Avian Field Report 15/100 Jan 2017 - Taman TAR Ampang

This is my first outing for the year 2017. With the news  of rare sighting in Ampang; I drop by but as usual amongst many of us;we were 3 weeks  late from our busy family affairs and work to get a glimpse of jambu fruit dove there.

Met my good acquaintance Zhong from Setiawan and the fellow Tokki birders. The Black-headed bulbuls dominated the fruiting tree chasing away the smaller birds.



A solitary Blue-throated Bee eater  sallying for insects at the higher canopy. Once a while the bulbul will chased it away from time to time.









Once the Gold-whiskered Barbet arrived every bird kept their distance.

Further up the trail a pair of Greater Flameback Woodie were enjoying their own company away from the hustle at the fruiting tree.

Plenty of the common bulbuls taking turn to feed on the berries

I notice that the depth of field of the XF100-400mm at its f5.6 widest aperture is very good with enough details from head to tail as the pictures showed. Sad to say the price of the lens had increased so much to RM8,000 plus. 

The Asian Fairy Bluebird (male) top picture and the female below are currently the star attraction here. It came close to 25-30 ft from us.

The Black-winged Flycatcher Shrike is a rarity to see here too 

DUCK 8/15 - Common Teal

Common Teal is recorded as a Vagrant to Malaysia.............So far there is no photo record sighting in Peninsula but we hope for the best in coming years after the Comb duck was sighted last December 2016 in Byram Penang. 

This winter visitor , from northern Europe and Eastern Siberia is common to reach India rather than SEA where they flock on sheltered wetlands, jheels, marshes. Largely vegetarian they look for grains, shoots of rice, marsh plants and aquatic invertebrates in thick muddy areas. 

Male is penciled greyish, chestnut head, broad metallic green band running backward from eye to nape. Tri-colored wing  - black, green and buff. Female is mottled dark, light brown, pale underparts, black and green supercilium.

Size wise it  is small duck at 38 cm about the same as the commoner cotton pygmy.


My take was in Kyoto Japan while holidaying in the month of December 2016 

Avian Field Report 14/100 August 2016- Kemensah off Zoo Negara

Kemensah can be a good place for surprises if you got the bird luck. This juvenile white morph was sighted flying pass me and then perch 40 feet away eyeing me from afar. I got to manual focus thru the foreground foliage. It may be a new fledgling (no long tail) and has yet to mate which it will once a female get to woo it and it will be  for life monogamously.



There are plenty of Mahang trees fruiting here and  as well in Hulu Langat. Matter of  fact all over peninsula. Bringing out plenty fruit eaters like Bulbul, Flowerpeckers, White-eyes and Sunbirds. No pigeons though at Kemensah.

RAPTOR ACCIPITER 27/36 - Lesser Kestrel

It is a small bird of prey about a foot long in length . It looks very much like the larger Common Kestrel but has proportionally shorter wings and tail. It shares a brown back and barred grey underparts with the larger species. The male has a grey head and tail like male Common Kestrels, but lacks the dark spotting on the back, the black Malar Stripe ie a line angling back from the birds chin, separating the cheek from the throat stripe, The clear different is the a grey patches in the wings of the Lesser.

The Lesser Kestrel is a vagrant and less common to see in Peninsula Malaysia than the Common Kestrel which the latter being regularly sighted in Chuping Perlis in the migrating period from Nov- March.

Record sighting was just last  Jan- Feb 2015 at Batang Tiga Melaka. My catch was a bird in captivity and shot in the streets of Kobe Japan.