The family lives on the side of the mountain, and there are many insects and birds. During the day, various birds such as white-headed grebes, red-eared plovers, mountain doves, and black-faced noisy birds sing incessantly, and they can be seen flying up and down the hill bag from the window. There were also cicadas chirping — but I didn't see them at home, and I heard them far away.
Guangzhou is too hot. During the day, I live in an air-conditioned room and only wait for the cool breeze to go out for a walk at night. Fortunately, after nightfall, the animals did not fall asleep, and the night concert had just begun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Nighthawk: UFO has invaded our community! </h1>
One night in early summer, a strange sound of biubiubiubiubiu
I certainly don't believe that aliens can appear so blatantly with an effect that conforms to the stereotypes of Earthlings. This is either who plays with a toy gun at home or is a mysterious bird. Strangely enough, the sound seemed to be always above my head, and I walked on it, unable to hear which building or which tall white orchid tree it was coming from.
This sharp, eerie, rhythmic sound was particularly prominent at night, and when I got home I could still hear it was constantly biubiubiu, this time at about the same height, the distance seemed to be very far, but the sound was too recognizable to hear very clearly. However, recording it with a mobile phone is relatively small.
With the help of Big Guy One, it was finally confirmed that the sound came from the ordinary Nighthawk (Caprimulgus indicus). Nightjars, as the name suggests, are mainly active from late afternoon to night, and during the day they rest in hiding with excellent protective colors. They are good at flying, good at preying on insects in the air, and the street lights in the city can attract many refractive insects to fly around, which has become a favorite feeding place for nighthawks. Ordinary nighthawks are found in southeastern China, and because of their strange sound, they also enjoy a little fame in the news and on the Internet.
Ordinary nighthawks pretend to be stones or branches during the day, squinting their eyes to rest | Pictured from Wikimedia
There may also be another species of nighthawk in Guangdong and Hong Kong, the C. Lin Nighthawk ., affinis), but the cries sound more common to us non-professionals, and I may have rubbed shoulders with them several times, but never noticed them.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > swamp water frog: professional singer of the sewers</h1>
Surrounded by man-made streams and ponds, and lush vegetation next to the neighborhood, it is naturally an ideal place for frogs to live, and the sound of frogs rises and falls at night. It's not a chorus, each frog sings at a different rhythm, it's just chaotic, but that's how lively it is.
I guess female frogs are probably measured by their volume. Some male frogs specially lie in the sewer shaft (about tens of centimeters deep) and chirp, using the reflection of sound waves in the sewer to amplify the sound. People walking by will feel deafening.
Although the sounds of frogs are loud since childhood, I rarely see them as they really are. According to the second big guy, these sewer rock boys should be hylarana guentheri (swamp water frog), which is widely distributed from the south to the center of China, and mostly inhabits rice fields, ponds or puddles. However, it is said that due to the abuse of pesticides in the rural areas of the hometown, there are very few frogs in the farmland.
Pictured from the "Chinese Amphibian" information system
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > flower narrow-mouthed frog: mooing is not necessarily a cow or bullfrog</h1>
When I was about to fall asleep late at night, I often heard a low and loud "moo-moo- I heard this sound like a cow barking, thought it was a bullfrog, and once lamented that the biological invasion was really serious.
Later, the second big guy told me that there were not too many bullfrogs in Guangzhou, and the cow calls I heard were most likely made by a native frog, the Kaloula pulchra. Later I bumped into one during the day, compared the picture, and sure enough, it was!
Figure from https://www.activewild.com/
Its English name is banded bull frog (striped bullfrog), and it seems that I am not the only one who misunderstands it.
The flower narrow-mouthed frog has a rough temperament, a dull color, and some particles on the back, which is easy to be mistaken for a "toad". I reckon that of the so-called toads I've seen before, I'm afraid there are some flower frogs.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > crickets: low-key background musicians</h1>
In addition to the prominent calls of nighthawks and frogs, there is also the inconceptible sound of the ears, which is accustomed to the imperceptible sound of the insects. Common crickets in Guangzhou probably include Velarifictorus micado, Teleogryllus occipitalis, Tarbinskiellus portentosus, Gryllodes sigillatus, Gryllus bimaculatus and so on.
Mika fighting crickets, people use them more to fight crickets than to listen to insects| Figure from the network
The short-winged stove cricket is probably the one that chirps by the rural wood stove| Figure from the network
In fact, this article dragged on for a long time, and most of the sounds were heard in the early summer. As the weather grew hotter and even the night steamed, I stayed in the air-conditioned room all day, closing the doors and windows, and paid little attention to the loud mooing outside the window in the silence of the night.
Resources
1. Zoological Amphibians of China (Middle Volume).Beijing:Science Press.
2. The Biodiversity Committee of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2020, Catalogue of Life China: 2020 Annual Checklist, Beijing, China.
3. Bird Dictionary and Global Bird Encyclopedia[WeChat Mini Program].
4. Yin Lian,Fei Jialun,Lin Chaoying. Field Manual of Birds in Hong Kong and South China. Changsha:Hunan Education Press.]
5. Chinese amphibians. 2020. "Chinese Amphibians" Information System. Kunming, Yunnan Province, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Website: http://www.amphibiachina.org/.
The cover image comes from the web