realized why partridges fly south, spring swallows carry mud, and bluebirds deliver messages. Only then did poets wet their ink on paper and write down Du Fu's sadness of homesickness when he saw "the river is green and the birds are whiter, the mountains are green and the flowers are about to burn", Tao Yuanming's feelings of seclusion in the mountains and wilds when "the caged birds miss the old forests, and the fish in the pond miss the old pond", and Wang Wei's enjoyment of "white egrets flying over the vast paddy fields and orioles singing in the shady summer trees" and indulging in the joy of the mountains and forests. These birds fly when the grass grows and the warblers fly, carrying the thoughts and deep feelings of dependence on the mountains and forests, sending the hustle and bustle and beauty of life to the vast land, and bringing poetry and a place for the soul to rest for people from ancient times to the present. Looking at the swallows and sparrows outside the window again, I can no longer look at them with the same feelings as before, and I can't help but feel love and reluctance to let them go.

But life is full of disturbances, time flies by, forests built of steel and concrete are rising from the ground, blue sky and clear water are hard to find, the world is getting narrower and narrower, the change of seasons has long been blurred, and every day has turned into a silent spring. Walking in the crowd, I always look down and look at all kinds of information. Even if I look up, the torrent of modernization silently drowns me. With high-rise buildings lined up one after another, where can birds find a roof to rest? With whistles blaring one after another, where can I listen to the chirping of birds?

Winter is coming, and the fatigue of schoolwork makes me feel tired. So I get away from the hustle and bustle of the city on weekends and walk into a park where few people go. Looking up, the surging green rushes in my face, and the only sound in my ears is the singing of birds. Walking to the lakeside, there are birds of all sizes living in the wetlands in the lake, some stretching their tail feathers, some strolling in the garden, and resting their feathers in the evening light. As if they know people are coming, a large group of birds take off from the lake. The sky is clear, and only birds fly in the sky. This is the first time I deeply feel the scene of "the birds in the river sing softly without saying anything, and fly into the deep clouds to cry". My heart is also a flying bird, disappearing in the evening clouds.

The cold air entering my lungs made me stop my aimless imagination. On such a cold day, even if there were no thousands of mountains with no birds flying, there shouldn't be so many birds. I opened the search bar and found out that with the cleaning of Spartina alterniflora and the improvement of wetland environment, large numbers of migratory birds have settled here in winter. More than 20,000 migratory birds have flown across Quanzhou Bay, flapping their wings and flying high in the endless sound of waves, bringing a dream of human and nature.

Thoreau wrote in "Walden": "What kind of field is a field without rabbits and partridges?" In this era of rapid development, some people are lost in the jungle of steel and concrete, while others walk alone under the sky of captive birds in the old forest, silently guarding the lively noise in the silent mountains and forests, allowing the sounds of birds to linger in the ears of the people of Quancheng, and allowing busy people to find a spiritual home and comfort from nature.

The natural sounds of heaven and earth and the chirping of swallows and sparrows accompany us, growing together with us and changing with the seasons. In the journey of life, we may lose our way and ourselves, but there are always people who remember their original aspirations and devote themselves to the natural and cultural scenery. There is also always the sound of birds, which has been ringing since childhood, giving our tired hearts a place to return and turning our souls into flying birds, flying over the steel forest, soaking in the poet's ink, and strolling in the torrent of time, just like the bird that cannot be caged in Stephen King's pen, spreading its wings and flying away without forgetting its original aspirations.

Paintings . "Dodo" 2023 Luojiang District Essay and Painting Competition

Author: Su Yuchen, Luojiang Foreign Language School, Grade 1, Class 22 / Instructor: Yang Chenfeng /

Popular Science Extension : Black-faced Thrush

Passeriformes

This bird mainly inhabits the plains and low mountain and hilly areas from central and eastern China to central Vietnam, preferring shrubs and bamboo environments . The upper body is dark gray, the abdomen is gray-brown, the throat and chest are light brown, with fuzzy dark brown spots. The color gradually changes to dirty yellow from the middle of the chest to the abdomen, and the rump is reddish brown. The head is gray-brown with a large black mask covering the forehead, around the eyes and ear feathers. The wings and tail are medium brown, with a slightly reddish brown at the end of the tail. The iris is dark brown to reddish brown, the beak is dark horn color, and the legs are gray-brown to red horn color. Males and females are similar, the mask of young birds is lighter, the crown and nape are slightly brown, and the lower body color is warmer.

Compared with the White-cheeked Laughingthrush, the Black-faced Laughingthrush has a more obvious mask and a different call. It is active in bushes, bamboo groves, reed fields, farmland edges and town parks . It feeds mostly on the ground, mainly insects, but also other invertebrates, plant fruits, seeds and some crops. It is active and calls frequently, especially in summer.