Brown-Headed Gull of Peninsular Malaysia

Unlike the Black-Headed Gull which are quite common in Europe, Brown-Headed Gull (Larus brunnicephalus) is reported to breed in Central Asia and winters in South East Asia. At one time Brown-Headed Gulls are quire rare in Malaysia but their regular presence here since in the early 1990s has made them quite a common winter migrant. Recently they have decided to venture closer to the mainland than their usual resting areas along the tide line. So i have had a rare opportunity to view them up close and obtained several interesting photos.

Unlike some waders (eg plovers and sandpipers) which can zig-zagged on the mudflats at incredible speed, Brown-Headed Gulls can be considered a graceful flyer.

Here you can see the typical features of a gull - pronounced gonys and a stubby bill. However not all gulls have a white iris - Black-Headed, Kittiwake and Common Gulls for example have black irises.

A typical pose from a gull.

Their wings can appear quite long when fully stretched

From the above photo you can see the white patches at the tip of its primaries which is a distinct feature for this species.

It appears that a juvenile Brown-Headed Gull is slightly different in some features. See its photos below:

Assuming that the above photos indeed refer to a juvenile Brown Headed Gull then you can see that their bill and leg colors appear orangey, its iris are black and, there is an absence of white patches at its primaries. Also can be seen are the broad black trailing edges on its secondary and primary flight feathers as well as the appearance of a partial black terminal tail band.

As they moved towards summer, their head color will changed into brownish.

From the above two photos you can see that the coloration of their head has began to changed into its brown summer plumage. Other features which you can see here are the emergence of white patches at the tip of its primaries, the legs are more reddish while the black terminal tail band has disappeared as well as the black edges at its primary and secondary feathers. The local name for this gull is: "Camar Topeng Coklat" (Allen J & Pearson, 2012) which literally means a "Brown Masked Gull". It is a protected bird in Malaysia: Akta Pemuliharaan Hidupan Liar 2010 (Act 716) - Schedule 2, Appendix 1(CITES).

From the recent trip, i have also manage to observed the food it takes which were mainly fishes.

However according to the "Handbook of the Birds of the World" (HBW), their diet also consisted of shrimps, insects, worms, rodents, plant shoots and winged termites. One important thing to note here is that the fishes caught near factories which allow its effluents to flow into the sea would taste differently than those caught/eaten away from those factories (info was noted from my conversation with the folks who lives near the river mouth). I just wonder whether these birds would felt the same !

Until we meet again in the next winter break, i said adieus to them!

Have a pleasant trip back to your breeding grounds!

Red-Necked Stint and Broad-Billed Sandpiper

Red-Necked Stint can be quite similar as "Little Stint" if you have not seen a "Little Stint" before and you can get even more disillusioned when your bogey bird keeps eluding you for a long time. Here are some of the "Red-Necked Stint" photos which i have taken recently and the first two photos below look quite similar to a "Little Stint".

My reasons for saying so: "slight drooping bill", "longer tibia" and "faint supercilium".

Dave Bakewell's comment: "horizontal", "neckless" and "big head". I guess the key word here is "Slender Body(horizontal)". So it is not a "Little Stint" after all.

The rest of the photos below were more straight forward and should point to a Red-Necked Stint.

Unlike the Red-Necked Stint, Broad-Billed Sandpiper is much easier to identify (i.e less confusing). Here are some of its photos:

Now you might asked how does a "Curlew Sandpiper" looks like then? Here are some of its photos for comparison:

From the above photos you can roughly distinguished that "Curlew Sandpiper" is larger than "Broad-Billed Sandpiper" (in size) and they have a more slender, smoother and longer downward curved bill.


Enjoy your birding adventures to the fullest !

The Great Knots of Peninsular Malaysia

Looking at the number of participants in the recent workshops organized by the Malaysia Nature Society S'gor bird group on waders, it appears that there is a surge of interest in waders watching lately. A few individual profiles of some shorebirds here would hopefully sustain their interest. This is the first part of a few series to come and i will start with Great Knot.

Great Knot is reportedly a long distance migratory shorebird. They used several staging sites/stopovers along the flyways in the Asia Pacific region on its annual trips between their breeding grounds in Siberia and Russia. Apparently there are 3 important flyways in the Asia Pacific region: i) the Central Pacific flyway, ii) the East Asian-Australasian flyway and iii) the Central Asian flyway.

It was reported that some of these Great Knot would fly directly/non-stop from Eastern Siberia to Northern Australia using the East Asian-Australasian flyway. (Info: Australasian Wader Studies Group - AWSG).

The spots on their breast as seen from the above photo is an indication that they are in the breeding mood but it is only probably about 30% to their actual breeding colors.

Here are some Great Knots with a lone Black-Tailed Godwit

Some nice under wing patterns from the above photo.

Great Knot migratory routes are said to be usually along the coast of China and Japan with China's Yellow Sea their main stopover site before continuing their journey up to Siberia.

Here is a Great Knot with a flag from Chongming Island, China. 

Roger Standen from AWSG was kind enough to refer the above photo to his contact in China and here is what his mate has to say about the above banded Great Knot:

For this sighting, we can say it was banded after April of 2006 at Chongming Dongtan Nature Reserve, because we changed our combination from white/black to black/white in order to use ELF. We banded about 1000 GKs one year, and most are banded during northward migration. We have very few resighting records from you there. I remember this number was only 2 in 2014. And this record was the first re-sighting during wintering period. We know some of our banded GKs wintering in Thailand by the sighting records. Now we know some also wintering in Malaysia. Thank you again. I'd appreciate if i will receive your resightings again. Please keep an eye out for flagged birds, especially ELF ones.

Roger Standen further informed that there is actually an international color code given to Malaysia which is "Black/Yellow" while the colors used in Kamchatka in Russia is the opposite i.e "Yellow/Black". We  should be grateful to these birds as they have save us the trouble and money to buy a flight ticket to Siberia. Instead they have flew a few thousand kilometers to our shores.

GKs with some Grey Plovers

IUCN status for Great Knot (at the moment) is at "vulnerable" stage but i think Red Knot is even more uncommon than Great Knot in this region.

There are some Red Knot in the photos below. Can you spot them?

Note: there are two Red Knots actually in the above photo.

Thank you for viewing ! More waders info coming your way soon - stay alert !