22-26 May 2012: Krau, Pahang

Krau Biodiversity Centre, set in Krau Game Reserve, isn't a bad place to be if you have to attend a training course! Even though the course kept us busy for most of the daylight hours, I still managed to squeeze a couple of hours in here and there at the beginning and ending of each day.

Early morning walks were productive for frogmouths, with this confiding Gould's perched about 5 feet off the ground...

And a splendid pair of Large Frogmouths put on a fantastic show. This was the brighter-plumaged and more aggressive of the pair, so I assumed he was the male. This rear view shows faint "ear tufts" and a prominent nape line.

 This is him reacting strongly when I played his call back.

 

The second bird was greyer and much less strongly marked. I judged this to be the female of the pair.

 

A comparison with the other bird.

In BirdingASIA 14, Tan Gim Cheong and Yong Ding Li mention the following plumage differences in a breeding pair:
1. The well-marked bird (presumed male) showed white traingular marks on the wing coverts with little or no black edging. The other (duller) bird showed more tear-drop shaped covert spots, edged with more black.
2. The scapulars were tipped black on the duller bird, but had black subterminal spots and buff tips on the brighter bird
3. The brighter bird had more well-defined pale buff brows than the other.

All three of these differences can be discerned in the two photos above, suggesting that these may be consistent plumage differences between the sexes.

Apart from the typical growling calls, both birds gave chicken-like clucks, which appeared to be alarm or threat calls uttered in response to my playback.

Also out and about early were swiftlets which were clearly different from the familiar pale-rumped Germain's which I see regularly at sea and around swiftlet farms. I assume that these were Black-nest Swiftlets. 

These birds were greyer overall (notwithstanding the lack of light), with barely notched tails. The wings appeared to be set slightly further forward on the body, with a longer tail projection (very thin when in profile) and a shorter head projection than on Germain's. The head was noticeably larger than Germain's - an impression in the field borne out by comparison of photos:

 

Black-nest Swiftlet. Note the neckless appearance and large domed head profile.

Germain's Swiftlet seen off Tanjung Dawai on 10th May. The wings seem more central, there seems to be more neck, and the head is small, typically with a flat head profile.

 

A few more birds of note - a blue morph Rufous-winged Philentoma.

  

An Olive-winged Bulbul.

 

And an overflying Large Green-pigeon at dusk.

I enjoyed a few days catching up with my old birding friend Mike Chong. On the morning after the course, we spent a fruitful morning birding along the road. After an hour's separation, I returned to find that Mike had been watching a family party of Grey-and-buff Woodpeckers over his head for five minutes! In case you don't know, G and B W is (and remains) my No. 1 bogey bird in Malaysia!

16 - 18 Sept: Ulu Muda

I finally made a trip to the forests of the north of the Peninsula, with the main aim of seeing Plain-pouched Hornbill.

I went as part of a group staying at Earth Lodge. We had no electricity due to someone helping themselves to a length of cable over the recent holidays, but this proved a very minor inconvenience, as the forest was cool by day and night.



















The hornbills didn't disappoint, with regular flights to and from the roost morning and evening; 379 was the best count.




















The biggest flocks were over 30 birds, but most were in the 6-16 range.








































Photographing them in good light was a challenge due to mist and low sun, but I finally managed to catch this flock on the last morning.

The other highlight was the outstanding number of night-birds around the camp. I estimated 3-4 Reddish Scops-owls, 2 Collared Scops, 1 Brown Hawk-owl, 2 Buffy Fish-owls and one other large owl which called once briefly. Another frustrating once-only call was a probable White-fronted Scops. There were also 3-4 Gould's and 2 Javan Frogmouths in the area. The Reddish Scops, seen briefly and close-up at dawn on our last day, was my second lifer of the trip, and brought my 500 Club list to 555 - which has a nice ring to it!















































This male Gould's Frogmouth perched much lower than my only previous sighting.

Some other birds seen crossing the river while waiting for Plain-pouched Hornbills...



















One of a party of Great Slaty Woodpeckers.

























We counted 27 Large Green-pigeons flying to roost the first evening.



















Oriental Pied Hornbills were noisy and obvious!








































Oriental Honey-buzzard (top)and Crested Goshawk were among the six raptor species seen.



















A Ferruginous Babbler on a rare open perch! The bird activity on the forest trails was good, but the leeches were plentiful and ferocious, and I didn't have adequate protection, which meant I probably spent less time on the trails than I could have!















































I am pretty confident the swiftlets which came down to drink in the evening were Black-nest Swiftlets. They had virtually no tail notch, the plumage lacked the warmer brown tones of Germain's, and there was no obvious darker cap, which can be seen on Germain's with good views.






































Here's something you don't see every day...a leucistic swiftlet - very cool bird!




















A serene sunset on the Muda River. Something tells me I'll be back - once I've got my leech socks sorted!

20 July 2011: Kuala Kubu Bharu, Selangor

I had a few meetings to attend in KL last weekend, and recent sightings of Ferruginous Partridge near The Gap below Fraser's Hill enticed me to head south a few days early. Usually the family visits Fraser's over Chinese New Year, but we missed it this year, so I figured I was due a visit!

I got waylaid en route by a colony of House Swifts breeding below the bridge over one of the arms of the KKB Reservoir. Give me eye-level views of swifts and I can quite happily waste hours trying to get that perfect shot - it's an addictive pass-time!















































All birds photographed were adults, and all seemed at an identical stage of moult, with fresh tail feathers and inner primaries. Many were carrying feathers and bits of straw, so were presumably gearing up for breeding.



There's always one that just has to be BETTER than all the others!



I've not managed to photograph the iris colour of a House Swift in flight before!



There were a couple of swiflets too. I felt these were darker and greyer than the usual Germain's, with a subtly different jizz, looking long, sharp-winged. Possibly the nominate race of Black-nest?

16th October 2010: Borneo Bird Festival, Sepilok, Sabah

Today was a 'working day', in that all of the speakers gave their presentations. There were some excellent talks, a full list of which can be found here, but not much time for birding!



Although I've seen Bristleheads once, at Danum Valley, I've never seen them at Sepilok, which is 'the' site for them. They were seen each day of the festival, but I maintained my Bristlehead-free record (extending it to 8 days and counting!), and the only bird on view from the canopy walkway was this Slender-billed Crow.

Back at the Nature Resort, the usual suspects were making their way too and from the fruiting tree...







A female (top) and two male Black Hornbills.



The female Rhino enjoying the evening sun.



A Blue-winged Pitta was calling from the scrub across the lake from my chalet. This is a common bird in parts of northern Peninsular Malaysia but is apparently less so in Sabah, judging from the amount of interest it generated among local birders! It got progressively less showy as time went on, but was nevertheless quite obliging both morning and afternoon.






















This Brown-throated Sunbird was camped in the flowers outside my chalet (what are they called by the way?) and would not allow any other birds near, much to my frustration, as both Little and Thick-billed Spiderhunters were trying to come to feed as well!



The swiflets weren't flying so near today, so this was the best I got - a Mossy-nest Swiftlet.



This was a bonus, a male Blue-eared Kingfisher against some attractive reflections!



I did a short night-walk, and this Brown Boobook ('borneensis' race) was the only fruit for my labours.

14th October 2010: Sepilok Nature Resort, Sabah

The Sabah Tourism Board booked me in to Sepilok Nature Resort for the duration of my stay as an invited speaker at the Borneo Bird Festival. I checked into this excellent resort at around lunchtime and was immediately impressed, not only by the resort and the way it is laid out, but by the numbers of birds on show!

The centre of attraction was a fruiting fig, just outside the chalet which was allocated to the main speaker, Prof Dr PilaiPoonswad, world-renowned expert on hornbills. This was an inspired piece of room allocation, as the tree was full of hornbills from dawn to dusk!



A male Black Hornbill - one of about 7 birds which regularly visited the tree.



This juv Rhinoceros Hornbill was obviously too full of fruit to do anything!



Check out those eyelashes!






















I love watching hornbills eating. Despite the enormous size of their bills, they select and pick fruit with the greatest of delicacy and gentleness. The bird seems to be testing to see if the fruit is ripe enough to pluck. If it isn't,the fruit remains on the tree, undamaged, to carry on ripening.



The male (told by the red eye) parent bird flying in for a feed.





At dusk both adults engaged in a pre-roosting duet.






















Besides the hornbills (which also included Oriental Pied and Bushy-crested), there were plenty other birds visiting the tree. This one was a new bird for me - a Thick-billed Flowerpecker.



This is apparently a rare bird in East Malaysia. The species is supposed to have a distinctive habit of wagging its tail from side to side, but this one did not wag its tail at all the whole time I was watching it. The pale spots on the underside of the tail were indiscernible in the field, and are apparently very faint in the 'modestum' race.

A short walk in the forest behind the resort produced a few extra species:



A Blue-eared Barbet.



A (Bornean) Rufous-backed Kingfisher, which differs from the migratory Black-backed Kingfisher in having a rufous mantle, and from the resident West Malaysian form by having a variable amount of dark blue on the scapulars and wings (compare with this one from Sarawak).



Another endemic form - the 'microrhinus' race of Chestnut-breasted Malkoha. That might be an endemic species of praying mantis it's eating as well!

A few swifts were coming into drink at the lake behind the resort in the afternoon.



Glossy Swiftlet



Mossy-nest? (judging by the darkness of the rump).





And my favourites, Silver-rumped Spinetail/Needletail.








I never knew that they have a pink mouth!





I guess they have to judge their approach just right or they'll end up literally 'in the drink'!






















This Rufous-bellied Eagle decided to roost just opposite my chalet - a nice end to a promising first day!