Bird Wave in Perdik - Jan 2014

Year 2014 started on a disappointing note for me but life goes on. Once normalcy resumed i headed to the nearest birding spot which i could think off - Sungai Perdik ! For the initial track, the jungle was rather quiet.

Changeable Hawk Eagle - Dark Morph

Saw this eagle on my way into the track.

White-Throated Kingfisher

Besides this kingfisher, other common birds seen in the initial part were Red-Eyed Bulbuls and Spiderhunters. Also in this trip there were a few "tricky" birds. Here is what i meant as "tricky":

At a glance this could have been mistakenly id as a "Common Tailor" bird.

Dark -Necked Tailor Bird - juvenile

Until you managed to see its vent that you will know it should be a "Dark-Necked Tailor Bird". Learnt this trick from the veterans.

Here is another tricky situation.

It would be rather difficult to positively identify this female minivet from this position.

Fiery Minivet - Female

Not until you could see the color on her rump.

After some quiet moments then came the big bird wave. One thing i have noticed from this bird wave was that most of the birds were too engrossed in their hunt for insects. Hence they were not too bothered about human presence at that time. Here are some of the birds seen:

Yellow-Breasted Flowerpecker

It came in silently and was foraging quite low among the bushes.

I believe this is a male Lesser Cuckooshrike

This cuckooshrike was silent through out the bird wave. I believed most of the calls in the bird wave probably came from warblers, blue-winged leafbirds, Iora, a grey-throated babbler etc.

Purple-Naped Sunbird

This was the same bird viewed from the back. Most likely a female Purple-Naped as the purple patch was not presence on its nape.

Black-Winged Flycatcher Shrike

I think not many photos in the field guides have shown the small hook-liked feature at the tip of its bill except perhaps Craig Robson's field guide.

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Green Iora

Rufous Piculet

This piculet came in with the bird wave and flew quite low to some bushes which was just beside the trail.

In this bird wave  i have also the opportunity to see two most commonly seen wintering warblers i.e Arctic Warbler and Great Eastern Warbler quite close to each other. From the various discussion groups and forums including Facebook, i have gathered here some of the most commonly described comparison features of these two warblers.

     ARCTIC WARBLER (P. borealis)

• dark tip at lower mandible (a feature most likely to be seen)
• white vent (a feature most likely to be seen)
• slender body shape (possible provided that the Eastern Crown is nearby)
• no mid crown stripe (possible to see if you are sitting on top of a tualang tree)
• sharp bill (not so prominent and difficult to distinguish)
• single wing bar (not a prominent feature)

     EASTERN CROWNED WARBLER (P. Coronatus)

• yellow color on wings ( a feature most likely to be seen)
• yellow vent (a feature most likely to be seen)
• greyish head (really ?)
• pale median crown stripe (possible but probably a difficult feature to distinguish)

Arctic Warbler

Eastern Crowned Warbler

Chestnut-Breasted Malkoha - female

Saw two of them in the bird wave but could not spot the gender of the other bird.

Dark-Throated Oriole - female

Dark-Throated Oriole - male

Both came in with the bird wave but only the male uttered some soft calls.

Checker-throated Woodpecker

That was the only woodpecker seen in the bird wave.

Whiskered Treeswift

There were also lots of swifts in the vicinity which somehow coincide with the bird wave. After having been informed by Yang Chong, most of the swifts seen were most likely Grey-Rumped and only a handful were whiskered.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

 Not sure whether this flycatcher was in the same party but it was seen near to the bird wave site. Other birds in the bird wave which was also seen were a verditer flycatcher and two greater racket-tailed drongos.

Yellow-Eared Spiderhunter

This spiderhunter was seen before and during bird wave.

These were the flowers which the sunbirds and spiderhunter were foraging.

After the bird wave which lasted probably between 10-15 minutes, i ventured out from the trail and saw this Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo. I believe it was not part of the foraging troop.

Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo

I was also lucky to see a pair of Raffles's Malkoha foraging together.

Raffles's Malkoha - female

And here is its male counter part.

Raffles's Malkoha - male

There were also lots of butterflies at that time but only one or two which stayed long enough for me to get a clear shot of them.

Malay Yeoman

Horsfield's Baron