Here’s another brightly colored bird that looks like a little girl colored it. Purple, lavender, pink, orange – all the bright, happy colors of childhood are there. Are you thinking like I am, that this must be another Photoshopped wonder? Hang on as CryptoVille investigates!
Hold onto your hats, my friends … this bird is real! Let me introduce you to the incredibly rare South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher (Ceyx mindanensis)! Turns out scientists have been trying to get “clear evidence” that this bird exists for over 130 years!
Thanks to Dr. Miguel David De Leon, a vitreoretinal surgeon living in the Philippines, we finally have the photographic proof. These are clear pictures that the scientific community has rallied around and accepted.
Dr. De Leon, who belongs to a birding group called the Robert. S. Kennedy Bird Conservancy, climbed an area to his hideout where he liked to sit and spot birds. His group makes their “hides” out of bamboo, palm fronds, and banana leaves.
This one day he wasn’t there long when he spied this magnificent little fledgling that he estimated was about 3 weeks old. It flew over, sat on a nearby branch and rested for about ten minutes.
Dr. De Leon said, “I was so, so thrilled. I felt like my chest would explode.” This family of birds lives in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia.
The South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher is already marked as endangered. Their habitat is shrinking and they build nests by digging dirt out of the ground presumably to build nests up in the trees.
They eat a lot of bugs like earthworms, as well as small lizards (skinks) and other invertebrates.
The Dwarf Kingfisher is small and moves very quickly, so it’s amazing that Dr. De Leon was able to get these photographs.
Isn’t this little bird just incredible?
Coming Up
I don’t know why I keep writing about birds but people seem to be enjoying my articles on colored owls (red, blue, and purple). I was so sure this one was Photoshopped that I wanted to share it as well. What a delightful surprise this time!
Ok, I’ll get back to working on more cryptid articles. My mind is filled with thoughts about Bigfoots, aliens, and to a lesser extent, dogmen lately – and it all seems to be coalescing around the Rockie mountains and the very strange things that seem to be happening there.
Stay safe and well! And stay tuned to CryptoVille!
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References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_dwarf_kingfisher
https://www.hbw.com/species/south-philippine-dwarf-kingfisher-ceyx-mindanensis
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/science/south-philippine-kingfisher-photo.html
It’s soooo cute! Thanks for doing the research. I would’ve wondered if it was photo shopped, too.