Pigeon 9/10 - Cinnamon-headed Green Pigeon (Lifer 581/688)

These pigeon are gregarious roosting in a pair  or a group of many. They like to hang out perch high on barren tree away from human. We found  many colony along route 63 / Muadzam-Rompin trunk road nearing Simpang Tiga Leban Chondong or the off road of Kanpung Lanjut to Kuala Rompin.

The name "Cinnamon headed" follows the color of the male bird in a distinct bright maroon with patchy pink & orange tones. The female is plain green like the thick-billed  and others species but with slight different in color array of their green tones. Their red beak is unique with broad white tip.

This is coastal bird mainly seen in Swampland, Bakau forest and Scrub land  along the east coast of Peninsula from Dungun Rompin Mersing right down to Johor Bahru. Usually if sighted near the road it is advisable to shoot from the car first before embarking from the blind side of the road as the birds are skittish and wary of approaching human. In our case the birds were 50m away from us unfortunately and we approach thru the fringe tree undergrowth and shrubs.

Next to find  the Large Green Pigeon in Melaka/Janda Baik...........
 

Swift-Swiftlet 8/12 - Germain's Swiftlet (Record 580/688)

I always thought this Swiftlet is a migrant bird but actually common resident There are several subspecies of this bird depending on the color texture of its rump and bottom body. The rump with paler gray whitish feathers with blackish shaft streaking is its main id. The wing line is very straight at its wing end primaries. Size wise its about 11-12cm is small amongst the other swiftlets names migrant Himalayan and Waterfall Swiftlet which I hope to see next

I was never good in BIF shooting This time with my buddies guiding me my I set my Fuji XT5  to all focus point and limited focusing distance to infinity ; then setting to at least 1/2000-4000 speed max multi frame speed  I manage some decent  handheld shots. Sometime I envy two buddies who were shooting with Nikon Z series where shooting BIF with ease.....Should I change system.

 Its habitat is all terrain whether it is forest or agri land  towards open land like in Rompin over swamp flats and scrub land, sea isle upto 1300 asl.

Next target Swiftlet that I wish to see is the Waterfall Swift; Glossy Swiftlet with its bat like flight and the migrant Himalayan Swiftlet &Fork-tailed Swift

Babbler 19/23 - Scaly-crowned Babbler (New 579/688)

 Actually I have shot this babbler before but lost my photo during migration to Blogspot umpteen years ago. This time we were lucky in our recent trip to Rompin forest reserve when a threesome came out to greet us in the middle storey as they responded to our callback. 

It average 15cm in size which is smaller than its sibling Rufous-crowned coming in at 18cm/8 inches. Beside that the different between the two is the rufous crown of the Scaly has black speckle ; its breast is pale white without streak whilst the legs are pale  rather then black.

There are found on lowland broadleaves forest upto 800m feeding and playing at low to middle storey level. The Rufous is more often recorded sighted in lower lying (upto 400m asl) forest jungle.