April 2011, Gunung Ulu Kali
I went to this wonderful location last April and was lucky enough to be able to see and photograph this lovely family of Large Niltava besides the access road.
This is the ‘Papa’ Niltava
This is the ‘Mama’ bird
This one is the ‘Son’
And this is the ‘Daughter’
Father and daughter having a quiet moment together…
Father and Son….
Hopefully this lovely couple will be having their own off-spring soon…..
Ulu Paip, Kulim, April 2011
Among the less common of Kingfishers in Malaysia, a friend invited me on a trip to Ulu Paip to watch & photograph this rarely seen Kingfisher… Low light conditions make photographing this quick bird a tough challenge….
This bird is a very accomplished hunter…..diving into the fast stream and catching preys like this one….
I was caught by surprised when the bird showed up briefly, with a lizard in the mouth, unfortunately I only managed just this single, very poor shot…..now I know that Blue-Banded Kingfishers feed on both marine as well as land animals.
April 2011, Batu Kawan, Penang
I was driving from Penang to Kuala Lumpur and made a short detour to Batu Kawan to check out the place. There were not much birds to see except for these little birds near the mangrove forest.
Dark-Sided Flycatcher
Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, a cute looking little bird of the Woodpecker family
Oriental White-Eye, usually seen in flock, accompanied by their rather soft wispy song.
Coppersmith Barbet, rather unusual name….must’ve been from the rather loud, resonant TONK,TONK, call made by the male bird.
April 2011 Jeli, Kelantan
Getting a decent ‘clean’ shot of this unusual looking bird has always been a challenge for me. Their preference for the thick undergrowth below the forest canopy make the task much tougher.I’ve been trying to photograph this ‘hard to see’ bird for quite sometime without much success. I guess lady luck must be smiling on me when I stumbled upon this lovely couple out in the open not far from where I was standing.
Their extra long tail certainly add to that ‘exotic’ look ….
The female bird showed up briefly, allowing me to get a couple of shots…
Further up the track I had another encounter with another bird with a slightly different ‘hair style’ and shorter tail.. Could it be a juvenile or a different morph?
The ‘Star’ of the trip has got to be this rarely seen White Morphed Asian Paradise Flycatcher. Unfortunately, this particular bird only allowed me a couple of ‘hurried’ shots before he disappeared into the forest.
I couldn’t get the tail into the frame as the bird showed up too close to me and I was already at the edge of a drop off..
This distant shot shows the actual length of the tail…..truly remarkable!
While at Pulau Burung I had the opportunity to observe and photograph the Yellow Bittern hunting for food.This particular bird would walk slowly along the reed’s edge and stopped immediately whenever it’s prey is located. It will remain motionless for sometime and wait for the prey, usually tadpole, small fish and crustaceans to come within striking distance before executing the ‘lightning’ quick strike.
Eyes fixed on prey, ready to strike…
Fire!….. notice how long the neck stretched out in order for it to reach the prey.
The unlucky tadpole is now part of the bird’s breakfast!
Another commonly seen bird at the pond is the Black-Winged Stilt. Appropriately named ‘stilt’, the extra long legs made them look rather unusual – the Giraffe of the Bird world….
The extra long legs surely served them well in their environment…
They may look a little awkward to us whenever they need to reach down to ground level…
Further up the pond I spotted this Little Egret foraging for food. It has a very interesting method to catch it’s prey. I observed that the bird will occasionally stop at any puddle found and used the foot to stir before picking out it’s prey that showed up.
Walk, stop at water puddle and stir with the foot..
Pick the prey that showed up in the disturbed puddle…
17th April 2011, Pulau Burung, Penang
Most of my Bird Photography were done in the forested areas of the country, so during my visit to Penang recently, I took the opportunity to visit this famous location for some photographs of ‘Water Birds’ found in the coastal areas of Malaysia. True to it’s name, Pulau Burung which is Bird Island in English, lived up to it’s name wonderfully for me during that brief visit. Here are some of the birds that I managed to photograph.
I spotted this male Common Moorhen swimming away and I managed to get a few shots of this handsome bird before he disappeared into the ‘reeds’ at the far end of the pond.
It’s amazing to see how fast they can swim…… and they don’t even have webbed foot!
A short while later, I noticed a couple perched on a tree stump, enjoying the morning sunshine.
Another bird commonly sighted at the pond is the Little Grebe. They can be seen swimming and diving in the pond area near the reed’s edges.
Another interesting bird at the pond is the Lesser Whistling Duck, easily among the largest of the birds found at the pond.
