Avian sighting - Red-bearded Bee-eater (Another Shoot out between the Coolpix P1000 and Fuji XT-2 Camera)

A beautiful male Red-bearded Bee-eater was following me along the back stretch of Japanese Garden Bukit Tinggi. The closest it came to me was about 50-60 ft where it perch for the longest time for me to dabble with both of my cameras So another shoot-out between my Coolpix P1000  in comparison with my Fuji XT-2 setup.

The first three photos  were shot with the Fuji XT-2 cropped to full frame at Tv1/60s F5.6 auto ISO2500 from a distance of below 60ft away. 

The following 4 pictures below were shot with the Nikon P1000 in the same location in full frame with the camera resting on my tripod gimbal arm. Because of its good reach and condusive lighting & background; for once the pictures came out quite perfect. I must says the P1000 performed very well if not better than my XT-2 this time round.  Please note that I have to sharpened my Jpeg file and post processed the color and contrast to all the photos.

The potrait shot at focus range of 3000mm. P1000  shows the advantage of getting a more detail picture. Still it is a bit soft to dSLR standard if you blown it 1:1 ; Caveat  with post processing and sharpening it is acceptable. Again I am saying with the right condition, static bird shooting  at close distance of 50-60 ft it can match my Fuji XT-2 set up.

 Later I encountered a Black -thighed Falconet which I witness its hunting prowness. It will swooped right over me in deadly speed to grab butterflies at the Lantana flowers outcrop at the carpark edge where I was standing below whilst looking for any of the migrating  flycatchers or warblers. This happen several time. It will peel of the wings and spew it as it floated down; then only it will feed on the body. Food must be scarced in the month of January...............

The above four photos were shot with the P1000 from a distance of  90-100 ft. I got plenty of time to play with the setting Exposure compensation and AF setting etc. Against the clear blue sky and foregound branch it was quite difficult to get focussed picture of the bird and I only hope some will turn out sharp. These are some of the best shots.

Below pictures was shot with my   XT-2  with  XF100-400mm lense. If you blow up to 1:1 the image is softer compared P1000 from the same distance..... until Fuji can come out with a 400-600mm f4-5.6 lense my Fuji set-up is in a disadvantage when shooting at such distance.

Fuji XT-2 Cropped to full frame.

BEE-EATER 4/4 - Red-bearded Bee-eater

Red-bearded Bee-eater

Time to hit the Old Pumhouse road fellow birders if you have not sighted this bee eater resident. This my first sighting... lifer for me up close and personal. There were two couples and I think they do give out growling call and its really loud and weird. Who says they are quiet guys.

It was about 10.30am walking back to the Gate about 100m after the square water tank stumble upon them and with the glorious sunshine managed to get some good shots at about 25 ft out. It stayed for more than 10-15mins. Met The Yap family on their morning walk and talked about it. No fellow birders thought.

Many bee-eaters are social creatures of open country of dense Asian jungles such as the wonderful Red-bearded Bee-eater. Nearly all the family 26 nos are assigned to the genus Merops but the Red-bearded Bee-eater of Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra & Borneo is in the genus Nyctornis (as is the more northern Blue-bearded Bee-eater N. athertoni in SE Asia; the purple-headed Celebes Bee-eater Meropogon forsteni is the other non-Merops oddity). These are quiet forest birds found in pairs. Most bee-eaters have spiky tail extensions but Nyctornis does not instead a fan tail for emergency stop in mid air when hunting for flying insects.

 

BEE-EATER 3/4 - Chestnut-head Bee-eater

Chestnut-head Bee-eater

 

Another migrant from up north from India. In Peninsula they are found in Thailand down to Penang and fewer further down in Ipoh If you are in Penang you must see the colony congregate at the hill trees in Kek Lok Si temple Air Hitam in the evening.

 

BEE-EATER 2/4 -Blue-throated Bee-eater

Blue-throated Bee-eater

 

The bird is one of the migratory bee eater that breed in Singapore and the Malay peninsula in April-September, then strangely migrates to Indonesia thereafter. At the time when they leave, the Blue-tailed Bee-eater arrives. They are probably the only bird to breed here and migrate away during the non-breeding season. They migrate in small groups of not more than 15

Blue-throated Bee-eaters forage over the canopy of lowland forest, but also over mangroves, and relatively open habitats such as grasslands, marshes, beach scrub and even gardens and urban areas. Blue-throated

 

BEE-EATER 1/4 - Blue-tailed Bee eater

 Blue-tailed Bee-eater

The specie are back to peninsula from the month of Oct when the rainy season starts. The BTB have a distinct black mask and red eyed Chin yellow with rufous patched throat. It has two central tails elongated to sharp point when matured/adult

Additional photos from my Sg Balang Muar Trip October 2017.