Thursday, July 09, 2009

7th July 2009: Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Back at the summit of Gunung Brinchang at dawn, Barred Cuckoo-doves seemed to be everywhere - how had I missed them before now?! The substation compound was busy with birds feeding on insects that had bashed themselves senseless on the lights in the night.









































Juvenile Large Niltavas (male above, female below)were all over the place, and I got a brief view of a female Rufous-vented Niltava, which was my second lifer of the trip (no photo though).




















Several Streaked Wren-babblers were hopping around on the grass in a most unwren-babbler-like fashion.





















A juvenile male Snowy-browed Flycatcher came to join the feast.



















Our latest endemic! Robson splits what was formerly Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush into several species. This one is now called Malayan Laughingthrush. Compare this with another, now called Silver-eared Laughingthrush, which I saw at Doi Inthanon last year.



































These were feeding on squashed fruits on the road.























The Golden-throated Barbet was on view again in much better light, and it seemed determined to demonstrate how it got its name!








































The joys of digiscoping!























I thought the crown pattern was pretty cool!

















A couple of efforts with my DSLR - this one without flash...


















...and this one with. You get more feather detail with flash, but it really messes up the greens in my view.



This video shows what a fastidious diner the barbet is. I was struck by the fact that it finished off each fruit before moving onto the next, never leaving part of a fruit uneaten. Waste not, want not!

1 comment:

david said...

Great series of posts from the highlands ... wonderful birds!