Birds in February and March 2022

Sometimes you can be lucky when all birds congregate on a certain location or tree. Should that happened then you can just unfold your portable "fishing" chair and sit there to enjoy the birds. I was lucky recently to experienced such a joyful occasion.

This is a male Raffles Malkoha with a prey (presumably a cricket)

While the male was searching for food in the thickets, the female Raffles Malkoha (above) was up on the tree searching for her favourite meal.

When compared to other malkoha in this region, this malkoha is the smallest of them all.

Lesser Cuckooshrike (female)

Here is the male Lesser Cuckooshrike - much darker and skittish.

Large Woodshrike 

Ah ! this is where it probably got its nesting materials.

You can occasionally see this bird in the jungle.

Striped-throated Bulbul

In the jungle and in this region, the most common bulbuls are those Red-eyed Bulbuls followed by this one.

All bee eaters are beautiful.

Blue-throated bee eater

Flies and bees are their favorite food.

This one looks even 'younger'. It's most likely a juvenile which have yet to assume full colaration.

This one is quite confiding as it allowed close approach.

This is a male Orange-backed Woodpecker.

They would make some calls as they probed into the tree trunks.

Pecking nearby is the female Orange-backed Woodpecker

She would constantly look for her mate whereabout and follow him as they pecked from one tree to another.

Also pecking nearby was this male Banded Woodpecker.

Looks like it has a shorter bill as compared to the above Orange-backed woodpeckers.

After the above two woodpecker species have left, then came this slightly larger woodpecker

This one was silent throughout.

This is a female Common Flameback Woodpecker.

Ironically all the above woodpeckers did not display any territorial behavior when they are around the vicinity although they did kept a distance away from each other.

As I was photographing the above birds then I saw something large flying above me.

It's a Rufous-bellied Eagle

Looks like it is carrying something under its belly.

This is one of those uncommon resident raptor.

As I walked just a few meters away I came across this "cartoon" bird as some birders described this species.

This is a male Black-and-Yellow Broadbill

It came quite close to us.

Another birder next to me just took a few shots and walk away. Out of curiosity I asked him why? He told me that he already have hundreds of photos of this species. 

A very confiding bird and it is mostly found in the forest areas.

Lurking a distance away is this female Black-and-Yellow Broadbill.

After taken a few more shots I bid them adieus.

All the above birds' photos were taken from just one local patch in one fine morning. What a wonderful morning it was . Next are some more birds taken from other regions - the northern region of Kedah.

Mr Dollar Bird

Quite a large bird actually

This is an Oriental Honey Buzzard (male). Most likely on migration.

Blue-tailed Bee Eater with what else - a bee !

Its deep and rich colour probably denote a male which is in breeding mood.

Little Cormorant.

This time I saw two of them and they were circling around the mangroves - searching for suitable nesting site perhaps?

Common Iora

A common countryside and garden bird.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS ! SEE YOU NEXT TIME AGAIN.

A Night Walk with MNS Herp Group - Feb 2022

One of the most interesting things you will find from a night walk is the chance to see those nocturnal creatures or animals which you can hardly see them during daytime. Recently I joined a night walk with the MNS Herping Group into a tropical rainforest in Selangor. There were 17 of us of mostly men and a few young children who came with their parents. There were also three 'boh kiah see' ladies I believe who have joined us as well.  (Note: participants were advised to show their Covid-19 test is negative a day before event).

After a short briefing by our team leader, off we step into the darkness.

We started around 8.00pm and the entire walk took us about 3.5 hours.

We search and look for everything that came across our path.  

The first creature we saw was not a ghost but an owl.

This is a "Barred Eagle Owl". 

This owl is not rare but it is seldom seen.

Then came along this squirrel.

Someone in the group must have had the eyes of an owl to spot this Red Giant Flying Squirrel.

Not a pontianak ! but the same squirrel looking inquisitively at us. 

This is the only frog I was able to photographed in the entire walk. 

Black-eyed Litter Frog (Leptobrachium nigrops)

It appear near a small stream and after photographing it we let it back into its domain.

Another variation of the Black-eyed Litter Frog

Along the way, we saw many 'Huntsman Spiders'

There were many of them crawling just beside the trails.

Some of them might not even have been described by science.

These spiders don't wait for prey - they hunt them !

Oh yes - we also came across this warbler. Probably an Arctic Warbler.

Sorry we disturb your sleep, mate.

After about an hour of walking, we finally came across a significant discovery.

Any tarantula which are discovered here creates an aura of excitement, more so if the ones seen is very rare and can only be found in Malaysia. The above tarantula is called 'Psednocnemis jeremyhuffi'.

I think there are no common names yet for this creature.

What is also interesting about this tarantula is that it was only been named recently in 2010.

This tarantula was probably one of the highlights of the evening.

After having taken a few photos we set if free to roam the jungle again.

Of course no herp trip is considered complete without seeing a snake.

This is a male Wagler's Pitviper (Tropidolaemus wagleri). Locally it's called "Ular Tokong".

Those participants who were seeing this viper for the very first time were of course jubilant.

We also saw the big fat female above our head. Luckily she was 'resting' high up in the canopy.

Although this snake is mainly arboreal but sometimes they can come down to eye level as well.

Taking the photo of the viper from a distance because it can strike a third of its length according to our group leader.

The second snake species we came across in this trip is a rather tame one.

Here, our group leader and sifu, Steven Wong is holding a 'Dwarf Reed Snake' - Pseudorabdion longiceps (Cantor, 1847).

This snake is non-venomous and not rare as well.

You can see its iridescence scales illustrating here.

Its mouth is so tiny that I think its diet is probably some earthworms or small lizards.

A photo within a photo. 

The snake is also very tame to allow close shots like this one.

Overall the trip was quite exhausting but fun.

SEE YA THE NEXT TIME !