Great Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii)

Photography is mainly about beauty while birding is all about discovery. When you mixed both hobbies together, you might just get some rewarding results ! Great Crested Tern are probably one of those few terns which you do not often see at the mudflats. Despite their widespread and year round resident status as reported by some books and sites, you could just occasionally encounter this magnificent tern when they go hunting for fish near the shoreline. Although they are not really pelagic birds but i do believe they spent most of their lives offshore. Feel free to immerse yourself into some of their stunning profiles below.

Differentiating between a Great Crested Tern and Lesser Crested Tern can be quite difficult if you do not have either photos or information to compare or look at.

Here are some field marks (gathered from various sources) of a Great Crested Tern which might be handy to you.

i) Yellowish bill

ii) Slight down-curved bill

iii) Mantle dark-grey

iv) Shaggy nuchal crest

v) White forecrown

vi) Outer primary tips dark
vii) Size slightly larger than Lesser Crested Tern

Many of us will look at their yellowish bill as a common indicator but i can assure you that most birding experts would probably advise you that none of the above features can be used as an absolute indicator on their own. They should instead be scrutinised as a whole to form an overall picture of a Great Crested Tern.

Apparently they are quite rare in Britain and Europe.

Great Crested Tern also do "plunge diving" for their food but not from great heights like the ones executed by Little Tern (personal observation)

Currently there are just 5 subspecies which are recognised in the literature. They are as follows:

i) T.b bergii 

ii) T.b enigma

iii) T.b cristatus

iv) T.b thalassina

v) T.b velox

The ones which are reportedly common in Malaysia is the Ssp T.b cristasus which are said to have dark grey above and less white on their head while T.b velox is reportedly to be the largest among the 5 Ssp and has the longest bill and far more darker. HBW Alive have added another subspecies i.e T.b gwendolence which is reportedly occur only in Australia. Having known all the above information, you might want to guess which Great Crested Tern species/sub-species do these 2 photos (below) belong to:

Could this be a T.b velox ? - long bill and darker ?

What about this one? or was it a Lesser Crested Tern?

Here are some of their friendly neighbourhood friends which you might also encounter.

Whiskered Tern

Common Tern

Whiskered Tern

A bit of laughter in life will certainly go a long way !

HAPPY BIRDING !

Appreciating the Shorebirds of Peninsular Malaysia - 2017

There are many ways which one could appreciate and celebrate nature's beauty and splendour. It certainly has no limitation or boundaries attached. Bird watching is one of those hobbies which is closely connected to nature and here are some reasons why bird watching continues to amaze people around the globe.

A flock of Eurasian Curlew

Great Crested Tern

Pacific Golden Plover

Whiskered Tern

Little Tern

Great Knot in flight

Initially i thought this could be a Black-naped Tern but the photo was taken near shore and its tail wasn't really forked. So it was most likely a Whiskered Tern with an enormous looking wing span.

Asian Dowitcher in flight

The above photo was taken in March 2017 showing some breeding feathers of Bar-tailed Godwit.

A flock of Caspian Tern and a lone Eurasian Curlew returning to their evening roost.

Mixed flock of shorebirds. 

It doesn't matter who is front of the pack as everyone will just follow the lead.

Do all birds always fly in "V" shape formation?

Many reasons were mentioned by the literature on why some birds fly in "V" shape formation. Some says it was for leveraging on the uplifting drift produced by close-by birds while some states that it was for the ease of communication.

On the reason for ease of communication, it would be interesting if we could decipher the meaning of "krak krak" [ "Are you guys ok behind"? - bird (i) ], or "tutututu" [ "we are right above you" - bird (ii) ] or "chew chew chew" [ "we are right behind you" - bird (iii) ] or "teu teu teu" [ "i am just below you, please don't pee" - bird (iv) ]

However not all birds fly in a "V" shape formation as i have observed recently. The bird species which i was referring to are the Black-Tailed Godwit (Limosa Limosa). Have a look below:

All the above pictures were taken near shore and no where near their migration routes. So there is also a possibility that they might revert to "V" formation during their migration journey. More observations are required in this area.

Some of the shore birds do at times look like big vampire bats.

White-Bellied Sea Eagle

Technically these White-Bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) can't be considered as a shorebird but because they are usually found near the shore line, i just needed to include them here.



HAPPY BIRDING !

The Wonderful World of Waders

Identification of waders is a tricky business and not many bird watchers are keen to indulge themselves into the details of their winter feathers or plumage colors. Ironically not all birders are enthused enough to watch the waders either as many of them have often 'placed' themselves in some really inhospitable places such as on a far distance mudflats and under the temperature which at times exceeding 30+ Celsius. Besides that their dull brownish and white colors during their winter break here have not really attracted many admirers too. 

Here are some photos of the waders which were taken during my recent solo trips to the mudflats, tributaries etc. Just sit back and be mesmerised by them.

Eurasian Curlew

Great Knot

Common Redshank

A group of Red-Necked Stint and a lone Broad-billed Sandpiper

Whimbrel

Curlew Sandpiper

Greater Sand Plover and Lesser Sand Plover

You can actually tell their differences here from their morphological distinctiveness. The one on the right with a shorter bill, slightly smaller eyes and body was a Lesser Sand Plover. But to know whether it was a C. mongolus or a 'C. artrifrons (tibetan)' you may need some expert advice or maybe some molecular evidence? Despite their common presence here, we have so much more to learn about these fascinating birds for example on their ecology, their behavior, their transcontinental migration patterns etc. There are always some new discovery to be made about them. For instant most of us would believe/expect them all to fly off to the North by June or perhaps in April but i have just discovered that some of these waders are around in their wintering grounds through out the year ! That would set me off for my next adventure i.e to see for myself whether they are still presence on those supposedly 'vacant' months.

Ruddy Turnstone

Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

Common Greenshank

To take the above photos of the Common Greenshanks, i had to seek permission to pass through a villager's garden and then dodged under some viper infested mangroves ! Crazy fella? Well you have not seen the British yet !

Those little whitish bellied birds in the foreground were actually my lifers for this year (2017) - yup ! they are 'Nordmann's Greenshank' (Tringa guttifer).

Here are other shorebirds which actually do not really wade:

Great Egret

Red-Wattled Lapwing

This was the first 'non-common' bird i saw when i first took up bird watching. 

Peek a boo ! It landed just above my head before realising that some earthling is pointing a camera at him.

Collared Kingfisher

HAPPY WADER WATCHING !