STARLING 5/7 - Rosy Starling

Another lifer 466 in Bandung Indonesia when I was visiting the place.


It is a myna-size starling with pinkish plumage, blackish head, wings, tail and vent. Juvenile has pale sandy greyish-brown upperparts with darker wings and tail, paler underparts and yellowish bill. Rosy Starling are vagrant migrant and   rarely seen in Peninsula thought there are common record sighting in Singapore as their last stop. There is sighting in Chuping Perlis as recent as December 2016. There is also regular sighting as down south to Kuala Gula. In India or Sri Lanka there are gregariously aplenty

The bird prefers open fields, shrubland and coastal bushland. They often feed insects  on the ground level amongst mynas and other birds  


Do you know that - In Xinjiang, China, farmers used to use insecticide to eliminate locust, which is costly and polluting. In the 1980s, experts found that rosy starlings which fly to Xinjiang farms and feed on locusts could be used for control instead. The experts begin to build artificial nests to attract rosy starlings, an effort reported to be so successful that the number of locusts was insufficient to feed the birds, causing many juveniles die for hunger. By the 2000s many Xinjiang farms greatly decreased the usage of insecticide. 

My latest entry 16 January 2017. Sighting was in Pulau Indah.  Five birds were seen here. This is my first time seeing the Rosy Starling in the wild. What bird luck. Thank TK Ang for the head-up!

GROUND BIRD 10/16 - Green Peafowl

A lifer in Bandung Java.

The green peafowl was widely distributed in South East Asia in the past from eastern and north-eastern India, northern Myammar and southern China, extending through Laos, and Thailand into Vientnam, , Peninsula Malaysia and the islands of Java. It is hope that perhilitan repopulate these beautiful birds   also called Java subspecies  to Taman Negara amongst the Argus................

In peninsula it is a difficult bird to see and thought to be near extinct but apparently   there still are unconfirmed sightings in Southern Thailand and border still. Green peafowls are found in a wide range of habitats but in Malaysia they should be in only in primary forest,  away from human disturbance. Proximity to water appears to be an important factor.

THRUSH 8/10 - Dusky Thrush

Dusky Thrush has a dark brown back and rump; the face, breast, and flank spots rump are black and the belly and undertail are white. Naumann's thrush in comparison has a paler brown back and head; the face, breast, flank spots and rump are reddish, and the belly and undertail are white. The female is fairly similar to the male, but immatures have a weaker patterning. The male dusky thrush has a simple fluted or whistling song.

This species is strongly migratory bird, wintering south to southeast Asia, principally in China and neighbouring countries. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe. The first and last sighting of this bird in Malaysia was way back in  December 2008 somewhere in Fraser Hill.  It is rare to see this migrant winter visitor than the orange-headed thrush here in Peninsula Malaysia.

I got my lifer in Kobe Japan in one of the many park there . I was lucky to see it  and manage some shots with my telezoom  Fuji XF100-400mm which is my  companion during my holidays overseas when there be chance  for birding on the side.

WATERBIRD 54/60 - Common / Eurasian Coot

The coot breeds across much of the Old World on freshwater lakes and ponds. It occurs and breeds in Europe, Asia ,Australia, and Africa. The species has recently expanded its range into New Zealand. It is resident in the milder parts of its range, but migrates further south and west from much of Asia in winter as the waters freeze. 

Coot is the common name for any of the medium-sized, duck-like aquatic birds comprising the genus Fulica of the rail family Rallidae, characterized by typically dark plumage, toes that are lobed with a membrane, a dark head with a short, wide beak that in many species extends from the base to the forehead as a prominent, flattened, fleshy frontal shield or other decoration on the forehead. Coots have predominantly black plummage, and, unlike many of the rails, they are usually easy to see, often swimming in open water. They are close relatives of the moorhen. They are eleven extant species. 

In the case of Malaysia Coot is a rarity to see and considered a vagrant. The last visit recorded was in Feb  2010 in Papar Sabah. The one that I got was shot on the river in the middle Kyoto city. That day I did not bother to bring my telezoom EF100-400mm so i have to rely only using my Fuji XF18-55mm  lens for crying out loud. The Coot came near to 20 ft from the river bank so I was fortunate to get some record shots. Well a lifer is a lifer.