#gecinulus rafflesii

[birdstudies]

July 23, 2024 - Olive-backed Woodpecker (Gecinulus rafflesii) Found in parts of Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Singapore, these woodpeckers live in lowland and hill forests and mangroves. They eat ants and termites, foraging alone and in pairs on fallen logs, trees, saplings, snags, and stumps. Breeding from March to May, as well as October in Borneo, pairs excavate nests in trees. Both parents incubate the eggs. They are classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN as their population is declining due to habitat loss.

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 32 Thoughts

Chapter 32 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group! CW: Bugs under the cut!

Like a grandpa reassuring his worried kid. Tang Sanzang might technically be his Shifu, but he’s also still technically younger than him.

Love to see the woodcutter also get a fashion poem!

From the little note by Anthony C. Yu that Mars is revered as the God of Fire it is interesting to see that different religions can bring forth similar deities and associations.

I wonder if they couldn’t just have lied about where they are from or where they intend to go.

The Day Sentinel feels so like a player who was put on the role of an NPC after the reveal.

Thank you Sun Wukong for stating how fragile Tang Sanzang is. Or rather how whiny. Like in the very beginning it was understandable, everything was new and scary, but by now he should have gained at least some confidence in his disciples.

Half the journey you say? Looking at the chapter number, are you sure about that?

Yippie, bug! I’m not certain it is a mole cricket specifically though. Attempting to figure out the species from the Original Chinese once again with Google translate has yielded the term cricket as a translation, though the image search presents the family Cicadidae, so a type of cicada instead.

I’d say both kinds of bug may be possible, but specifically a mole cricket I’m sure it is not. Those may be native to Asia and they can fly, very well even, but they are nocturnal and hardly outside spending most of their life in tunnels underground. They do look pretty adorable though with their mole claws looking appendages and big ‘ol eyes.

And next a lovely birb! I’m quite partial to these little animal poems and transformation shenanigans.

Once more my translation comparison effort has yielded the general family of woodpecker, but no specific one, so let’s see what we have on details for this specimen and if we can’t wager an educated guess.

We have a red beak, black feet and approximately green feathers from the Original Chinese. Except no woodpecker has a red beak, so what is probably meant is red colouration on the head! It may also be a relatively small species of woodpecker as mentioned later in the text. My best guess is that it might be a Gecinulus rafflesii aka Olive-backed Woodpecker, who are native to Southeast Asia and can be found in mountain forests.

This small fine fella.

Though note it is specifically the males that have a red crest, females have a black crest. They’re still very pretty though.

But that guess is very flimsy at best, there is a huge variety of woodpeckers and just not enough detail in the text to really pinpoint something even remotely definitive.

Wow, not sure how to see this. On the one hand Tang Sanzang shows such trust and confidence that Zhu Bajie wouldn’t lie to him, but on the other hand that’s just because he believes him too dumb for that.

Awww, Gold Horn and Silver Horn remember and count the horse!

Whenever I read ‘little fiends’ I imagine a variety of DnD goblin-sized little guys.

Ah, Zhu Bajie can be quite clever! It really shines a light on how the nickname Idiot can be interpreted ‘cause he’s not stupid as such. He’s just weak-willed.