Formosa and the Long-tailed Mountain Nymph

It was an early morning at the end of summer

John surprisingly found a tail-feather of a Taiwan blue magpie near his house.

Collected by Robert Swinhoe in the 19th century, it is endemic to Taiwan. The local name “Long-tailed Mountain-Nymph” poetically describes the sight of this bird in flight as its white-tipped tail feathers flow behind it.

Today, the holotype found by Swinhoe is exhibited in the Natural History Museum, London.

Feathers symbolizes

Bird feathers symbolize different things in different cultures, and they create connections between nature and people, people and culture.

When “Man of the hole”, the Loneliest man in the World, was found dead in his hammock and covered in feathers of a macaw, we collected blue magpie tail feathers, wrote articles, looked back at history, and thought about the future.

Life is a cycle of ends and starts.

Photo credit: TakaoClub.com / Taipei Times /biodiversitylibrary.org

Illustrator: J Fenwick Lansdowne