If you go down to Lions today....(Lions Nature Education Centre in Sai Kung, or actually many other locations in Hong Kong)...look into the Coral trees long enough and I am sure that you will see this splendid bird, the aptly named Orange Bellied leaf bird.
Here he is -its the colourful male - sticking his tongue out at me.
It is called Chloropsis hardwickii. And the scientific name commemorates the English naturalist Thomas Hardwicke. Who OF COURSE was an English soldier that worked for the East India Company...so some good came of their pillaging and looting of India....and he rose to major-general, and was in India from 1777 to 1823.
He collected numerous specimens of natural history and had them painted by Indian artists. Unfortunately most paintings were made from dead specimens. When he left India, he had the largest collection of drawings of Indian animals ever formed by an individual, and the collection bequeathed to the British Museum consists of 4,500 illustrations!
Anyway....i love finding this bird, and once you know their habits you can quite often find them on the same trees, if you have the patience to wait.
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