Swallowing Yellow Vented Bulbul

Looks like the 'daun palas' seed, after removing the skin.

Open wide!



Halfway!



Gulp!


Yellow-vented Bulbul
Merbah Kapur(Malay)
Pycnonotus goiavier

Eviction Notice!

My friend has been complaining that some bird have been making nest in the ceiling. When hot, the smell of faeces will permeated down inside the house, and ask me if I can take a look and if posibble clear the birds.

Well, for me, what a nice chance to view the bird and nest up close.. So on sunday went to the house. an apartment top most floor(9th Floor).

See who greets me in the ceiling!



Merpati (Malay name)
Rock Pigeon
Columba livia

here are some of its egg


On another nest is a juvenile rock pigeon which isnt old enough to fledge (fly leaving the nest).

looks kind of funny, like a chick head stuck to an adult body.

on yet another nest got two nestling

fact: rock pigeon will reuse existing nest year after year..

close up of junior


I move the birds outside of the ceiling. I thought against moving them far from the original location so that the parents would found their respective nestling.


the moment they are put close together, they start wrestling.. hehe! sibling rivalry of the avian kind.

safely behind the anti vermin netting I set up..


Well, I hope I've done the job well, so that the juniors will live and fledge.. and not nesting again at the site. If not I've failed 3 nest with 4 juveniles and 2 egg.. well! what to do! Hmm the bird felt really warm, like touching a human down with fever. I also found a carcass of an adult, I hope I didnt get a bird flu..

The name fits its character

The Pied Fantail malay name (Murai Gila) fits its character perfectly, a very skittish bird, jumping around the branches with its tail fanning out..


Murai Gila(Malay)
Pied Fantail
Rhipidura Javanica

Murai in malay basically describe a blackish bird with a beautiful voice and Gila means mad.


showing its fantail, albeit a little blurred.

two chicks in a nest


normally I found it stays under shady trees, overgrown bushes near water.

Death of an oriole

Upon looking at the branches, I notice a Black-naped Oriole. It's mouth open..



This is about 15-20 feet on top of a tree, I notice it is not moving. The position on the branch is like leaning on the branch. Is it sick or dead?



Then another oriole perched beside it.. It look around for a while silently, then flew away as if saying goodbye to a comrade. This is when I felt the oriole was truly dead.



Sorry for the bad pics, record shot, no flash, not even +2 ev compensation. and heavily cropped.

And I left out the Little Heron

This is one of the earlier bird species that I captured with my camera but somehow I never posted it. Maybe I forget.. When I start to archiving my pictures to CDs, manage to edit some for the web..

This is captured using ms Kodak Z612 12x zoom P&S camera set at sports mode. Just sitting on a bench at the Lake Garden at Shah Alam and noticing this Little Heron stalking a dragonfly. This is on march 2008, one year already.



unfortunately, the dragonfly get away..notice that the bokeh..hehe no bokeh at all..

another early pic of the sub adult little heron with this camera.


the sub-adult or juvenile, have a darker brown colour with brown streaks on the breast. This time already playing with Aperture priority setting..

Its nice to have a super zoom camera around, currently my p&s camera is on loan to someone..
See the white crow here, another lucky shot not posible if i had'nt have my p&s camera in my belt pouch..

Then moving to dslr..

A Little Heron on a wire at the banks of Sg Perak, T. Intan

Little Heron @ Striated Heron
Pucung Keladi (Malay)
Butorides striatus

originally the sky was drab grey, so I apply cooling filter to make the sky slightly blue. its basically a light blue filter, I like it more than using colour balance to alter the bg colour because it didnt affect the colour of the little heron too much..

There is a fine line when altering a natural subject like bird, have to be carefull about the natural colours, not to be over saturated and not to be to drab, and I'm still learning.

Happy birding..

Hunting cuckoo style

One day I saw the Chestnut-winged Cuckoo flying to the tree, perch on a branch but keeps moving its head from side to side then fly to another bushy branch. This i have observe a few time on this species.



Sewah Berjambul (Malay)
Chestnut-winged Cuckoo
Clamator coromandus

The Chestnut-winged Cuckoo is drying its wing after rain.


then another day, I notice something slithering in the branches, looks like the cuckoo.. then it vanishes.. Movement of leaves tell me that it's still there.. I move my head sideways imitating the cuckoo, then I can notice the shilouette of the cuckoo in the shadows. Now I understand the purpose of the head shaking.. angle of view changes slightly when moving head from left to right revealing things missed from the other angle.

here another pic showing the chestnut coloured wings resemble the fruit.


so the antics of the cuckoo during hunting does have its reward.


With its prey, somekind of bug

Peaceful! aren't they..

One sunday went to my birding spot at Taman Hutan Bukit SUK at Shah Alam. Just entering the parking lot, saw some zebra doves feeding on the palm oil seeds (buah sawit) on the ground.

Without exiting the car, I began to take pictures..


Zebra Dove
Merbuk (Malay name)
Geopelia striata(Scientific name)

This is after eating, this one decide to take a break under the tree.

Feeling sleepy.. this is about 11.00am (I'm not a morning birder..hehe!)

take a nap



It seems so peacefull, no wonder it is also called the peaceful dove

Among the bunch(there are 5-6 of them), I spotted an injured bird with a hole in chest but it seems are not much bothered by its injury.. seems as active as the others.

here are its pic..


a little blur on the head, I was focussing on the chest cavity.