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Report from our newly appointed Ornithological Correspondent in the Lamma Birders Society (Lamma-BS):
"This world-exclusive photo of a most unusual pair of birds (see Illustration 1) - imaged on Lamma Island yesterday, April 29, 2005 - has been submitted anonymously to our esteemed society today, April 30, 2005. It shows a bird species rarely ever observed or photographed in its natural habitat. Their diminutive size of typically less than 2.5 inches in height might be a main reason for this scarcity of observational data.
This exotic creature seems to be beloved by local children and bird fanciers alike, even though their songs have never been heard or recorded. They might even be songless, or they could be reserving their singing solely for their secret, still undescribed mating rituals, but this is pure, unscientific speculation at this early stage of research and we can't indulge in this here at all.
Not shy at all, these birds seem to like the often disharmonic and high-pitched sounds of a typical Chinese opera orchestra, congregating in little flocks close to the football pitch in YSW right now, seemingly attracted by the availability of many local foods in the little carnival outside the bamboo arena. They can only be observed at dusk and at night, but only during the 5-day Tin Hau festival opera performances here every year.
Afterwards, they migrate to other parts of the Hong Kong area. It's been speculated that they follow the opera troupe around, but this can't be proven yet. But there seem to be quite a few superficial similarities to the giggly, enthusiastic, starry-eyed flocks of Chinese opera groupies - all young local Chinese girls - who follow their idols from performance to performance. But these possible correlations also can't be proven yet. Please ignore these somewhat flippant remarks.
Hearing the Chinese opera singers, especially the serenely lovely voice of the famous heroine Mui Suet See, seems to calm these lucky birds. Lulled by her beautiful singing, they get so tame that they allow themselves to be touched by locals & even tourists. Tough, very strangely, these birds feel sticky & soft to the touch. As expected, they've also been known to be highly averse to water, even staying out of the rain wherever possoble. It's even believed that a bath might do them serious harm, even though this hasn't been academically proven yet, for fear of harming these precious & rare creatures of beauty.
They like to perch on little wooden branches in a most unusual manner, the branch almost seeming to penetrate their back orifice, but this might be an optical illusion and should be disregarded.
The birds also appear to be flightless, as nobody has ever observed them airborne. Each bird seems to have a different pattern & colouring, even though green & red are the dominant plumage colours, with always fire-red eyes and tail (warnings for predators?).
Because of their frequent geographical proximity to Chinese Opera performances, this species has been colloquially dubbed "Chinese Opera Birds", with their proper Latin name and nomenclature not officially attributed yet."
Any additional information and observations from the readers are highly encouraged, even non-academic ones! Help to describe this ornithological treasure better, one more most precious addition to the amazing wealth of bio-diversity on our fair isle!
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