My Asian Water Birds Census - 2015 (Part II)

There are not many people who realise that there are some big differences between a birder and a bird photographer. A bird photographer is where you will see a bunch of people / a person with big lenses or at times medium size lenses standing, squatting or sitting at a particular place for hours and hours hoping to get the best photos from a particular species of birds. On the other hand a typical birder would go all out to climb the highest mountains, sail the 7 seas and forage into the deepest forest to see as many birds as possible and at the same time meticulously studying their features, abnormality, origins etc. Both types can be considered as "bird watchers extraordinaire" at the extreme ends but bird watching can be an exciting hobby to take up if you can space yourself in between the two extreme ends 

In watching birds especially waders, the best times would be early morning i.e between 7.30am - 11.00am (pleasant weather and good for photography as well) or late evenings (5.30pm to 7.00pm) where light permits. In my recent excursions to the coastline of West Peninsular Malaysia to watch waders, i have had 2 sessions in the mid afternoon (4.00pm to 6pm) which nearly turned me into a half boiled egg. A little longer in the hot mudflats i would have been a "Ham Yee" (salted fish). This is a continuation from the first part of my report and here are some of the additional photos taken.

Common Sandpiper

A very common wader indeed.

Broad-Billed Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper

Lesser Sand Plover

In Craig Robson's field guide, it was mentioned that there are some subspecies of Lesser Sand Plover called mongolus and atrifrons ! Could the above birds be one of them?

In the recent excursions to the mudflats, i dipped on a few interesting waders such as the Spoonie, Little Stint, and Lesser Crested Tern but i did scored on some others such as Caspian Tern, Greater Crested Tern, Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone and Asian Dowitcher. Here are some of the Asian Dowitchers seen:

Asian Dowitcher butts !

Here comes the Asian Dowitchers

An unusual way to make a landing

Look how small is the Asian Dowitcher as compared to the Brown-Headed Gull. We need to respect these birds as they have travelled close to 5,000.00 km from Siberia and Russia. Very soon they will be going back again and that is another 5,000.00 km trip ! However more importantly is that their wading sites should be preserved and be ensured that it is not polluted or disturbed.

Black-Tailed Godwit

Whiskered Tern

White-Winged Tern

You can see the difference in the wing shape of the White-Winged (left) and Whiskered Tern from the above photo.


I was also lucky to record three largest terns which can be found in Malaysia and here they are:

Gull-Billed Tern

Wing span is about: 76 - 91 cm (30 - 36 in)

Great Crested Tern

Wing span is about: 125 - 130 cm (48 - 52 in)


The largest of em all should be the Caspian Tern.

Caspian Tern

Wing span is about: 127 - 145 cm (50 - 57 in)


Of course the smallest of them should be this Little Tern

Little Tern

Brown-Headed Gull have been present in the waters of West Peninsular Malaysia for almost every year since probably in the early 1990s

Brown-Headed Gull

Chinese Pond Heron

When they have reached this stage of transformation you can almost tell which pond heron species it belongs to.

Adult Little Heron

Juv/Sub Adult Little Heron

These terns and Brown Headed Gull seem oblivious to the presence of human beings.


I wish one day my country will have its own Wader Research Centre so that a more consolidated research and study can be made on the types and behaviors of the various migrant shorebirds which have made our shoreline their winter base.

My Asian Water Bird Census - 2015 (Part 1)

The South Asia branch of Wetlands International has recommended the dates for Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) 2015 from 10 to 25 January 2015. They however added that these dates only served as guidelines as counts from any dates in January are very welcome. In Malaysia, the S'gor Bird Group from the Malaysia Nature Society (MNS) conducted AWC as part of their wader observation workshops which was a very good initiative and should be continued every year. I too did my small bit for AWC albeit on a smaller scale and on a personal capacity. 

3 trips to the mudflats along the coastline of West Peninsular Malaysia were made on 18 January 2015, 3 February 2015 and 18 February 2015 respectively. The locations were selected due to convenience and accessibility of the mudflats. They are summarised as follows i) Jeram-Kapar-Sungai Janggut, Selangor coastline (herein collectively referred to as 'Jeram Coastline') and ii) Air-Tawar-Belat-Kuala Muda Coastline (herein referred to as 'Tawar coastline'). Observation time was from 4.00pm to 6.00pm/16.00 hours to 18.00 hours and from 7.30am to 11.00am. Weather was sunny and clear. Equipment used was a SLR camera and a pair of bins. Observations were made from foot as well as from a boat. A total of 46 species were seen and 3 species were seen ringed/flagged. A few thousand photos were taken and here are some of the interesting ones.

Bar-Tailed Godwit

By month of March they should be ready to fly home. Here are some remarkable facts about them.

"2 types of Bar-Tailed Godwit subspecies used the East Asia-Australasia Flyway: L.I menzbieri, which nests in North-Eastern Siberia and spends the Northern winter in South East Asia and Western Australia, and L.I baueri, which breeds in Western Alaska and migrates to New Zealand and South-East Australia for non-breeding season. Ornitologists have long suspected that Bar-tailed Godwit are capable of making an immense journey in a single haul (Gill et al. 2005). The birds began their northward migration/spring migration in mid March, typically completing the journey in 2 stages. First, the Godwits follow the west Pacific Rim to the Yellow Sea, which lies between mainland China and the Korean peninsula. This leg alone covers 10,000km and is completed in a single flight and takes between 6 to 8 days. The birds will remain here for several weeks before continuing on to the next stage of journey to their Alaskan breeding grounds, where they stay for much of June and July. The birds depart Alaska in late August making a total of about 29,000.00 km"

(info source: Bird Life International)

Marsh Sandpiper

Breeding grounds: Russia and Siberia

Terek Sandpiper

Breeding grounds: Russia and Siberia

Common Redshank

Three Curlew Sandpipers can also be seen in the above photo.

Whimbrel

Breeding grounds: Artic and Western Hemisphere.

There are 4 distinct subspecies of Whimbrel: one breeds in North America, one from Iceland to northwest Siberia, one in southern Russia and one in eastern Siberia. The Eurasian form have white backs, and some white rumps while the American form has a brown rump and back.

(info source: Cornell Lab Ornithology)

Great Knot, Wimbrel and Bar-Tailed Godwit can be seen in the above photo.

A Whimbrel, some Bar-Tailed Godwits and a lone Great Knot

Gull-billed Tern

Eurasian Curlew

This time Eurasian Curlew population is not as many as a few years ago.

Breeding grounds: Western Europe, Russia and Siberia

 Some Red-Necked Stint, Ruddy Turnstone and lots of Greater/Lesser Sandplover.

In this desert like conditions and temperature soaring to 40 Celsius (even at 5.00pm) you might just hallucinate seeing a spoonie among them but nevertheless the MNS - Bird Group did saw one earlier.

Some Greater Sandplover and Curlew Sandpiper. The sand plovers appearance were so identical that they may have all came out from the same injection molding process.

Some Grey Plover and Great Knot. Check out the size of the Grey Plovers as compared to the Great Knots - they appear as big as the Great Knots !

Brahminy Kite

There is a story behind the above photo. Initially this Brahminy Kite was seen at a distance circling around the waders. Then it probably saw me as well and decided to check me out. As i lifted my camera, it slammed its "brakes" and quickly 'cabut lari' (turned back). It probably said to itself: "Holy smoke that Guy has a 'gun' " ! Its wings posture and eye expression say it all. Priceless :-) 

Peregrine Falcon - Japonensis race

One of the highlight of this census. Unlike the Brahminy Kite, the above falcon has no mood in looking at the waders below. I could see it heading towards my way from a distance and by the time i lifted my camera it was already above my head. Apparently birds with "V" typed wing structure usually travel very fast.

In a research conducted by a German group of scientists, Benjamin Ponitz et al (2014) published an article titled: "Diving-Flight Aerodynamics of a Peregrine Falcon" - (Falco peregrinus) where they have studied the speed of a Peregrine Falcon using 3-D images. In their research it was found that during horizontal flight, Peregrine Falcon reaches velocities of up to 150 km/h and more than 320 km/h (200 mph) when nose-diving on its prey - that is equivalent to the speed of  driving a Bentley on a highway. The above falcon was seen at about 6pm and it was heading inland - probably back to its roosting area.

Oriental Pipit

My Asian Water Bird Census 2015 to be continued in Part II ...

Up Close with Common Iora

Some common birds can provide us with intriguing features or characteristics which we may at times overlook in the field. One of those birds is the Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia). Common as it may sound, it is actually not even in the top ten list of birds sighted in Malaysia (see extract of record taken from Bird i-Witness below).

1. Oriental Magpie-robin   (Copsychus saularis)                          
2. Yellow-vented Bulbul   (Pycnonotus goiavier)                        
3. Pacific Swallow             (Hirundo tahitica)                              
4. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo   (Dicrurus remifer)                  
5. White-throated Kingfisher  (Halcyon smyrnensis)                  
6. Pin Stripped Tit-babbler     (Macronous gularis)                    
7. Crested Serpent-eagle  (Spilornis cheela)                              
8. Spotted Dove  (Streptopelia chinensis)                                    
9. Little Egret     (Egretta garzetta)                                            
10. Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)                                    

It is also not in the top twenty list of birds in 'My Garden Birdwatch' record from 2010 to 2014. However if you have read about its distribution areas, Common Iora was once reported as common in mangroves but it can now be found in forest edges as well as in parks and gardens. The feature which i have wanted to highlight here is its white rump (see photo below).

Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia)

There are not many books, field guides, images or articles out there with the exception of "Birds of Borneo" (2014) by Wong Tsu Shi and "Birds of Borneo" (2001) by G.W.H Davison and Chew Yen Fook which showed or described the white rump on Common Ioras. Recently i have an opportunity to witnessed this Common Iora displaying its massive white rump. According to Davison & Chew (2001), "rump may seem white especially in flight, owing to the long white flank plumes". In view of the presence of another common iora at that time, there are two possibilities which i reckoned might explain such behavior:

i) a display meant to attract another common iora to mate.

ii) a warning display for a suspected predator (it should be me in this case!).

Here are more photos of the above Common Iora:

It has caught a cricket .

You can also see part of its white rump here 

As i was unable to get a clear view of the other common iora which was foraging quite high up, i am not sure whether the photos below represent the bird.  Awhile later this common iora was seen near the first iora and probably may have descended from the tree that it was initially foraging. 

They looked remarkably similar but this bird appears more yellowish than the earlier bird right ? If it is true then perhaps there is a possibility that the initial Common Iora (presumably a male) was displaying its white rump to attract the above bird (which presumably a female).

So the next time you are in the field again do look closely at common birds as well !

Note:  i) Philip D. Round et al., in Forktail 30 (2014), 28 - 33 reported that "most of the South-East Asian insectivorous landbirds usually breed during the first half of the year i.e. between Jan and July".

           ii) It has also been reported that the sexing of birds should moved from using color, morphometric measurements or behavioral differences to a more reliable molecular techniques such as DNA techniques (Guo-Jing Weng et al., as cited in Forktail, 30 (2014): 96-103)