Bee-eaters in Penang

There are four species of Bee-eaters in Malaysia and three are common in Penang, a resident Chestnut-headed Bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti), and two migratory species, namely the Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) and Blue-throated Bee-eater (Merops viridis).

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, the icon bird of Penang, is the most common resident species in the state, it can be sighted in Penang Botanic Gardens, Kek Lok Si Temple and many forested areas in Penang island. It has chestnut head, pale yellow throat, and tail without elongated central feathers.

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater in Penang

Blue-tailed Bee-eater is the most common migratory bee-eater in Penang, and usually appear in Penang from  August until March, approximately. The bird can be spotted in the open areas and paddy fields in Seberang Perai and Balik Pulau. It has very distinctive blue on its tail and eye brow, with bronze-green head. This species is also exist in Taiwan and the Philippines.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater in paddy field, Seberang Perai.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater is the only migratory bird which I can see through the windows from my bedroom. Last year, there were six of them visited my neighbourhood. I'm very grateful to have them as my "bio" alarm clock, I'm waiting for them to visit me again in this coming migratory bird season.

One of the Blue-tailed Bee-eaters on the Yagi-Uda Antenna

Blue-throated Bee-eaters usually appear in April until August, the period after the Blue-tailed Bee-eaters have migrated to the north. It has very distinctive blue on its throat and dark chestnut head.

Blue-throated Bee-eater in Bukit Juru

The popular spot for these migratory birds is in Bukit Juru, Juru. I hope that Bukit Juru will be protected and reserved as one of the green lungs in Seberang Perai.

Closer look of the bird and the dragonfly

Bee-eaters are the important indicator to the healthy environment and ecology, their food sources are mainly insects, which include the dragonflies, bees and wasps. In fact, these birds could not be sighted along the one of the filthiest rivers in Malaysia, the Sungai Pinang in Penang, it is because the river is unable to sustain any life form, including the dragonflies and other food sources for the birds. I wish the authority will be able to rehabilitate the river until it could sustain the life form that eventually attract the birds.

However, Penang will enforce a ban on polystyrene starting 1st of Jan 2011, and the usage of plastic bag will eventually be charged in every department store and shopping mall in the state. Click on this LINK to find out more on what can you help to stop or reduce the plastic pollution. No More Plastic Bags Please!

see... we still have turtle crossing our beach in Penang.

Let's help to save the habitats of these colorful birds by stop polluting our rivers and wetlands, and wish they will live and re-visit Penang forever. Click on this LINK if you would like to find out where to watch these birds in Penang. 

Happy birding.

Kingfisher and its allies in Sepilok, Sabah.

I spotted seven species of Kingfisher and its allies (Blue-throated Bee-eater and the Dollarbird) in Sepilok. The kingfishers that I spotted were the Rufous-collared Kingfisher, White-collared Kingfisher, Ruddy Kingfisher, Blue-eared Kingfisher, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Banded Kingfisher and Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher.

Rufous-collared Kingfisher, I spotted both male and female, and also the juvenile, but didn't able to digiscope the female. I noticed that the male was the one responsible to take care and feed the juvenile, the male would always trying to attract my attention. I found the juvenile always like to hide in the bush, stay alert and quiet.

Adult male (back view, front view and side view):

Juvenile Rufous-collared Kingfisher:

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (Black-backed Kingfisher, Ceyx erithacus)is the most common kingfisher at the Kingfisher Trail in Sepilok, if you are lucky, you can spot it at the natural bird bath and the man-made pond.

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher with side view, front view and back view:

Banded Kingfisher is rare and most quiet kingfisher, I was lucky to spot this female Banded Kingfisher at the Kingfisher Trail.

In Sepilok, Blue-eared Kingfisher and Ruddy Kingfisher are the most difficult to spot and digiscope. Blue-eared is small in size, prefers shady places, and very alert, I therefore have to stay far from the kingfisher and decide the right combination of shuttle speed and aperture to be used to digiscope the Kingfisher. Ruddy Kingfisher is a shy bird, I saw the kingfisher flew across the trail once but did not manage to digiscope it.

Blue-eared Kingfisher:

White-collared Kingfisher is the most noisy kingfisher, and it is very common at the Sepilok B&B:

Stork-billed Kingfisher, one of the common kingfishers, can be seen at the lake in Sepilok RDC:

Kingfisher's allies, the Blue-throated Bee-eater, the only Bee-eater I spotted in Sepilok at the Kingfisher Trail.

Adult Blue-throated Bee-eater:

Juvenile Blue-throated Bee-eater:

The Dollarbird, one of the common birds in Sepilok RDC.

Click HERE if you would like to go back to the main blog of Birding in Sandakan, Sabah.

Ten Asian Openbills, Penang.

Today, I'm free from work and decided to go for birding to find out about the Openbills and other migratory birds in the Seberang Perai Tengah areas.

Asian Openbill (or Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans) is the latest waterbirds wanted by most birders in Penang, it was first recorded in Penang about weeks ago. Today, I spotted 10 Asian Openbills soaring above the paddy field, and roosting on the trees in between the paddy field in Permatang Nibong.

Here are some of the pictures of Asian Openbills. Look at the bill carefully, you will know why it is called as Openbill.

How many adult and juvenile birds were there? It is hard to observe and give an exact number in a day, because the birds are very sensitive to human. From my record and observation, I believe most are non-breeding adult, some have the pinkish leg, some don't, and all have space in between the mandibles.

Here are the pictures of the openbills sighted roosting on the trees, all are adult birds.

This could be an immature openbill, it has a brownish bill, brownish-gray plumage on the head, neck and scapulars.

I can't tell the exact number of adult and juvenile, all birds have developed a perfect space in between the mandibles, only the colour of the bill and plumage can be used to distinguish them. I would say, there were more non-breeding adult birds than juvenile. I could be wrong. Let me know if my identification for Openbill was incorrect.

My another lifer, the dark morph Pacific Reef Egret at Teluk Air Tawar, a place near to the former RAAF airbase.

Here are the beautiful birds of the day, which I spotted during my visit to Teluk Air Tawar and Permatang Nibong.

Happy Birding and Digiscoping.

Red-bearded Bee-eaters, Maxwell Hill.

Maxwell Hill (or Bukit Larut) is located on the Bintang Range and near to the Taiping town. It is one of the popular montane birding sites for most birders from the northern part of Malaysia. Check out this LINK to find out more about Maxwell Hill.

I visited Maxwell Hill (or Bukit Larut) for a night (29-30 January) and stayed in a nice, comfortable and well maintained bungalow - The Nest. Check out this LINK to find out more about this bangalow.

On the first day morning, I saw more than five Red-bearded Bee-eaters at the Green House, they are really beautiful with brilliantly-coloured plumage.

The most fascinating behavior I observed was the fanned-out tail shown by one of the bee-eater with a very loud call, my guess for the behaviour was either for courtship or as a warning signal to its opponents.

Look at the fanned-out tail, an enchanting yellow and black tail, with the total of twelve feathers. For me, the fanned-out tail looks like a Brazilian samba dancer.

I was lucky to have few lifers there, the most exciting lifer was the four Malayan Partridges foraging along the jeep road, they were more than 50m away from me. Even though the picture is not that clear, but it is still a memorable lifer record for me.

Another lifer was the Ochraceous Bulbul:

In this trip, what I had spotted were mainly the montane resident species, included the Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher:

Rufous-Browed Flycatcher

Streaked Spiderhunter,

Black-throated Sunbird, Mountain Bulbul, Black Crested Bulbul, Wreathed Hornbill, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Lesser Raquet-tailed Drongo, White-throated Fantail, Large Niltava, Mountain Fulveta, Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush, and etc.

Happy digiscoping.

Migratory Birds of Singapore Botanic Gardens

Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) is one of my favourite birding sites in Singapore. During my last week's visit (14-20 Jan), I spotted many migratory birds in the garden, included the Hooded Pitta, Orange-headed Thrush, Malayan Night Heron, Tiger Shrike, Common Kingfisher, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and Red-legged Crake.

The most fascinating migratory birds I spotted in the garden were the Hooded Pitta and Orange-headed Thrush. In my last visit in December, I managed to digiscope the Orange-headed Thrush, but sadly, the pictures were spoilt by the excessive flashes used by the paparazzi. The thrush in my digiscoped pictures became a "Halo-ed Thrush".

This time, the paparazzi were gone, but both birds were still there together with a new migratory bird, the juvenile Malayan Night Heron.

The Hooded Pitta has very distinctive multicolours, with black, white, brown, green, red, blue and yellow. It has very close similar plumage colour as compared to the Fairy, Mangrove and Blue-winged Pitta, with the distinguishable blackish face, brownish cap and greenish chest and belly.

Let me share with you the colourful Hooded Pitta through my digiscoped pictures.

These pictures are my first digiscoped Pitta, they were digiscoped in the shady place without using any artificial flash light, but with the moderate ISO level, lower shuttle speed and taken from a distance with minimum disturbance to the bird. So, if possible, please leave your flash gun at home.

I saw two Orange-headed Thrushes in the garden. It was a wonderful moment for me to observe their distinctive behavior of taking their evening bath. Here are their pictures, but I couldn't distinguish which is male, which is female? If you can, please tell me by leaving your comment here.

The first thrush:

The second thrush:

This species of thrush has the similar daily bathing behavior as the Blue Whistling Thrush in Kek Lok Toong, Ipoh, I noticed that both species prefer taking bath in the free running water, eg. waterfall. Thrushes could be one of the cleanest birds on earth based on my observations of their distinctive daily bathing behavior.

Orange-headed Thrush taking its evening bath (courtesy of Khng Eu Meng):

The Malayan Night Heron that I spotted in the garden was the juvenile, it has very different plumage as compared to the adult, it is grayish in colour. The adult can be viewed in my earlier blog about the Taiwan's Malayan Night Heron, CLICK HERE to view, you will then be able to distinguish the differences between the adult and the juvenile .

The Tiger Shrike that I spotted in the SBG was a juvenile bird as well. I wonder why there were more juvenile migratory birds that I spotted in the SBG, could it be the juvenile cannot compete with the adult birds for their feeding ground and were pushed further south to Singapore.

front view:

side view:

and back view:

Another beautiful migratory bird I spotted in SBG was the Red-legged Crake, it was my lifer, unfortunately I missed the chance to digiscope it, but thank to Meng Meng for his fast reaction to record this bird, here is the picture (courtesy of Khng Eu Meng):

I spotted both the Common Kingfisher and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters in the SBG during my last visit in December, and they were still there in the garden after a month. Here are the pictures I took in my recent visit to the garden.

I had a wonderful and memorable visit to the Singapore Botanic Gardens, this garden has provided me many precious moments to observe and digiscope the migratory lowland birds, especially the Hooded Pitta and Orange-headed Thrush. I learned that a well planned and well managed Botanic Garden can serve as an important shelter to many avifauna, not only to the resident species, but also the migratory ones. Well done to Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Check out my previous BLOG about Birding in Singapore.

Special thank to Meng Meng for taking me to this wonderful birding place in the city of Singapore.