Birds of Fraser Hill Part 3

08th April 2011, Fraser Hill

My work usually takes me to the less developed part of the country with very poor internet connection. This situation really restricted my access to the internet. Anyway, here is the final segment of my ‘Birds of Fraser Hill’ series.

Fire Tufted Barbet – with it’s relatively large size, attractive color, a prominent tuft of reddish spines over base of bill and an unusual cicada-like buzzing voice, has got to be one of the ‘Star’ attraction at Fraser Hill.

This a heavily cropped, ‘noisy’ photo of this amazing Bird

 

It’s preference for the top storey of the forest makes photographing them a tough challenge!

 

 

The foggy condition results in poor IQ

 

A very common bird where ever the bottle brush flower blooms – Male Orange-Bellied Leafbird

 

And the less colorful female

 

Another common visitor to the ‘bottle brush tree’ is this Black-Throated Sunbird.

Birds of Fraser Hill Part 2

08th April 2011, Fraser Hill

 

I was in Fraser Hill again a week later to capture more images of these ever present birds. Here are some of them.

This Lesser Racket-Tailed Drongo can be considered a permanent resident at Jelai Hotel, no bird photographer would ever leave Jelai Hotel without images of this fierce looking bird!

It is quite common to see these birds without the tail extensions.

A 

 

Some LRT Drongo has pendant tipped tail shaft which can be up to 40cm long

 

Another favorite of Photographers at Jelai Hotel is this adorable pair of  Little Pied Flycatcher. The male bird certainly has bolder colors compared to the female

 

Female bird showing much less color compared to the male bird.

 

This male Black and Crimson Oriole also showed up briefly near the Hotel

Birds of Fraser Hill Part 1

2nd April 2011

 

Due to a large number of images available, I’ll be posting in segments to keep the post manageable. I made the trip to the famous Fraser Hill to capture the images of these wonderful montane birds found in the area.

As soon as I turned the car into Jelai Hotel parking lot, I had to jammed the brake as there  were already 12 Singaporean photographers firing away their ‘Bazookas’ at the birds in the parking lot and it was only just after 7am! – a big salute to these guys for their determinations and dedications. Not wanting to miss the action, I quickly setup my gear and joined them immediately. Here are some of the images I captured during the trip.

 

Chestnut-Capped Laughing Thrush, among the most common birds found in the Fraser Hill area. Most photographers who have made repeated trips to this place would usually ignore these birds. Common as they are but to me they are still interesting watch and attractive to photograph.

 

How about having some sunshine under those tick infested feathers?

 

 

Another common bird in the Fraser Hills is this Long-Tailed Sibia. They are usually seen in noisy flocks of 5 to 10 birds. Some photographers considered them to be pests as they often chased away other birds found in their path.

 

Getting full body shots of them are always a challenge due to the extra long tail that they usually flick up and down when perched. I spotted a couple resting on a low branch and managed to capture a couple shots of this lovely couple.

Lovely! aren’t they?

 

Another common but very attractive bird of the Fraser Hill is of course this Silver-Eared Mesia. No bird photographer would leave Fraser Hill without bringing back images of this colorful and very pretty bird.

  

 

 

Sultan Tit, Verditer Flycatcher and Streaked Spiderhunter

1st April 2011, Bukit Tinggi

On my way back from Kenyir, I made a short detour to Bt. Tinggi to check out the bird activities at the Japanese Garden. It was already late afternoon and it was about to rain when I arrived there – not really an ideal condition for bird photography. Any way I decided to proceed as I believe in Nature photography, we just have to  adapt to the conditions that is available to us. Here are some of the images that I managed to capture under this challenging circumstances.  

I was taking a shelter under the shed when a flock of this black and yellow colored bird showed up briefly on a distant tree. They turned out to be a flock of Sultan Tit – a lifer for me!

 

 

Low light and distant object equals poor image quality, that’s what I got here!

 

A pair of Verditer Flycatcher also made their appearance. Here is the male.

 

And this is, I believe, is the female.

 

Female Verditer Flycatcher having her snack of a moth she caught moments earlier!

 

 

As soon as the rain stopped, this familiar Streaked Spiderhunter showed up on a banana flower at the edge of the shed.

 

To a Spiderhunter, nothing tastes better than the nectar in the flowers!

Black-Naped Monarch

Kenyir 22nd March 2011

 

I was walking along a path early one morning when I saw this brilliant purplish-blue bird flew across my path. After searching for a while I managed to spot the bird perched on a low branch not too far from my position but the low lights in our thick tropical jungle make photographing this quick moving bird a real challenge.

A male Black-Naped Monarch

 

I managed to get a few shots before he disappeared into the forest. About 15 minutes later,much to my surprise, the same bird returned to the same area and this routine continued for about an hour. My suspicion proved to be correct when I spotted this well hidden nest about 20m from my hide.

I managed to get some shots of this couple building their nest.

 

 

The tasks of building the nest were equally shared by both male and female bird.

 

 

She must be very satisfied with the nest….. look at the big smile!…