I have not seen the Olive-winged Bulbul for quite awhile. The trees at the temple hotspot of Maxwell hill Taiping were fruiting well in March attracting plenty of frugivorous birds especially the many bulbuls
A beautiful Hooded Pitta has arrived at TBNSA port. The regular Blue-winged Pitta , Orange-headed thrush and Siberian Blue Robin are the laggards this 2025. These birds appearance are regular here almost every year. A female Yellow-rumped Fc (winter visitor ) was also doing scanty feeding at the port flying in and out without perching in the open.
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| Yellow rumped |
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| Little Green |
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| Common Flameback |
Barred Eagle Owl is a common sighting in suburb parkland and pocket garden in cities in Malaysia. This juvenile bird was seen in my housing estate garden park in the early evening near my house in Ayer Panas. At that time while I was in my porch I notice there were rowdy bird harrassing calls in neighbor fruit trees. I suspected there must be bird of prey around so I venture out to look for it. Then I saw a bird bird flew across my house to a huge Raintree with smaller birds chasing it. Later managed to sight it perch on a horizontal branch.
Juvenile birds are more approachable and this bird is the same and it came down to a lower branch about 25 feet from us. Luckily my curious neighbor was there to help me to hold the torch light to flash from offset position so as not to get "red eyes" photos. After shooting for 10- 15 minutes we left it there ...................
Happy New Year 2023 Spent half a day birding at Ole Gombak road and got to lured this resident beauty into the open to its favorite plant. Passerine migrants of sort have been late coming as the weather changed dramatically. The dry condition will bring them in I hope.
I was at UK for a short session because I was asked to leave by Eddie with Genting Bantuan Polis tagging along. The only migrant bird I saw there was a Tiger Shrike.
At another site I get to shoot a pair of Golden-throated which were very vocal calling nonstop. I patiently waited until one of them flew down to eye level and walla got some better shots but partially hidden. It is a submontane bird upto 900m asl and I have not encounter it in lowland forest.
I was in Langkap to search for lifer in the coming migration period. It was a surprising find to shoot both the Lesser and greater Coucal at close range. Many of the roadside reeds and undergrowth were been prune and cut down So it was no surprise birds keep to the remaining areas. After a short drizzle in the morning helps my finds of these big birds of Chui Chak's padifields. Birds will come out to dry themselves.
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| If you are fast you can get a shot with its feed for a quick seconds before it gulped its prey. |
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| You have to compose your shot from a back perspective or side view to get nice features |
In central Peninsula we cannot get the Short-toed Coucal It can be seen in the southern part ie Panti Johor.
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| Lesser Coucal |
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| Greater Coucal |
My Fuji XT-2 was returned from YL without any repair. The nearest Fuji Service Centre is now based in Singapore and it cost a bomb just to repair my camera flash mount of about RM1000. So I say forget it and please return it as I can live with it without flash. It still function but in bright background open field birding; my picture exposure can go hairwire with burnout pictures I do not really know why.
You better think twice if you want to invest in Fuji gear as there is no local service centre in KL anymore. Maybe I will be moving to Olympus since I was given a OM-D1 Mk3 as a parting gift. But still waiting for an used 300mm f4 lens.
