10,000 Birds

Cormorant: A Cultural History of Greed and Prejudice (a review)

Mark — Mon, 18 May 2026 12:18:21 +0000

Close reading is sometimes considered the special province of English professors and other poetry devotees. It is a kind of clever sleuthing that can make sense, for example, of a Shakespearean “crux” – a word or phrase “that editors find baffling and to which solutions do not readily offer themselves,” as Gordon McMullan puts it. His magnificent book Cormorant: A Cultural History of Greed and Prejudice, is a great example of close reading, but it’s not focused exclusively on Shakespeare, or literature for that matter. It’s a book about cultural history, and on the relationships between humans and animals – always coming back to its eponym, the “greedy insatiate glutton,” as an early British guidebook called the bird. Such epithets have followed the Cormorant, it seems, forever. It may be your favorite bird – but probably not. It has no song, only a sort of croak that it sometimes emits when nesting (with webbed feet) in trees, and it is infamous for befouling those trees with excrement so noisome and copious that it soon kills them. And it is mostly black, a color that has, like it or not, undeniable malign connotations in our culture – most cultures. Says McMullan, not too apologetically, “the binary black/white is a necessarily central concept in this book.” On the plus side (plus if you’re a bird, for humans, more a minus) Cormorants are superb fishers, moving “more naturally below the surface [of the water] than in the air,” McMullan says. Human fishermen thus have loathed them as unfair competitors, and used to engage, every so often, in bird-pograms, killing thousands at a go. This attitude is not necessarily (or at all) true in China and Japan, where the Cormorant, with a neck-collar that restricts swallowing, is used by humans to catch fish (as in the beloved-by-many children’s book, The Story About Ping) – and where, McMullan says, Chinese folklore claims that if a woman holds a cormorant just before childbirth, the pain of labor will be reduced. As for Cormorants’ association (in the West) with evil, or Satan, it’s complicated — which is where the close reading comes in. One starting point (there are possible others) in Western culture might be John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” As McMullan shows, Milton could have chosen, as his ultimate simile for Satan in the Garden of Eden, a wolf or a thief, but instead used a bird, and a particular bird: Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life, The middle tree and highest there that grew, Sat like a cormorant; . . . This is the awful, ominous parody of Christ on the Cross, even more perfect when one knows that the Cormorant often sits motionless, drying its outspread wings, as if in crucifixion. (It has to do so because, as McMullan later explains, it is the only diving bird with wettable plumage.) To say that Cormorant is cross-disciplinary is an understatement: it deals with lots and lots of interesting things. A good part of the book covers a profoundly important but little-known event — the South American guano trade in the mid-nineteenth century, and the “scores of thousands” of Chinese indentured workers imported to mine the stuff in hellish conditions. Cormorant guano is one of the most beneficial organic fertilizers in the world, and thus worth a lot of money – the mining of guano mountains off Peru was responsible, McMullan says, “for nothing less than the emergence of the global economy.” (Or, as another commentator writes without hyperbole, “Marine bird excrement is at the root of modern existence.”) Because of what McMullan calls “the near-universal cultural preference for seabirds that are more culturally approachable than the cormorant,” the guano was marketed using images of other birds, including this strange semi-penguin looking thing: Throughout the book, McMullan pursues, as a leitmotif, the tendency in our cultural thinking and tradition – especially as regards the Cormorant – to find a sort of equivalence or strange alike-ness in or merging of seeming opposites: Satan and Jesus Christ; or the Christian merchant Antonio and the Jewish usurer Shylock in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice; even James Bond (the fictional 007, that is, not the real James Bond who authored Birds of the West Indies) and his nemesis Dr. No (whose creator, Ian Fleming, had, McMullan thinks, “a soft spot for cormorants.”) Another such pairing is the mostly black Cormorant and the mostly white Pelican – which makes for one of those Shakespearian cruxes, in Merchant of Venice, when Shylock calls Antonio a “fawning publican,” an epithet that makes little sense. McMullan’s three- or four-page close explanation of why this was, in all probability, not what Shakespeare wrote but, rather, a typesetter’s misreading of “fawning pelican” is good as any mystery story. We in the 21st century have forgotten or given up much of the lore-based knowledge that Milton’s and Shakespeare’s original readers had at close hand (not to mention Christianity) in exchange for the supposed certitude of science. Thus, again, the need for close reading. But this book is not just for former English majors. Early on in Cormorant, introducing his subject and his method, McMullan asks “Might there be ramifications for science in this work?” and answers “I believe so” — and he’s right. He’s writing, he says, about “what happens when nature, culture, and prejudice collide over time.” Cormorant is a protean, wonderful piece of work, finding and drawing relationships between zoology and culture that make perfect sense — but that you would never have conceived of on your own. Utterly fascinating. _________________________________________________________________________________ Cormorant: A Cultural History of Green and Prejudice, by Gordon McMullan. Cambridge University Press, April 2, 2026, $45, 430 pp. ISBN978-1-009-65298-8.

Species Spotlight: Blue-capped Kingfisher

Kai Pflug — Mon, 18 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

This is one of the many magical tropical kingfishers of South-east Asia, and the reason why many US birders are suicidal, given their own lack of such species. Here is my usual “not much scientific information on the bird, so I will ramble on about its scientific name instead” bit that takes up space in many of my posts. So, what about those Actenoides hombroni? Actenoides comes from aktis, aktinos, indicating brightness and splendour. Rather less inspiring, the hombroni commemorates one Surgeon-Maj. Jacques Bernard Hombron (1798-1852), a surgeon in the French Navy who was also active as a naturalist in the Pacific from 1837 to 1840 (HBW). Strangely, Wikipedia states that during the same period of 1837-1840, he served on a French voyage to investigate the perimeter of Antarctica. I guess this could still mean the Pacific, but it seems like a strange way to put it that way. Hmm. Unfortunately, my nagging question to ChatGPT did not yield any interesting results: “Is there any negative/scandalous information on Jacques Bernard Hombron?““Most historical sources present him as a respected scientist; nothing in the standard biographies or historical accounts suggests misconduct, scandal, or controversy. His reputation seems entirely scholarly.” I sometimes feel that the entertainment value of modern AI is overrated. And now for something completely different: The Blue-capped Kingfisher. It is a sexually dimorphic bird – the female is obviously less fond of blue than the male. While listed as Least Concern, it is restricted to only one island of the Philippines (Mindanao). And the situation may worsen, as the HBW states: “Total population estimated at up to 10,000 individuals, but declining rapidly.” Why? Well, see my recent post on the Philippine Eagle, or this bit on the kingfisher from the HBW: “Main threats are continuing deforestation, especially at elevations below c. 1200 m; even within legally protected Mt Kitanglad Natural Park (a stronghold for the species) all forest below 1200 m has been felled, and agricultural encroachment and illegal logging continue here and within other protected areas”. Genetics are not really on the side of the species either, as found in DNA tests: “Results suggested that there is a considerable low genetic diversity that existed within the population” (source). Well then. Cry if you still have tears left (ok, you are right, too dramatic).

Birding Lodges of the World: Birds and Breakfast, Costa Rica

Editor — Mon, 18 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Which bird species do you think is the biggest attraction to visitors of your lodge (please only name one species)? White-collared Manakin What is the name of your lodge, and since when has your lodge been operating? Birds and Breakfast, we have been operating since 2020 Collared Aracari How best to travel to your lodge? You can rent a car, get a private or a shared shuttle, 2.30 h from the Juan Santamaria airport. Golden-hooded Tanager What kind of services – except for accommodation and food – does your lodge offer to visiting birders? Bird feeders on the porch and in front of the downstairs rooms Private- guided tours to different bird habitats The Manakin Reserve: 34 h of Regenerated Forest What makes your lodge special? We are located next to the Children’s Eternal Rain Forest, the Largest Private Forest Reserve in Costa Rica, which joins many other protected areas around us. That’s why we have a high percentage of biodiversity and rare species of birds around. Amazing bird species away from the crowds. Rufous-tailed Jacamar What are the 10 – 20 most interesting birds that your lodge offers good chances to see? White–collared Manakin Black Hawk-Eagle Black-crown Antshrike Red-throated Ant-Tanager Bright-rumped Attila White-necked Jacobine Rufous-tailed Jacamar Chesnut-headed Oropendula Gartered Violaceous Trogon White-crowned Parrot White-tipped Sicklebill Olive-backed Euphonia Golden-hooded Tanager Masked Tityra Violet-headed Hummingbird Long-tailed Tyrant Fawn-throated Foliage-gleaner Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer Yellow-throated Euphonia Black-striped Sparrow What is the best time to visit your lodge, and why? From November through February, we are getting a lot of the migratory bird species from North and South America, and the weather is changing and transitioning from the green season to the driest season. Also, it is a good time as birds are eating quite a lot from the feeders and are very easy to photograph. Scarlet Macaw Is your lodge involved in conservation efforts? If yes, please describe them. We are part of a project to protect bird collisions with windows at lodges and houses. Protect of the land: We are currently using the forest next to us manakin trail to do natural walks with our clients. Is an area that is going to be protected forever, not developed or used for any other activity other than eco-tourism or biodiversity research. Also, we are monitoring the different species of wildlife on the property, using camera traps. Actively donating to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, 3% of every stay for the last 6 years to their conservation efforts, which involve the purchase of more land, environmental education, and research by giving a symbolic sticker. White-tipped Sicklebill What other suggestions can you give to birders interested in visiting your lodge? (for example, what to bring, how to prepare for the visit, etc.) We always recommend using rubber boots to get on the trail. If you don’t have any, we can lend ours. We have many different sizes. Natural Insect repellent is also a good idea to have while you get in the forest, while at the lodge is not that bad. We are a good distance from the bird feeder, so a 200mm to a 600mm lens is always good to have. If you’re joining one of our night walks, a macro lens is the best option. Yellow-throated Toucan Do you have activities for non-birders? If so, please describe. We can recommend and redirect you to some local tours, like coffee, chocolate or adventure tours (rafting, ziplining, or cannoning) Hotsprings Common Squirrel-cuckoo If any reader of 10,000 Birds is interested in staying at your lodge, how can they best contact you? e-mail: info@birdsandbreakfast.com Tel: +506 8436 5642 Gartered Violaceous Trogon Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers of 10,000 Birds? We are a birding lodge in the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica at the foothills of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, around 600 msnm elevation, so it is the perfect location for species that migrate from the highlands to the lowlands and vice versa. There are a few trails for birding walks around the lodge where you can find interesting species. We are a couple of Costa Ricans passionate about conservation and wildlife, who started this project during a world pandemic in a wooden house to attract people who are into birds. We have a small library about wildlife where you can read and take a good cup of coffee on the terrace while birdwatching. All photos by Fabio Araya, Co-owner of Birds & Breakfast

No Bird Left Behind… Except on Mars?

Kai Pflug — Mon, 18 May 2026 07:12:34 +0000

Billionaires dream of colonizing Mars. Earth’s real residents—the birds—face shrinking forests, drying wetlands, warming oceans, and a deluge of plastic. And they have no private spaceship. In the local park, a tree sparrow feeds her chicks, a bulbul chats with his neighbors, and a magpie-robin alternates between sweet song and ugly noises. They have no plan B, just this one planet. And us, which is not especially reassuring. So while humans invest in space tourism, birds remind at least some of us that Earth is non-negotiable. The real adventure is protecting the world we have. Flying rockets are no substitute for flying birds. Note: “This post was partly inspired by Jobi Riccio’s song Wildfire Season, particularly these lines: I’ve been having a hard time this weekThe smoke is so thick and the news is so bleakAnd the richest in the history of manKeep talking about space like it’s the promised landWhile records break and waters riseAnd we’re hunted by the hands of time

Three Photos: Trumpets over the Desert

Editor — Sun, 17 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Photos of Sandhill Cranes taken by Kelly Isley in Wilcox, Arizona in January 2025…

Source

Birding Brochure English, Part 9: Mixed Flocks

Kai Pflug — Sun, 17 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Mixed flocks are a staple of tropical birding and are usually described with enthusiasm. We hope to encounter several active mixed flocks, providing exciting birding opportunities. What it means: If we find a flock, there will be many birds moving quickly, allowing only brief views. Mixed flocks are often most enjoyable once they are over. Photo: Blue-winged Minla…

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Australian Magpies in Victoria

Clare M — Sat, 16 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

This post is republished in our “From the Archives” series, featuring highlights of our vast back catalogue of more than 10,000 birding-related posts published over the last 15 years or so. Late last year I mentioned the presence of Australian Magpies around Broome. There is a variation in the plumage of Australian Magpies across Australia and as such they looked different in Victoria. Whenever I walked from Foster to Fish Creek or Foster to Toora I encountered several family groups of Australian Magpies. They were not always cooperative when I wanted to photograph them, but I did manage to capture their plumage from most angles over several days. The significant difference between Broome’s Australian Magpies and those in the south of Australia is the presence of a completely white back in the south. Australian Magpie I was able to capture some photographs of a juvenile Australian Magpie. The plumage was mostly grey, but already the white back was clearly defined. Juvenile Australian Magpie On warmer days I sometimes encountered Australian Magpies “sun-bathing”. We have observed several bird species displaying this characteristic of spreading their wings out wide on hot days. Australian Magpie “sunbathing” I was grateful to never encounter any aggressive behaviour towards me by any Australian Magpies in Victoria. In fact I have never been attacked by an Australian Magpie anywhere!

‘Tis a Birding Paradise: Tissa, Sri Lanka

Luca — Sat, 16 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Tissamaharama, or Tissa as it is known by most, is a small town on Sri Lanka’s southwestern coast often used as a jumping-off point for excursions to Yala or Bundala National Parks. Yet the town itself deserves at least a whole day’s worth of birding as well, as a number of great birds can be found here. This includes some which you are unlikely to come across elsewhere on a trip to the island. The single most desired bird in Tissa is the White-naped Woodpecker. There is a stakeout for this bird that is used by all the tour companies but I could not determine where it was. However, half by chance I was approached by an elderly man who asked me if I wanted to see woodpeckers and sure enough I had a pair in my bins a few minutes later. I didn’t obtain good views as they appeared to be unusually skittish, but this bird is impressive either way, the long neck giving it some similarity to a dinosaur. White-naped Woodpecker The woodpecker is one of the few birds in Tissa that lives on dry ground as the town is largely surrounded by wetlands. These produce beautiful settings in places, especially where huge trees emerge from the water with their branches dropping from the weight of thousands of Indian Flying Foxes roosting. These wetlands attract a great number of birds as well, one of my favourites being Cotton Pygmy-Goose. This small beast is pretty hard to find, but just like the African Pygmy-Goose – one of my favourite birds in southern Africa – when you do, they are really fun to watch. Cotton Pygmy-Goose (photo by Glen Fergus) Another great bird here is Watercock. The bright spikey shield on the male’s bill (clearly trying to compete with the Knob-billed Ducks which are also occasionally around) is a real show-stopper. The birds can be exceedingly hard to see but their calls are often heard from the dense tangles. The only male I ever saw was flying over the reedbeds, its red shield glowing in the evening sun. Watercock (photo by Tisha Mukherjee) Tissa is a fun place to explore given the pretty scenery and high bird activity. Since the wetlands are all surrounded by semi-urban or at least densely populated rural areas, most places are also easy to reach. This offers lots of opportunities to explore and find some interesting birds.