Wednesday, 14 April 2021

Reed Warbler 2/3 April 2021 - Black-browed Reed Warbler (lifer 545)

Shot in 1/800s still cannot freeze the bird in BIF

This one of the migrant Reed Warblers you can see in peninsula  Malaysia. For the past 10 years I have tried looking for it umpteen times in Malim Nawar and Langkap but in vain. Only this year I was lucky  to tick this lifer thanks to Sarav's tip off of its location. The bird is around still in the month of April to my surprise. 
The resident Oriental Reed Warbler
The resident Reed Warbler is the Oriental Reed Warbler. Photo above.

Black-browed is the common visitor

This fellow is quite friendly here as it fly in and out from the undergrowth shrubs and at the pond cattails reeds. Whenever its big cousin is there it will not come out. This is because the Oriental is bigger and stoutly body built - about 20cm as compared to the Black-browed coming in at less than 15cm or 6 inches. 

The Black-browed have a rather uniform black crown stripe & prominent white supercilium whilst its eye stripe is inconspicuously pale. Its beak is short and sharp.

The other migrant Reed Warbler you can see in Malaysia is the Manchurian which looks very similar to the Black Browed but with longer beak and more stout in size.

Meanwhile the Javan PH and Rusty-rumped Warbler have left the port for home I guess . Bon Voyage see you next year.....


Most of the time it will sulk behind the undergrowth like this. you must be ready for a shot when it come out in the open 

These photos were taken with a Olympus OMD-1 mark III & EF400mm DO f4 telephoto lens. I was shooting from a distance of 30-40 ft ISO200 1/800s f4-5.6 in clear sunning condition. As you can see I did not manage good resolution but rather flat details on the micro43 sensor. Nevertheless the photos are just good enough for ID and blogging. 


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