Vinousthroated Parrotbill

Vinousthroated Parrotbill [Sinosuthora webbiana]

This little bird is living very close to us and they are quite abundant in numbers in a single gathering. However, it's not that easy to capture their photos as they mostly hide in the dense bushes. I can see them and hear them but it's not that easy for me to capture them as 2D images.

But one day, a tragic event for a single bird of this species brought me a luck of observing its body at maximum proximity. Such a tiny body had all possible details they could express.

The size doesn't matter for them. They continually have survived, thrived, and even helped the survival of other species (cuckoo) as they are frequently the victim of being a host for a parasitic cuckoo chick. But cuckoos have parasitized not only this bird but several dozens of bird species. In one research in China, 11 cuckoo species expolited 55 host species for raising their chicks (Canchao YANG et al., Chinese Birds 2012, 3(1):�–32).

I do not want to believe that this little fellas raise cranky cuckoo chicks while being totally fooled. Probably they may hypnotise the cuckoo chick or install a certain bug in the chick's brain to manipulate it when it matures. That's why the cuckoos not always return to the same host species for laying its egg but find another one, which could be a nemesis of this parrotbill bird. I suspect most of the birds are involved in certain secret missions and are the super-talented double/triple agents in the avian cartel. But who deceives whom? No one knows! All cartels are connected and the trades would never end. That's why I cannot also give up on my secret investigation.

"Birding must go on!"