Green-Billed Malkoha

There are three main characteristics which can be used to determine this malkoha:

i) whitish border around eye orbital

ii) greyish head and breast

iii) long tail

Any of those three features can be used to tell this malkoha apart from the rest of the other malkohas - lets say "black-bellied" or "chestnut-bellied". I have also noticed that the area around its eye orbital is more reddish as compared to "black-bellied" which is more orangey.  I reckoned only the tail feature will be hard to gauge if it is in molt or been ripped apart.

Apparently this species of malkoha is from the family of cuckoos ("cuculidae") but a non-parasitic one. According to the "Handbook of the Birds of the World", there are six (6) subspecies which are currently been recognised. The 6 subspecies and its distribution are as follows:

i) Phaenicophaeus trisis trisis - Northern India, through outer Himalayas, Nepal, Bhutan, Assam, Bangladesh to Madhya Pradesh (Lesson, 1830).

ii) P.t. saliens - Northern Myanmar, Northern Thailand, Northern Indochina, South China and Guangdong (Mayr, 1938).

iii) P.t. hainanus - Hainan Island (Hartert, 1910).

iv) P.t. longicaudatus - South Myanmar, South Thailand, South Indochina to Peninsular Malaysia (Blyth, 1841).

v) P.t elongatus - Sumatra (Muller, 1836).

vi) P.t kangeangensis - Kangean Island (Vorderman, 1893).

Nearer to home, you can find this malkoha more uniquitous in the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia and they can be quite tame, foraging in the thickets in ones' garden like this one here.

(Note: at this point of time most checklists including clement checklist recognised "P. t. trisis" as the nominate race for this species of malkoha).

Birds in Flight at Bagan Belat

Year 2014 was certainly a tragic and unforgettable year for all i am sure - 3 planes crashed, major floods, shocking death of Robbin Williams, M. Schumacher bang his head on the stone, extremism, no promotion, my car got wrecked, etc etc.

To start the new year, here are some of the flight shots of the birds taken at Bagan Belat, Penang recently.

Terns sighted here were mainly consisted of Whiskered, White Winged and Little Terns

I believe this could be a Whiskered Tern or is it a Little Tern?

They have certainly enjoyed flying together

The only time i could witnessed such abundance of terns was off the coast of Kuala Selangor.

A sea full of terns and waders.

From the above photos, you can see some sand plovers, pacific golden plovers, curlew sandpipers, and terns - a cosmopolitan of shore birds !

The best of the lots was certainly this Brown-Headed Gull.

Once they are tired of circling around it was time to land...

led by a Common Greenshank !

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