Whistling Thrush Project: Fraser's Hill 19th June 2009

We were up pre-dawn to open the nets, and there were a number of Mountain-Scops-Owls calling nearby. Once the nets were dealt with, a group of us set out to attempt to get to grips with one of the elusive owls. I have twice managed to photograph them before, but always partially obscured by branches (see here and here).





The bird proved to be very responsive to a whistled imitation of the call, and we were soon enjoying great views of the little chap.

The nets proved adept at catching Forktails - we caught a family of Slaty-backed - but there was no sight nor sound of any whistling-thrush.




A Buff-breasted Babbler - their 'pitchew' calls are a ubiquitous sound at Fraser's Hill but they are frustratingly difficult to see well.





Mountain Tailorbirds are another common songster at the Hill, but these are the first decent pictures I have managed to get of an adult.



This juvenile looks quite a bit different from the adults.



Black Eagles were seen quite frequently today - this adult...









...and a rather closer subadult carrying a clump of foliage for some unknown reason.

After drawing a blank at the top gate, we decided to divide the troops, leaving some nets at the top gate, and taking others to set up at Jeriau Waterfall, another well-known whistling thrush stake-out. Jeriau is an interesting locality, because there are reports of both Blue and Malayan from the site. Eventually, after several hours wait, we heard the familiar high-pitched call of a whistling thrush, and a bird alighted in the picnic area below the waterfall.



The heavy build, bill and headshape, as well as the pale spots on the median coverts, identified this bird as a Blue. Interestingly it also sported an aluminium ring, presumably from the Wildlife Department. One of several Slaty-backed Forktials we caught was also wearing a Wildlife Department ring.



At dusk we were serenaded by the lilting call of Malysian Eared Nightjars high overhead.

Whistling Thrush Project: Fraser's Hill 18th June 2009

After visits to Cameron Highlands and Ipoh, this month's field trip took us to Fraser's Hill with high hopes that we would catch a Malayan Whistling Thrush. It also happened to be the weekend of the Fraser's Hill International Bird Race, and we hoped that we would not get in the way of the participants, nor they in ours!

I set out from Penang at 4am to catch some morning's birding on the old road up from The Gap, my three bogey birds of the past 20+ years still beckoning - Pin-tailed Parrotfinch, Bamboo Woodpecker and Marbled Wren-Babbler.



My hopes increased when I noticed that several bamboo clumps were in 'flower', but the only visible activity from them at first came from numerous singing Yellow-bellied Warblers.



Bird activity was quite high along the road, with several species feeding fledged young. The highlight photographically was this Chestnut-naped Forktail about half a kilometer up the road.



It hopped out onto the road, and then, as I stood motionless, bounded up to within a few meters of me, having spied a dead cockroach on the road.







A good bout of vigorous shaking succeeded in severing the head from the body.



After which the beast was picked up and taken off to feed a hungry nestling somewhere no doubt.

On my way downhill I met up with David and Nina, who were coming to help us with ringing, and later with the Bird Race. As we were observing a clump of bamboo, I noticed a movement, got my binoculars onto it, and saw a female Pin-tailed Parrotfinch come briefly into view before dropping back into the foliage. The bird seemed to be alone unusually, and did not reappear (though it was seen two days later by some of the Bird Race participants).Only a second's worth, but enough to lay one bogey to rest! A good start.

On the hill itself we went to see the local officials to inform them of our project and that we would be trapping birds. While waiting to see them I snapped a few birds coming to feed nearby.



A Fire-tufted Barbet showing why it is so-named.



A female Grey-chinned Minivet.



And a Silver-eared Mesia - a bird which could lay a good claim to being the avian logo of Fraser's Hill.

In late afternoon we set up our nets at the top gate to the old road, a traditional 'stake-out' for Malayan Whistling Thrush. To our dismay, not only has the road been widened at the spot, but trees have been unnecessarily felled in the ravine to the left of the road, which is where the thrush usually feeds. Now it is quite open and strewn with rubble and rubbish, whereas before it was shady and thickly vegetated. Our only catch of the evening was a Rufous-browed Flycatcher.

12th June 2009: Penang Hill, Botanical Gardens

I took a brief break from work today to go check out a report of a pair of White-tailed Flycatchers on Penang Hill. The species has not been recorded from the island before.

I hauled my unconditioned body up a gazillion steps to the place where the birds had been reported.



On my up a came across this Greater Racket-tailed Drongo parent which did NOT want to feed its offspring, despite much pleading!



Once at the spot I spent a good amount of time scouting around, but only succeeded in seeing this Tickell's Blue Flycatcher.



After giving up on the flycatchers, I went back down the gazillion steps to the Botanical Gardens. Here there was a fruiting tree that was quite busy with Thick-billed Pigeons, bulbuls, flowerpeckers, and this Asian Fairy Bluebird, but none came close enough for good shots. By the way, Asian Fairy Bluebirds are one of the prettiest birds you could wish to see from above, but from below they're just black!



Brown-throated Sunbirds are one of the commonest sunbirds, but I still haven't got a decent pic of a male. I tried again with this bird, but never succeeded in getting it out in the open. So I still haven't got a decent pic of a male... Nice coverts though.



The male was feeding this juvenile, which was easy to photograph of course!



While watching the sunbirds this fine Clouded Monitor blundered into view, on the look-out for fallen fruit probably.



Not much else to report, except a troop of Long-tailed Macaques caught in the act of thieving unripe rambutans.

Write-up of Whistling Thrush Project

There's a short write-up of our Whistling Thrush Project for anyone interested in more details here.

4th June: Bukit Penara, Penang

A phone call from Frank Rheindt, who was on a short visit to Penang, meant a swiftly-organized nocturnal foray to see the Oriental Bay-Owls.

The birds duly performed to perfection, and here is a selection of happy memories!

2nd June 2009: Bukit Pancur Forest Reserve and Pulau Burung, Penang

It's June, and all the migrant waders are gone. What to do? It seemed a good time to get the camera serviced, which Canon did FOC (another reason why I love Canon!), and so today was a first outing with the newly serviced camera.

Bukit Pancur is Penang State's only remnant of lowland forest. It's small, and I find seeing birds is tough there. Today was no exception, though there were plenty of birds calling.



My attention was caught by the wing-shivering and begging calls of a young Purple-naped Sunbird. Here the parent is feeding it some kind of fruit.

I spent about an hour tracking a strange call coming from the forest below the trail. Eventually the caller revealed itself - a daytime calling Buffy Fish-Owl! I suspect it had young in the vicinity.



While I was waiting for the owl, I watched a Black Giant Squirrel gorging itself in a fruiting tree.



The only other half decent shot I managed was one of a noisy party of Rufous Woodpeckers.

Despite the unpromising date, I couldn't resist a trip to one of my old hunting grounds - the Landfill Site at Pulau Burung. The old site where I once watched waders roost is now under several metres of stinking landfill, but the area to the north of the access road is still attracting numbers of waterbirds.



I was surprised to see four Grey Herons have taken up residence. This species is quite common in the south of the Peninsula, but relatively scarce still up here.



Purple Herons are more regularly seen. There were also about 200 Cattle Egrets - presumably all non-breeders.









Little Grebes are in smart breeding plumage year-round, but don't seem to be breeding at the moment.



There were at least thirty Whiskered Terns around, and these look set to oversummer. This bird is clearly a 1st summer bird, as there are traces of darker-centred juvenile lesser primary and secondary coverts, and it has retained juvenile tail feathers and perhaps also some secondaries and the outer eight primaries.







There were also a number of birds like this, which looked much more adult-like. In the end I decided that they must also be first summer birds, as they seem to have some old juvenile-type tail feathers, though they are more advanced in moult.



Oriental Pratincoles have established a breeding colony up on the disused landfill (do they have no sense of smell or do they just get used to it?!), and birds were constantly overflying the lagoons going off to hunt and then returning with food. I can't work out what this bird is carrying - a leaf? Fruit? Small mammal? Very strange!

With the pratincoles now nesting, the site now boasts four breeding species of waders of the six in Malaysia. Apart from the pratincoles, Red-wattled Lapwings and Black-winged Stilts still breed, and Greater Painted-Snipe has done in the past. The other two are unlikely to ever be seen here - Malaysian Plover and Beach Thick-knee!



The UK seems to have been deluged with pratincoles in the past month, and I've been following the discussion of the identification of various ones online - very educational. So I decided to try to get a closer look at these Orientals.



Away from the colony, small numbers of pratincoles were sitting on the laterite road, using it as a look-out from which to go on hunting sallies after insects.



This one picked off a large insect that was feeding on a flowering roadside bush. A number of the birds, like this one, had thin buffish or whitish tips to the secondaries, a feature that used to be considered diagnostic of Collared Pratincole.



This pic shows the tail pattern well. Oriental has only the tip of the outermost tail feather black, whereas the equivalent feather on Collared is black for about about half the feather length.



The thin whitish tips to the secondaries can be seen on this bird. It has begun to replace its inner primaries and primary coverts, and there is also a row of fresh median coverts, which seem to have a greenish gloss to them. The outer two or three primaries look newer than the three between them and the new feathers. If they are, this may be because Oriental Pratincoles suspend primary moult at the end of the breeding season, so that the outermost are replaced some time later than the inner ones.





The same or a very similar bird in flight.



This shot shows a black line at the base of the underside of the bill. I'm not sure if Collared shows this feature.



Nostril shape is a distinguishing feature from Collared - oval-shaped on Oriental and more slit-like on Collared. The black line at the base of the underside of the bill is visible here, as are the long legs and peachy wash below the brown breast.



A juvenile flying back to the colony. Oriental Pratincoles usually seem to rear two broods in a season, and the first batch of juveniles hangs around the colony while the second brood are reared.

For more on the differences between Oriental and Collared Pratincole, check out these links: An Oriental that was initially identified as a Collared Pratincole in the UK; comparison of the heads of Collared and Oriental in Kuwait; interesting discussion on identification



A common bird to finish off with - a White-throated Kingfisher posing for me!