OC 1/23/23
Monday mirth
Monday mirth
To celebrate the dawn of a new Monday, let us enjoy a snippet from one of the all-time greatest sit-coms from the network TV era: Police Squad. In today’s excerpt, Det. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) is joined by partner Capt. Ed Hocken (Alan North) as they interview Mrs. Twice (Barbara Tarbuck), the widow of the deceased murder suspect, at her home in the Little Italy neighborhood of the unnamed city.
This was from the pilot episode, “A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)”, and it originally aired on ABC on March 4, 1982. The rights holders apparently do a good job of keeping whole episodes, of which there were only six, off of YouTube.
The series was cancelled by the network chairman who thought thought the comedy was too hard for the audience to understand—too many visual gags and too fast paced. The condescending (superior, self-flattering) attitude of today’s people in authority is thus nothing new.
Today’s special animal friend is the Straw-headed Bulbul, Pycnonotus zeylanicus. This Critically Endangered songbird is native to Malaysia, Singapore, and Borneo. They are about 11 inches high. Their coloring is brown and white with yellow highlights for the head, flight feathers, and tail.
https://ebird.org/species/sthbul1/
The straw-headed bulbul’s native habitat is lowland broadleaf forests, mangrove forests, or shrubland. They have adapted to agricultural land, tree plantations, and domestic gardens. Fruit and berries are their favorite foods, especially figs. They also eat spiders, insects, aquatic snails, and small vertebrates such as lizards. Like other bulbuls, they are highly-regarded singers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_FgPxfel6M
I’m kind of underwhelmed, actually. He’s certainly not Tom the Mocker or even Bill the Cardinal, but oh, well. They make a cup nest of plant fibers, usually in the fork of a tree. Two eggs are typical, and with both parents and sometimes helpers – perhaps other related adults – caring for the young, both chicks sometimes reach adulthood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DH-YvxUt44
As I said above, the straw-headed bulbul is Critically Endangered. Habitat loss is a factor, but the species is pretty resilient and is happy to eat bugs in your yard if an undisturbed mangrove-fig forest isn’t available. The key factor is collection for the pet trade. They are a very popular caged bird in Asia, especially in Indonesia. Having nothing better to compare it to, the people think the bulbuls’ song is really impressive, and they even hold bird-singing competitions. They’re so kooky about this in Indonesia that an attempt by the government to ban collection of the straw-headed bulbul was quashed by a massive public backlash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ3aPuyfoP0
However, released former pet birds have naturalized in Singapore and are doing very well there. In addition to neighborhood parks, the wild landscapes of military bases are an excellent habitat for the straw-headed bulbul:
https://singaporebirds.com/species/straw-headed-bulbul/
It was covered in the WSJ this weekend (paywall, sorry):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/asian-songbird-singapore-nature-straw-headed-bulbul-11674228814
There are some hundreds of bulbuls in Singapore, and they have a well-organized group protecting their nest sites and promoting appreciation.
Good morning. That was clever.