Mob Bird Story Part III

If you follow the the mob bird story part 1 and part 2, you will know that the House Crow actively defended it teritory or its chick. So one day I saw it chick which already fledge(fly) but still requires feeding noisily asking for food.


see the bird with it red mouth wide open.
after close scrunity of this pic, I notice the different shape of the tail! Quite funny! I was expecting the young to have similar shape of the adult.

later, i shot the pic below, The House Crow chick isnt a house crow afterall. It is a Asian Koel chick. The House Crow has been protecting and raising the Asian Koel. This is called Brood Parasitism, I've read about it, so lucky of me to find an example.


I took the liberty to label the birds.. :D

I notice a female koel nearby. Maybe the mum of the young ones, I not so sure. If it is, then the parent surely watch the young from far.


Then, an oppurtunity arise.. the young ones perch nearer. Noisily enough to ignore! Have to shoot towards the sun, for this record shot. The old nikon glass exhibit its purple chromatic aberration, which normally i tried to avoid.



seems like a cross between male and female koel, the eyes seems to be brown, not red like the adult

Quite a unique relationhip, pity the House Crow, conned by the Koel

another example of this brood parasitism here

Mob Bird Story - part II

Today I want to tell you about this mob bird mobbing activities. They will active engage any would be intruders that came near. From my observation this is done only at their nesting/roosting site. Even if you saw them foraging by the road side, it wont mob you.

What they do is, they fly near, above your head like inspecting you. You can hear the whooping sound of the wings flapping.."Whoop! Whoop! Whoop"

If any large bird came near their nest, it will send few birds to mob it..


"Ark! Ark! Ark! the alarm sounded when a purple heron fly near.


Interceptor fly off to escort intruder(purple heron) out of hot area!


House Crow: This is restricted area, please leave immediately!
Purple Heron: Will do! just pass by to fishing ground. I don't eat Crow Chicks!

Precautionary measure, the mob bird escort the heron around


to west


to east, note the golden sunshine shining from west

any big or small bird, will be chased off! even the raptor Brahminy Kite


maybe the raptor do eat chicks, the restricted area for raptor is even bigger, so high up



next part: The guarded secret chick! or read previous part.

Mob Bird Story - part I

I called the House Crow a mob bird because its aggresive behaviour. More on this later.

In my birdwatching activities, frequently this bird came in the picture.. so i decide to post some pics of this so called pest bird here.

Contrary to its attitude toward other birds it is surprisingly caring to its partner..



just look at this couple, caressing each other.. quite gentle I might say. It makes me think of the young couples sitting at the bench at the park. Quite romantic!

Well, the gentleness is to make baby birds of course.. so here how the nest looks like.



Somehow the Little Heron or some other species also make nest that looks like this.. So dont go round and destroy any nest!

but

if you are near a nesting or a roosting site of this mob bird, they will take to the air and fly around above your head. A quite menacing act! this I will tell on the next part.

Scaly-breasted Munia Nesting

Today is Aidilfitri night and I am at my parents house.

Have I told you there is a flock of Scaly-breasted Munias nesting at the itcy palm trees also known as Pinang Gatal in Malay (Actinophoeus marcarthurii) in my parents lawn. First I discover it at May 2009, I saw some munias busy collecting nesting material. By coincidence, The Malay name for it is Pipit Pinang, Pinang is the similar looking betel nut palm tree





most of my pics are taken without flash, so you can see the actual colour seen with the naked eyes.

The nest are composed of dried lalangs( I suspect) losely woven around the palm fronds. as the nest has been the for some time, my father told me that some old nest have fallen down with the leaves when it dried up. Typically on this site, the nest is about 15feet up.

anyway here a pic of a nest


now, I can hear some nestling chirping when a parent bird comes back. Its the same chirping like the Baya weaver. It is Sept now, and I wonder; are the munias breed all year round?

Waterhen lives near the water

It will be more interesting if shooting the White Breasted Waterhen with water visible, altough it is not always the case.

like this



opps... it flown away!



like chicken, it seems to fly only for short distance like 10m. Chicken have yellow chicks, but the waterhen got black chicks.

It is very hard to spot the totally black chicks as the parents would be very protective of them at this tender age.

this is shot across a river, not so black

Scratching-indirect kind

I have read in BESG about bird scratching of the indirect method, so I double check my photos and I found not one but 2!



an Oriental Magpie Robin



a Yellow-vented Bulbul

notice that the feet is over the wings to scratch the head

Don't walk on the grass!

One afternoon, I decide to just visit my usual birding spot at Taman Bukit SUK Shah Alam.
Just as I am about to park, I notice some bird moving at the parking.. I switch off my car and leave the window open..

from the window, I take my shots

from front



Ciak Bendang
Paddyfield Pipit
Anthus rufulus

from back



from side too..



its a Paddyfield Pipit also called Ciak Bendang in Malay. In the end i never went out of the car that day, So I dont walk on the grass.