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The Orange-bellied Leafbird

The Orange-bellied Leafbird or Chloropsis hardwickii

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 (or the luck to stumble upon them, or see where other photographers are staked out). My fave tree was cut down two years ago in Lions Nature Education Centre

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