Avian Sighting in August 2018 - Lesser Shortwing

The Lesser Shortwing is back at the port in Ulu Kali in the month of August 2018.  I was alone that weekend to my surprise. Pak Long was not around to chitchat as I walk about the short stretch of road between the gate and port.  

Bird activity was in a doldrum in Ulu Kali for the past weeks or so. After seeing Vic's posting of the female LS I wanted to try to see my elusive one. Instead the male was the consolation at the port. At least I manage some better pictures this time 

The other good place to see this bird as reported by Dr Amar is in Cameron..........that is another story. 









Shortwing are like Wrenbabbler or certain babblers of Black-capped and Short-tailed which feed at ground level hopping around and flipping leaves to look for grubs. They are quite skittish in that sense and photographying them can be a chore in dim lighting as you be shooting below 1/60s. With good IS lens stability lens or body nowaday, high ISO control and electronic shutter like my Fuji setup it is quite dandy to get better resolution picture of this LS. 

Avian post-nesting - Large Niltava and its fledglings

The resident pair of Large Niltava have been very productive this year at the port of Ulu Kali Genting. I was surprised that there were 3 juveniles coming out to feed at different time. At times the parent female will accompany the female juvenile at the port.

There were two female individual  and a male sibling that came out to feast on the mealworms . The parent male is not too happy the male juvenile still hanging around and every time it want to feed at the branch;  the parent male will chase away the latter from the port. However when the female one  come out, the parent  will not chase it way. From this behaviour I can only assume that the male offspring is being  force away to find its own territorial spot as the alpha male want the harlem to itself......




Female juvenile no 1

I only managed to shoot the male juvenile on 2 occasion in the open. Even then it was for less than 10-20 seconds. Most of the time it was a hit and run with  the parent ever ready to buzz it away. Poor thing.

Female juvenile no 2