Javan Mynah at Nest

Have been observing this Javan couple for almost a week now. They were actually building a nest at the roof top of my neighbour's house.

It is rather difficult to differentiate between the two. Head nodding behavior were observed and carried out by both birds. You can also see the eye membrane of the bird on the left - it's certaintly not an eye defect.

They can be seen fetching nesting materials ranging from plastics, dry twigs, fresh lalang leaves and dry grasses. At printing time they were still busy fetching the materials.

The fetching time ranges from every 15 minutes to 30 minutes - usually occurs in the morning until late noon. Lesser or no nest building activities towards evening.

At times it can be really hot inside the roof. Although its hard to distinguish between the birds but i believed both of them did fetched some nesting materials.

Couple #1

A closer look at Couple # 1

Here you could clearly see the "tomium" feature located at its upper mandible palate.

Couple #2

A closer look at Couple # 2

Here is what i meant. They are almost identical. Note the color of the beak and roof of the beak on  "Couple #1" bird. They look a bit more orangey on the beaks and has a darker ceiling on the upper side of the beak.

A sign of a new life has just started. This photo was taken on 9 March 2013 i.e. almost 1.5 mths after they were last seen fetching nesting materials into the roof. The food carried above looks like a piece of fish. I have seen them taking bread and a stick insect into the nest.

The evergreen Javan couple. Hope one day i could take their family photo.

Gunung Nuang - Jan 2013

Hulu Langat area never fails to produce interesting birds for birders. Although the area is getting a bit of traffic lately but if you avoid the morning rush hour you can reach the place in about 30 minutes from KL. Today i went to look for birds at the base of Gunung Nuang and saw a pair of Red Jungle fowls. Before i could lift my camera they were gone - ran straight into the jungle and vanished. That was the first time i encounter a red jungle fowl in the area. The birds seen today consisted mainly from the bulbul family. Here are some of them:

Black-headed Bulbul

Red-eyed Bulbul

Olive-winged Bulbul

Black-crested Bulbul

 They (the bulbuls) were seen eating these berries.

Here are some other birds seen beside the bulbuls:

Oriental Magpie Robin

 This was actually the first bird which has greeted me. Quite a friendly fellow.

Pacific Swallow

All his friends flew away when my camera was aimed at them except this fellow.

Rufous Piculet

Located this miniature woodpecker from his calls rather then its drumming sounds. You can see that it has managed to make a little round circle on the tree trunk. Certainly a long way of making a hole as the tree trunk was probably too hard for this little fellow.

Grey-breasted Spiderhunter

This is a female Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker.

Another tiny flowerpecker at this place- this one is a common Orange-breasted Flowerpecker which can be found more often then the rest of the other flowerpeckers.

I believe this flycatcher is the Dark-sided Flycatcher.

This is a Chesnut-winged Babbler. It was seen with two others foraging in a dark undergrowth. They were virtually operating on silent mode.

Large Woodshrike

I believe this fellow is a Plain Sunbird (Male)

Baya Weaver (Male)

If it had some bold streaks on its chest and flanks this bird could have been a Streaked Weaver.

Concluded this birding trip at about 11.30am. Quite satisfied with the birds sighted although i wished i could have gotten the image of the red-jungle fowls.



A Late Morning Birding along Old Gombak Road

At the very last minute i decided to look for birds at along the old gombak road with Mr CY Tan who was kind enough to join me at a very short notice. We reached the location i.e the first rubbish dump at around 11.00am and as expected you don't see many birds at this time. The cloudy day makes the trip a bit dull but nevertheless we did saw some birds albeit mostly common ones.

  

Oriental White-Eye (Zosterops palpebrosus)

Blue-winged Leafbird (Chloropsis sonnerati) - a male

Asian Brown Flycatcher (Muscicapa dauurica)

A usual winter visitor at this time of the year



Chestnut-breasted Malkoha (Zanclostomus curvirostris)

Whiskered Treeswift (Hemiprocne comata)

As both male and female have white patches on its tertials, it would be difficult to ascertain this bird's gender without seeing its ear coverts.



Spectacled Bulbul (Pycnonotus erythropthalmos)

Buff-vented Bulbul (Iole olivacea)

Other birds heard and seen were as follows:

i)  3 White-bellied Erpornis (Erpornis zantholeuca) - previously known as Yuhina.

ii) 1 Dark-necked tailor bird ( Orthotomus atrogularis).

iii) 1 Rufous woodpecker (Celeus brachyurus)

iv) 1 Blue-eared Barbet (Megalaima australis) - heard call only.

The birds sighted on this trip will just be recorded as general information since the trip was for a very short time.







Birding in JB - Jan 2013

For the brand new year i went to a new birding spot which is located at Janda Baik (JB) :-). Although there were no lifers but a few interesting birds did appear at this place.

Red-Eyed Bulbul (Pycnonotus brunneus)

Stripped Throated Bulbul (Pycnonotus finlaysoni)

Red-eyed bulbuls and Stripped throated bulbuls were the most common bulbuls spoted here.

Black Hornbill (Anthracoceros malayanus)

According to Robson (2007) field guide, black hornbills are quite rare while Allen J & Pearson (2012) reported that it belongs to a Near Threatened category. This could be a female as most guide books described females as having smaller and blackish bill/casque. However do note that it has a broad white supercilium which usually points to a male bird ! So could this be a juvenile male bird then?


Bamboo Woodpecker (Male)

Bamboo Woodpecker (female)

Mountain Imperial Pigeon

Scarlet Minivets (male & female) were presence here as well.

Its only early January however this White-rumped munia (Lonchura striata) is already in the midst of building a nest.

Rufescent Prinia (Prinia rufescent)

Although its a common bird but it is more often heard than seen. This fellow seems to be in a breeding mood as illustrated by its greyish color head.

According to an old folks tale a righteous person could see fairies flying or dancing around lily flowers like this one in a moonlit night.