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)

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 !

BEST WISHES !

Back to Birding with the Cuckoos of Air Itam Dalam

Whenever i see a cuckoo i would try to take lots of their images as possible. They are after all one of those 'difficult' birds to be identified. You do not need to have great photos of the bird but as long as the subtle/prominent features can be seen you should be able to identify them or perhaps with some help from an experience birder.  I went again to Air Itam Dalam instead of Sungai Sedim forest recently in view of the weather and its shorter distance from my home. There are always some aura of mystery at this place i.e you will always expect to see something different each time you step into the area. This time three types of cuckoos were seen, however only two species were photographed. The first been an Indian Cuckoo.

Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus)

According to Craig Robson's (2005) and Allen J's (2012) field guide, a female Indian Cuckoo has rufescent wash / rufous tinge across breast. Here you can see the feature and therefore the image suggests that it could be an adult female Indian Cuckoo.

According to Medway and Wells (1976), this cuckoo species is most active from January to August but since this cuckoo was seen in December so it might just be an early visitor here.

In flight i have noticed that it has quite sharp arched wings, something which you will also see in 'Nightjars', 'Frigate birds' etc. This bird was silent through out which would normally be expected of passage migrants/winter visitors.

It was also quite aggressive - chasing a 'Common Flameback Woodpecker' (Dinopium javanense) straight down to the water. I believe it may be trying to prevent the woodpecker from getting near to the 'Pin-Stripped Tit-Babblers" (M. gularis) which a few have been observed near the Indian Cuckoo and may be presumed looking for a suitable nesting site.


The second cuckoo bird seen here was even more interesting and it was presumably an Oriental Cuckoo !   Ever since King (2005) described the oriental cuckoo (Cuculus optatus) as two separate species i.e Himalayan Cuckoo (C.saturatus) and Lesser Sunda Cuckoo (C. lepidus), the taxanomy of this cuckoo species has yet to be confirmed until todate. A quick check on Birdlife International site reveals that the oriental cuckoo (C. optatus) taxon is no longer recognised. However most of the checklist available todate and at the point of typing recognised C.saturatus (Himalayan Cuckoo) and Sunda Cuckoo (C.lepidus) in their database. Here are the latest checklist which you can refer to:

i)   Avibase database - version May 2014

ii)  Birdlife International - version 06.1 (Feb 2014)

iii) Clements - 6th ed., (6.9), 2014

iv) eBird - version 1.55

v) Howard & Moore - 4th ed.

vi) IOC World Birdlist - version 4.04

Note: apparently the above checklists also have "C.optatus' in their listing ! Aduh ! PENING KEPALA !!

Could this be a Himalayan Cuckoo (Cuculus saturatus)?

Just like the Indian Cuckoo it had remained silent but it perched quite high up on an exposed trunk. Due to the weather condition, i had to increased the ISO metering to see its features otherwise it would just appear as a black dot on the screen! According to Wells & Becking (1975) and Payne (2005) as cited in {Lindholm and Linden (2007), Forktail 23: 12 -16}, the Sunda Cuckoo occurs as a resident on the Malayan Peninsula and Indonesian islands. In more recent times, Allen J (2012) described that migratory population tend to frequent low elevations. So this cuckoo at Air Itam Dalam area may had been from the northern migratory populations (i.e from Central Asia, the Himalayan mountains, Japan and China) because the resident population in Peninsular Malaysia usually occurs above 900 m (Allen J & Pearson, 2012). (Note: it was reported that Seberang Perai area which consists of Air Dalam Forest is only 541 meters above sea level)

If this was indeed C. saturatus or a C. optatus then it should be the first reported sigting at Air Dalam Forest and probably just one of a few been spotted outside its hill or mountain playgrounds (as per B.i.W record). Although DNA analysis has been recommended to scientifically identify this species but how i wish that this cuckoo bird can be described as how some Malaysian birders described Swinhoe's snipe (G. megala) and Pintail snipe (G.stenura) as "Swintail Snipe" !! Malaysia Boleh ! I am sure you can too !