RAPTOR & ACCIPITER 7/34 - Steppe Eagle

 

Steppe Eagle
Thanks to Terence Ang & JT

The Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a bird of prey. It is about 2-3 ft from head to tail. It has a wingspan of at least 5 ft - 7ft. Females, weighing upto 5 kg are slightly larger than males.   It was once considered to be closely related to the non-migratory Tawny Eagle(Aquila rapax) and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific. They were split based on pronounced differences in morphology and anatomy.

The Steppe Eagle breeds from Romania east through the south Russian and Central Asian steppes to Mongolia. The latter are the one that visit Malaysia and SEA countries.

This is a large eagle with brown upperparts and blackish flight feathers and tail. This species is larger and darker than the Tawny Eagle, and it has a pale throat which is lacking in that species.
Immature birds are less contrasted than adults, but both show a range of variation in plumage colour. The eastern race A. n. nipalensis is larger and darker than the European and Central Asian A. n. orientalis.
Large numbers are seen at certain places such as Khare in Nepal during migration of Nov & December.

The Steppe Eagle's diet is largely fresh carrion of all kinds, but it will kill rodents and other small mammals up to the size of a hare, and birds up to the size of partridges. It will also steal food from other raptors. Like other species the Steppe Eagle has a crop in its throat allowing it to store food for several hours before being moved to the stomach.

The call of the Steppe Eagle sounds like a crow barking, but it is rather a silent bird. The Steppe Eagle is the national animalof Egypt.

RAPTOR & ACCIPITER 6/35 - Eastern Marsh Harrier

         Eastern Marsh Harrier

The Eastern Marsh Harrier is a bird of prey belonging to the marsh harrier group of harriers. It was previously considered to be conspecific with the Western Marsh Harrier but is now usually classified as a separate species. i managed to shoot one with a juicy field rat in Batang Tiga with JT.

Eastern Marsh Harriers are migrants to Malaysia  mashland, and padi fields The breeding range covers north-east China, Mongolia and south-east Siberia   with small numbers in northern Japan.There is some overlap with Western Marsh Harrier around Lake Baikal and interbreeding has taken place.





The wintering range includes southern China, Taiwan Korea, southern Japan, north-east India, Bangladesh and South-east Asia as far south as the Philippines, Borneo and Sumatra.Large numbers of birds migrate along the Chinese coast with thousands passing through sites like Beida during the autum.

CUCKOOSHRIKE 2/3 - Javan Cuckooshrike

Javan cuckooshrike

Thought I have listed this one in my blog when I sighted in Fraser's Hill few years back. This one is a montane bird upto 2,500m . I have yet to come across picture record of the Javan in Cameron though.

The other subspecies is the Lesser CS which is more common at lowland broadleaved jungle like Sg Congkak Ulu Langat. Anyway the Javan is a large bird ; size slightly short of a foot. It likes to hang around on high canopy like sentinel of the hill le. Mostly grey in color with a dark grey eye mask and darker wing coat. Feeds on insects especially moths and also fruits and berries.

They breed and nest form the months of Mar-May; building cup like nest on high canopy of 15 m. So tough to see.

This female came very close to me & Yen during a outing at Ulu Kali. It was attracted by the playback of the Minla I was calling. It also responded with its scrolling yerrking call for a period of time. Size a footer. It can be mistaken for a house crow from its silhouette looking from afar. The male have darker feathers to its head and body minus the barring

CUCKOOSHRIKE 1/3 - Lesser Cuckooshrike

Lesser Cuckooshrike

 

A lifer for the day in Sg Congkak Ulu Langat. Greyish bird with bar breasted for the female The male is the plainer guy this time round.

BARBET 10/12 - Black-browed Barbet

Black-browed Barbet

 

This is Barbet no 10 and a lifer. It was hanging out with a pair of Fire-tufted Luckily it was not shy and feed on the berries without any concern as I and Lim kept snapping at it for a good 10-15 mins . It got tired of eating or is it our flashing.... and just perched on a branch hidden inconspiciously. We left for Awana trail to try to catch the Trogon

BARBET 9/10 - Blue-eared Barbet

Blue-eared Barbet

A terrible shot from 40ft up. The bunch of them feeding on ficus fruit high up.

Size is terribly small slight 6 inches and commonly found in highlands upto 1500m. The Malaysian one has black eared covert with red patches; black eye band and black collared

May 2019 Bukit Tinggi Pahang 

BARBET 8/12 - Sooty Barbet

Sooty Barbet

Amongst the barbets in my collection this is by far the dullest and plainest .....kind of the ugly duckling. Looks like a crow but brown in color and half the size. It name changed when it splitted form the Borneo Brown Barbet of late.