CUCKOO 12/14 - Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo

 I like to thank fellow MNS birders Andy & Ang  for their guidance in my search of this lifer of mine . As you can see in my first photo there are 2 of them!!! at the site  in Kuala Selangor Jeram side. One was  with white  eye and the other has reddish one. This will be my second lifer of the year of 2015.

The HB Cuckoo looks almost the same as our resident - Little Bronze Cuckoo except that it has a more prominent brown eye stripe ala the Banded Bay and without the red eye-ring of the latter. Size wise they are the same at 6 inches or 15-16cm. 

The Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo is common throughout Australia preferring the drier open woodlands away from forested areas. It is a rare visitor/ vagrant to Peninsula (ie. a bird that strays off its typical migration course because of strong winds, which in this case, has blown it beyond the Indonesian islands during the austral winter (ie. May, June, July and August), from Australia to Indonesia. So now this cuckoo can be  seen from Singapore  to Pulau Burung Seberang Prai.  I am sure there are plenty of HB cuckoo  along the coastal plains of peninsula Malaysia ..........its a matter of going out to explore and search for it... a record year for 2015. Look for Mimosa vegetation in the open land which they make it their playground. Cuckoos have a common habit of impaling their preys on  thorny plants.  They usually hunt for hairy caterpillars amongst the lower ground shrubland.  Next is to see any of  Perak birders to report from their side. Koay what say u. BTW Madi fellow birder from KL(http://madibirder.blogspot.com) did sight one as far as  in the coastal side of  Bukit Keluang Trengganu in 2012.

Now is to wait for a Sacred Kingfisher to drop by .........fat hope  you'll say.

STARLING 4/6 - Black collared Starling

Since 2013 there were sightings by fellow MNS birders at Bukit Jelutong Shah Alam. Again threesome of 2 adult birds and a juvenile were seen foraging on the ground near the Pavilion recently. Like the Red Whiskered Bulbul; Black-collared Starling are feral (KL Bird Park do have them) or released caged birds. Starlings are an adaptive bird which can propagate easily in a suburban environment. It is recorded as a Malaysian bird in www.birdlist.org. Hopefully, they can establish a good size colony and be actually recognised as a permanent  resident of Malaysia. 

However, there is place in the north that you can see these birds in the wild is at Chuping Perlis namely the ex-sugar plantation and refinery.

The Asian Pied Starlings are already making a mark at Port Kelang Golf Club Selangor. There is more than a dozen of these gregarious birds there as we speak. My blogging buddy just informed me that he has also seen a few Black Collared  there too.


My take was in Xiamen China Dec 2014.

AVIAN SIGHTING 11/100 - Maroon Breasted Philentoma

 

The month of June 2015 the resident Maroon Breasted  Philentoma was very showy and has been attracted by the activities on the ground. As usual it stayed at higher storey for most of the encounter  but do come down to 10-15 ft in the undergrowth. This is a lifer male. Somewhat it reminds me of the  male Black & Crimson Oriole of the montane habitat ala Frasers which has a similar  striking  patch on its chest.

 

Below was a photo taken using my new Nikon P900 which I may give a review of my  birding experience with it.  I purposely bought Nikon P900 for its reach 2000mm!!!! This can come in handy for long distance viewing especially waders and shore birding.  Do you think Digiscoping will be superseded soon. I think  other makers will now  race to develop better 80-100X Tele-zoom camera. The demand for P900 was so good that it is out of stock most of the time This is after its rave review on its sharpness. YL Camera  got just one unit and I was there at the right time to grab it.

 

AVIAN FIELD REPORT 10/100 - Overnight Trip to TAMAN NEGARA Part 1

This is my third trip to Taman Negara forest Merapoh side (before Gua Musang) from Kuala Lipis. Those coming from the North usually takes the Grik side. I missed the MNS Selangor trip to Kuala Tahan- Sg Koh at the same time. This was on the request of Dr Rahul and so invited Mowsum to join me on this trip. My target lifer was of course the Large Frogmouth.  For both my buddies in crime - picture below in action;  they  got their target Garnet Pitta and in the case of  Dr R most of the  birds he got  are lifers.......lol

We booked 2 nights at Pekan Merapoh dormitory runned by SGI Outdoor in advance. The Perhilitan Chalets are still close citing refurbish. Hello its been 2 years! For the shophouse converted "barrack" at RM25 per pax per nite; we cannot complain about the basic single toilet, bunker bed, noisy fan and traffic noise.  Better bring some beer to drowse yourself for a better sleep lol.

Anyway we started our journey late at 8 am no thanks to my buddy who got caught in traffic to our rendezvous at Zoo Negara. Travelling thru Bentong we reached Merapoh outskirt at about close to 11.30am. Packing & checking in was a breeze and then reaching the Perhilitan office minutes pass noon to pay entrance & camera fees which remains the same for the past years. Rahman was his usual chatty self and took his time to issue the receipts. On that Friday  & Saturday we were the only guys birding along the trail but interruption of hikers and army of  team building group was something a novelty as they get the opportunity to take selfie photos with their handphones with us with our bazookas .

Bird life as you can see from my collection of photos was somewhat brisk and busy as it is time of the year for breeding for many of the avian jungle dwellers.

On Sunday morning we  met the threesome of Terence, Danny and Chin who are on a day trip to catch the Pittas. There were unfortunate as the place was getting crowded when another  group of 6 supposedly from Perak dropped by  for the same intent. Alas the Pittas was a no show at the spot we got the Garnet in the morning before. I guess they are still happy to see their Lifer of the Black-capped Babbler......I think. So here are my  better catch of the trip with many blurred species of the Yellow & Black Broadbills, Leafbirds and Sunbirds which I am paiseh to post.

I like to report that the weather for  May is erratic in Merapoh. The devastating flood here in Gua Musang in late December 2014 have not cause damage to the forest here.. We got downpour the entire Friday night thus we wasted one night to hunt for nocturnal birds. So if you are coming here please check the weather forecast. On Sat night we set out early, pack our dinner and prayed  the sky hold back the rain. That night we were happy  as the resident  Large Frogmouth make an appearance.

The pair of Rufous-winged Philentoma and a fledgling was sighted.  There were also other coupling Bulbuls pairs and post nesting feeding of  Sunbirds. There were 2 nesting of Bronze Drongos that we sighted along the main road. So I must say the bird activity is happening here.



The Brown barbet was seen with beakful of seeds to feed its hatchling. It was weary of our presence and dare not approach its nest. We waited until it departed into the trees.








Then later in the evening session at the feeding station we saw the Male Black-capped Babbler presenting its easy catch to the Female. This is an act of courting for most birds There are many pairs of bulbuls in courting session but not in nest making stage as yet.

The Drongo as shown in the following picture is feeding its days old hatchling. At one time we saw the Male on guard duty attacked a bulbul which got too close to the nest and for that encroachment it lost some feathers. The lovely APFC was a bonus on the last hour  walk back home. There were plenty of other birds species calling but high in the canopy which we cannot get any good pictures nor ID. And yes the Argus was calling in the wee morning for the 2 days we were there.

The Ferruginous Babbler was a surprise bird for me to see at close quarters at the feeding station.  Its was a fine specimen indeed. We only managed to call out a pair of Scarlet-rumped Trogon but not the Red-naped. Nearer the Bridge; there were 2 gorgeous  Fairy Bluebirds wooing the female bird with their chattering calls........

The Whiskered Treeswift was too high for my 400mm to get a good shot. This was at the former swamp land pass the Gajah crossing. Very sad that they have  filled up the  natural watershed habitat.  Saturday the Rangers reported some Bantengs were crossing the road at about 1.30 pm. A single Bull Elephant also pass by the route in the late afternoon as reported by the ranger a day before. So guys be alert if you wonder into the trails to avoid any confrontation.

The yellow-vented flowerpecker was shot at the HQ compound. Notice the Indian Cherries are still green..............thinking of the scarlet breasted now.

AVIAN SIGHTING 10/100 At Taman Negara - Crested Jay

Finally a clear shot of this  bird in Taman Negara in June 2015.  It is really a big bird - a footer tall with its upright crest is a sight to behold. A very shy bird  I only manage a few soft images before it  quickly hide behind the foliage of the tree when I slowly try to move to a better position as you can see the foreground foliage. It stayed at higher storey but my fellow birder mentioned they do come out at lower level if you are so lucky.

PELICAN 2/2 - Spotted-billed Pelican

The Spotted billed Pelican is a vagrant to Peninsula Malaysia. Since birding for 10 years I have not hear of any record  sighting here. Well if the Openbill can make a comeback the last few years you will never know.......and yes a dozen cormorants were also sighted at Bird Sanctuary Batu Gajah this year 2015 with a possibility of nesting ..................

 

I have to go to  Bird Santuary TonLeSap in SiemReap to see this brute of a bird. Below in comparison to the Little Cormorant. The obvious outlook to identify this bird is the speckled linear spots on the beak.

 

 

 

 

PELICAN 1/2 - Great White Pelican

The Great White Pelican is recorded as a Vagrant to West side of Peninsula Malaysia. This one is a free range escapee presumably from Zoo Negara near MRR2 that I sighted in May 2015.

The obvious mark is its tufted crest on its hind/nuchal head. The bottom pouch beak usually is yellowish.