Glen is one of the newer additions to the bloggo family. He wrote to me out of the blue last year to ask wherther we wanted a Western Isles volume in our Mystery Animals of Britain series. We argeed that we did indeed want one, and commissioned him. What we were not expecting was such a bloody good writer and all round nice guy, who - by the way - is writing several other volumes for us... The hummingbird (family Trochilidae) is famed for many things - not least their ability to fly backwards. Of course, not forgetting their small size; the world’s smallest known bird is the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) which measures in at just 2.24 inches.
What is less well reported is that the range where these magnificent flying marvels can be found? In case you don’t know there range is restricted to the Americas and the Caribbean, which makes the report of a sighting of a Sumatran humming bird all the more remarkable. You see Sumatra is part of Indonesia, and that is on the other side of the Pacific from where you would normally expect to find hummingbirds fluttering about the blooms.
It was in the late 1950’s when Otto and Nina Irrgang reported that they had sighted a new species of hummingbird, one that was only half the size of the bee hummingbird; at 1.5 inches it was a seriously short fellow. Luckily one of their sightings occurred when one bird hovered within a foot of their faces. Given this close encounter it is hardly surprising that the pair managed to get a good description of the mystery bird, describing it as having a stripped yellow back and with a brown underside.
As befitting a true mystery cryptid it is needless to say no known Indonesian bird fits the description neither sharing the colour pattern or the birds small size, for even the smallest bird in the island chain measures 3.5 inches at maturity.
So the question has to be asked is there really a Sumatran humming bird awaiting discovery or could this whole report be based on the sighting of an unidentified insect
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In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.
1 comment:
My wife and I, live in Jakarta, Indonesia, and keep seeing a little red bird that doesn't show up in our bird book of indonesia but Had I been East of the Pacific I'd have Called it a hummingbird. He's about the size of ruby throated hummingbird, largely red and black has a long bill and most importantly fly's hoveringly and can be quite slow like a humming bird. The closest thing he could be in my book is a scarlet sun bird. Wow, does it ever fly like a humming bird though.
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