Asian Brown Flycatcher

Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica), a rare birds in Taiwan but common in Malaysia. It was sighted at Tainan City Park on 28th of December 2013, a day for the "New Year Bird Count" event in Taiwan.

Happy Birding and Happy New Year.

Verditer Flycatcher's ...

(17 August, 2011) - Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina) has a beautiful turquoise-blue plumage, which is easily distinguished from other bluish Niltava and Blue Flycatcher, it is also one of the common flycatchers in Fraser's Hill. Here is my digiscoped picture of Verditer Flycatcher in Fraser's Hill recently:

Verditer Flycatcher 

After digiscoped the flycatcher, I scanned around with my naked eyes for any bird on the tree and the ground, suddenly, something stunning on the grass reflected the sunlight like a gem with stunning colour, I then approached the item and confirmed it was a tiny feather, a beautiful turquoise-blue feather. 

I cannot surely confirmed this tiny turquoise-blue feather is the feather of Verditer Flycatcher, but logically it should be, because I found this turquoise-blue feather at the same spot where I saw the flycatcher.

Photographed on Craig Robson's field guide, plate-92, to show how small the feather.

Thus, birding is not necessary only watching or observing the birds, sometimes you can find something interesting on the ground where the birds have perched or roosted.

Happy Birding!

Ulu Guar Birding Day Trip

Back to Penang, and will stay until 18 of Feb, 2011. It has been about 6 months I didn't update my blog, so, here is the bird pictures which I digiscoped during the birding day trip to Ulu Guar on 7 Sept. 2010, it was my last birding trip in Malaysia in 2010, with a lifer Yellow-crowned Barbet.


Here are some of my digiscoped pictures on that day, hope you like it.

Red-throated Barbet

Asian Fairy Bluebird

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Black and Yellow Broadbill

Whiskered Treeswift

Crested Serpent Eagle

Happy Lunar New Year, 新年快樂.

Birding in Fraser's Hill

After the bird race, I spent three full days for digiscoping in Fraser's Hill, from 21st to 23rd June. In fact, April to July are the best period for observing the resident birds. The common birds of Fraser's Hill are usually Passeridans and Corvidans.

The common Passeridans include the Silver-eared Mesia, Long-Tailed Sibia, Blue-winged Minla, Malayan Laughingthrush, Spectacled Laughingthrush, Streaked Spiderhunter, Black-headed Sunbird, Mountain Fulvetta, Mountain Bulbul and Large Niltava.

Silver-eared Mesia is one of the common birds, and it is also the icon bird of Fraser's Hill, with beautiful feather colors of red, yellow, silver, black and grey.

Silver-eared Mesia

Malayan Laughingthrush (a.k.a. Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush), an endemic species of Peninsular Malaysia and Southern Thailand. Malayan Laughingthrush and Spectacled Laughingthrush (a.k.a. Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush) are the most common laughingthrushes in Fraser's Hill, whereas, the Black Laughingthrush is the less common.

Malayan Laughingthrush

Malayan Laughingthrush

Streaked Spiderhunter and Black-throated Sunbird are the most common nectarivores in Fraser's Hill.

Streaked Spiderhunter

Black-throated Sunbird

Long-Tailed Sibia and Blue-winged Minla are also common birds in Fraser's Hill, but Blue-winged Minlas is hard to digiscope, coz they usually move very fast like the warbler. Warbler-type of birds are the main challenge for a digiscoper, and I'm looking forward to digiscope a warbler, hopefully I can make it.

Long-Tailed Sibia

Blue-winged Minla

Mountain Bulbul and Ochraceous Bulbul are the most common bulbuls in Fraser's Hill, other bulbuls can occasionally be seen, which include the Black-crested Bulbul and Ashy Bulbul.

Mountain Bulbul

Ochraceous Bulbul

Black-crested Bulbul

Mountain Fulvetta is one of the fast moving birds, with the skill and patience, it can be digiscoped also.

Mountain Fulvetta

White-rumped Munia is the only munia species I spotted in Fraser's Hill.

White-rumped Munia

Rufous-browed and Little Pied Flycatchers are the common flycatchers in Fraser's Hill, but Rufous-browed Flycatcher is easy to digiscope than any other flycatchers in Fraser's Hill.

Rufous-browed Flycatcher, guess which is male, female and juvenile.

Large Niltava is one of the common birds in Fraser's Hill, you can easilly see it on every street or trail.

Adult Large Niltava, male in Blue and female in brown.

Juvenile Large Niltava

The common Corvidans in Fraser's Hill include the Grey-chined Minivet, Javan Cuckoo-Shrike, Lesser Racquet-tailed Drongo, Bronze Drongo, White-Throated Fantail, and Black & Crimson Oriole.

Grey-chined Minivet, male in orange color, and female in yellow.

Javan Cuckooshrike

Please be reminded, there is no Large Cuckooshrike recorded in Peninsular Malaysia. I realized that many have mistakenly named it as Large Cuckooshrike rather than Javan Cuckooshrike.

White-Throated Fantail

Lesser Racquet-tailed Drongo

Black and Crimson Oriole

Woodpeckers and Barbets are also highly vsible in Fraser's Hill, the most common Barbets are the Fire-tufted Barbet and Black-Browed Barbet.

Black-Browed Barbet

Fire-tufted Barbet

The most common Pigeons in Fraser's Hill are the Mountain Imperial Pigeon and the Little Cuckoo Dove. Other Green Pigeons can also be found in the forested area at the lower elevation.

Mountain Imperial Pigeon

Little Cuckoo Dove

Trogon, Broadbill and Pitta are not a common birds in Fraser's Hill, you may occasionally spot them in the forested area. Red-headed and Orange-breasted Trogon are the most visible trogon in Fraser's Hill, and I only spotted the Red-headed Trogon in this birding trip.

Red-headed Trogon

Long-tailed Broadbill and Silver-breasted Boardbill are the most visible broadbills in Fraser's Hill.

Long-tailed Broadbill

My lifers in this trip included the Long-tailed Broadbill, Black Laughingthrush, Ashy Bulbul and White-hooded Babbler.

Click HERE to find out more about birding in Fraser's Hill and Fraser's Hill International Bird Race.

Happy Birding, Digiscoping and Digisniping.

Gold-whishered Barbet, Sedim.

I visited Sungai Sedim Recreation Park (visit this LINK to find out more) on 15th April, it is one of the popular birding localities at the foothill of the Gunung Bintang. Gunung Bintang is one of the peaks lies within the Bintang Range. Other recommended birding sites nearby the Sungai Sedim and Bintang Range are Ulu Paip Recreation Park (visit this LINK to find out more) and Bukit Hijau Recreation Park (visit this LINK to find out more).

Here are the digiscoped bird pictures of the day, not many birds were spotted but many bird calls were heard, it was partly due to rain. The bird calls we heard included the Banded Broadbill and Banded Kingfisher.

Gold-whiskered Barbet, Dark-sided Flycatcher and Orange-bellied Flowerpecker were my lifers of the day, but only managed to digiscope the Gold-whiskered Barbet and Dark-sided Flycatcher.

Gold-whiskered Barbet:

Dark-sided Flycatcher:

Other beautiful birds of the day:-

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher:

Grey-rumped Treeswift:

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.