Tanjung Tuan - Raptor Watch 2012

Raptor Watch @ Tanjung Tuan near Port Dickson are one of those events which are "compulsory" to attend among the serious birders here. This year i was fortunate enough to attend as March is always the busy month in my work schedule. Glad to see most of  the "sifus" are presence here, either manning the raptor counters or the event booth - even Dave was making his second consecutive appearance this year. I have been forewarned by my partner Mr CY Tan that this year's count was surprisingly less than last year and there were times that they could not see even a single raptor in two days !

The first bird we saw at the car park was this Collared Kingfisher.

At the entrance of the light house we saw a group of Javan Mynas - this fellow was one of them.

Then there were a pair of this noisy but friendly Asian Dollar Bird flying around the light house.

The first raptor seen was not a visitor but a resident raptor which was this Changeable Hawk Eagle - pale morph. At about 11.03am John Steed cried out: "one coming from the left" !! Yup- that was the first raptor crossing from the Straits of Malacca - a Grey-Faced Buzzard which was flapping its wings quickly as though as he was late for work. Unfortunately i was not able to get any good photos as it was blur and far away.

While waiting for the raptors to flyover, we saw this White-Bellied Sea Eagle perched nearby.

It was only about 11.30:09 am, came the first raptors flying in a group led by this Grey-Faced Buzzard.

Then four of them flew in silently and were thermaling nearby.

As there were no more raptors sighted after this short excitement, we left the light house venue at around 12.50pm. All in all before we left, there were 14 raptors sighted from the straits - all of them were unfortunately Grey-Faced Buzzard ! We went down straight to the event site to enjoy and share the carnival mood with other local and international birders.

Note: on the second day i.e. 11 March 2012, the counters have registered more than 5,000 raptors flying across from the straits. So it looks like their flight patterns were also determined by the weather conditions as during my earlier trip the sky was cloudy.

Javan Myna versus Jungle Myna

There are several birds in the field which some birders might just brushed off as another common bird. Yet these so called common birds do provide some intriguing features and good debate topics among some senior/season birders until today. One of these common birds which has until now posed some un-answered questions are the "Acridotheres fuscus"(Jungle Myna) and "Acridotheres javanicus"(Javan Myna). It was said that the latter (A.javanicus) have migrated from south of Peninsular Malaysia and displaced or genetically swamped the native populations of (A.fuscus) further north (Allen J, 2010). This post was specially written in relation and with reference to an article titled "A Freak of Nature: Aberrant Myna" by Allen J which appeared in "Suara Enggang", Vol.18, No.1 (Jan - Feb) 2010.

The above are a flock of "A.fuscus" grazing one of the fields at Kampung Siam in Kedah.

Here is a closer look at the Jungle Myna (A. fuscus). According to Allen J & Pearson (2012), the iris of a Jungle Myna is conspicuously yellowish while those of A. javanicus in its genetically pure form is white. From the pictures above you could see that all the A. fuscus' irises were indeed yellowish in color.

Javan Mynah

The above photos of A. javanicus clearly depict its genetically pure state of iris which is white. These photos were taken in Cheras, KL.

However according to Allen J (2010), it has been noted that some A. javanicus in KL/PJ which was once a stronghold of A. fuscus, are without dark bases to the bill but with yellow irises and brown tinged plumages, especially on the mantle.

The above is a photo of A.javanicus which was taken in KL. Note its yellow iris but lack of dark bases to its bill as well as its brown tinged plumage.

Here is another A.javanicus taken at FRIM, Kepong.

This Javan was spotted recently at Raptor Watch 2012 - Tanjung Tuan near the light house area.

Allen J (2010) further revealed that in terms of morphology (i.e. the shapes of the body, head, bill and crest length and shape) as well as their calls, there are close similarities between A.fuscus and A.javanicus. The only noticeable difference observed between them is in their behavior whereby A javanicus are said to be more opportunistic and aggressive.  From my own field observations i do concur with this statement. Jungle mynas on the other hand were a bit more skittish. 

As there are already some genetically identical birds which carry the genes of both species as shown in the photos above, one may now need to go further than to look at just its irises or the base color of its bill. Based on my own experience, one other features which one could look at is perhaps the color of its head whereby A. fuscus seem to have a more blackish head with a contrasting greyer brown body as well as a smaller looking iris.

HAPPY BIRDING !!