LITTLE HERON (Butorides striatus/Burong Pucong Keladi)

I would like to share two new species that i have just photographed today just a stone throw away from my office, the Little Herons. My office is located on the bank of the Gombak River flowing through the downtown Kuala Lumpur. I have noticed that the river still holds some wildlife eventhough the quality of water is deteriorating due to pollution and garbage thrown by the city folks. The river still has plenty of fish mostly Tilapias and catfish, and have muddy riverbanks and tall grass which resemble some wetland that is the right habitat for these species. 

I have been walking along this riverbank every Friday for almost two years and have been observing the wildlife there for quite sometime. Other than birds there are monitor lizards too hunting for fish in this river, some as big as a small crocodile! I just never got to get myself to bring my camera along as the time available during lunch to take photos is quite short. But today i forced myself to bring along the camera and was rewarded with some shots as shown below.

Little Heron - Butorides striatus

                                                      

 

                                                             

                

                                                                  
Actually, Herons, Bitterns and Egrets come from the same family Ardeidae which has 64 species under it. This family refers to long-legged and long neck freshwater and coastal birds. Some people mistakenly called Herons as Bitterns and vice versa because of their similar shapes eventhough the color differences are quite pronounced. Egrets are a lot easier to differentiate because of their white color. The unique feature of Heron is their necks which are retracted (as can be seen in these photos) when they fly unlike Storks or Cranes. Their main diet is fish, shrimps, small crabs,reptiles and insects in shallow waters. They make nests in the trees and reed beds close to water bodies - wetlands, lakes, rivers,  ponds etc.

CAMOUFLAGE IN BIRDING

The word camouflage is synonymous with the art of making oneself blend in with the environment especially in the military. Snipers use it to get close to their targets without being spotted by the enemy. The same goes for hunters who like to shoot birds with their rifles. As a matter of fact the word 'sniper' originated from the act of British hunters who like to hunt for a bird species called Snipe in India. They were called Snipers.

Now the question we want to ask is is the art of camouflaging oneself is important in birding? Well it depends on how close do you plan to be to the birds or what kind of equipments you are using to get that perfect shot of the birds. Another factor is what kind of birds are you stalking.

Some experts say that no matter how powerful your telephoto or zoom lens are, getting yourselves as close as possible to the birds is the key to getting very sharp shots. This true because if we keep on relying on the far end of our telephoto or zoom lens the images that we get are usually soft especially if we do not use the tripod. This is due to the vibration being magnified many times for long lens which will cause blur. Long zoom lenses suffer at the far end as the image quality starts to drop when the light available becoming less due to smaller aperture available. The only lens that will do well are the prime telephoto lenses with the focal length of 500mm upwards.

Now, the long telephoto prime lenses with the focal length of 500mm upwards will create another issue - the huge size like a bazooka! If you use the Canon system that will mean a long and big white lens, the 'L' series with a length of between 400 to maybe 600mm with hood! It will be visible from at least a kilometer away if you look through the eagle eyes! Now ask yourself if you were an eagle perching on a tree branch, would you be scared if you saw a man carrying a big white bazooka suddenly appearing in the bush 50 meters away and pointing that thing at you? Definitely you would freak out and fly away, i know i would. 

Of course there are some birds which are used to the human presence could not be bothered at all if someone want to take their photos from 20 meters away, while some would fly away at the first instance of seeing humans approaching. I encountered a species called Greater Coucal in the state of Perlis which was so hard to photograph. No matter how careful and quite my approach to shoot them they kept flying away the minute they saw me from 50 meters away. They are known to be very shy. On the other hand, species like Sliver-eared Mesia, Spectacled Laughing Thrush, Sunbirds, Long-tailed Sibia, Magpie and Spiderhunters can be photographed from three meters away or even less without any hiding required!

So how do you get close to the birds to get that perfect shots without spooking them? The answer is camouflaging yourselves and your equipments to become less visible to the birds.

Now there are so many ways of doing this. The first thing to do is to blend in with the environment that you are in either by using the same color of your surrounding or texture. If you are in a grassy surrounding, using some of the grass and put them on your hat or jacket can help break your profile and reduce visibility.  Your shirt and jacket color should be close to the grass color while you can use some colored wax on your face like the army do. Some use a camouflage hide or tent for an extended stay where the species they are after are known to be there. The camera with the long telephoto would be fixed on a tripod behind a see-through curtain inside the hide on standby. Some even use this hide technique in their backyard to shoot birds in their garden. Those who do not use a hide should also try to make the long lenses disappear by using some camouflage neoprene lens jacket available on the internet. These jackets come in various patterns and colors and also act as  a protection against knocks and scratches while in the fields. I bought two sets of neoprene jackets for my Sigma 150-500mm zoom lens and Canon EF400 f5.6 telephoto prime lens for about UK66 pound. They are about 4mm thick, stretchable and easy to put on the lenses. They also can add a bit more protection for your lenses against rain in the fields. If you do not want to spend money on this you should get black colored lenses instead which are less visible than the Canon series.

Non - camouflaged Sigma 15-500mm lens

                                    

Camouflaged Sigma 15-500mm lens

Non-camouflaged Canon EF400mm lens

Camouflaged Canon EF400mm lens

I am slowly buying camouflage shirts, pants, hats and lens jackets so i can have more success getting close to those species which are extremely shy and sensitive to human presence in order to get that perfect shots that i dream of. Of course having a prime telephoto lenses also helps a lot since i do not have to creep so close to the birds.

                                    

                                         

MILESTONE ACHIEVED

When i started getting involved in birding i set a target of the number of species that i wanted to record by the end of 2012 which is 50 species out of close to 800 species recorded in the whole of Malaysia. That target initially seemed daunting as i was inexperienced in locating the birds and awfully busy with work that i was not sure i could get away and look for them.

Well after a few visits to Fraser Hills, FRIM and just completed Northern tour covering Penang, Kedah, Perlis and Langkawi Island during the Hari Raya aka Aidil FItri Eid, i am pleased to announced that the target has been achieved on the 28/8/12. That is four months in advance. Furthermore i have exceeded the target as there were some encounters with some species which i could not include in the recorded list due to poor quality of the shots therefore deemed as not proven.

Below is the list of recorded species up to 28/8/12 not necessarily according to alphabetical order:

BIRD SPECIES

1. Egret

2. Red-wattled Lapwing

3. Changeable Hawk-Eagle Dark Morph

4. White-bellied Sea Eagle

5. Brahminy Kite

6. Black Shouldered Kite

7. Black Thigh Falcon

8. White Throated Kingfisher

9. Black napped Oriole

10. White throated Fantail

11. Little Tern

12. Olive back black throated Sunbird

13. Streaked Spider Hunter

14. Golden Babbler

15. Malaysian laughing Thrush

16. Silver eared Mesia

17. Oriental Magpie Robin

18. Fire-tufted Barbet

19. Large Niltava

20. Grey chinned Minivet

21. Zebra Dove

22. Blue Nuthatch

23. Blyth's Hawk-Eagle

24. Ochraceous Bulbul

25. Black-wing Flycatcher

26. Red-eye Bulbul

27. Jungle Myna

28. Banded Woodpecker

29. Spectacled Laughing Thrush

30. Mountain Imperial Pigeon

31. Black Winged Stilt

32. Little Cuckoo-dove

33. Greater Coucal

34. Glossy Swiftlet

35. Yellow Crested Woodpecker

36. Javan Cuckoo-shrike

37. Scarlet Minivet

38. Mountain Fulvetta

39. Long-tailed Sibia

40. Red Throated Sunbird

41. Orange-bellied Leaf Bird

42. Dusky Munia

43. Eurasian Tree Sparrow

44. Asian Glossy Starling

45. Verdicter Flycatcher

46. Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

47. Yellow Vented Bulbul

48. Mountain Bulbul

49. Pacific Swallow

50. Sunda Bush Warbler

Now that i have recorded my first 50 species of birds in Malaysia, i intend to add another 50 species by the first quarter of 2013. That means i have to explore new places that i have not been before like the National Parks, Maxwell Hills, East coast, Forest Reserves etc. It will cost money and time but i am up for the challenge.

BIRDING DURING EID FITRI

Well, Raya or Aidil Fitri celebration is more or less done and over with after more than two weeks of holiday. For this celebration i went up North to Kangar, the capital of Perlis to celebrate with my in-laws. On the third day we all went to Langkawi for a day trip, and then a day at sea fishing on the fourth day. The fifth day was free and easy roaming the countryside looking for birds. Perlis has a lot of padi fields, limestone hills, sugarcane plantation, rubber estates, canals, rivers and lakes which create habitats for many species of bird. As a matter of fact throughout my journey up North through the states of Perak, Penang and Kedah, my eyes never stopped searching for birds along the highway. Unfortunately, when i did see one it was always too late to shoot while moving at 110km per hour!

Anyway, i managed to capture some as shown below:

Black-shouldered Kite

This Black-Shouldered Kite photo was taken about a 100 meters from the back of my in-laws house in Kangar. It had created a nest on the top of a very tall dead palm tree on the edge of a padi field.

This Dusky Mania is quite common when there are padi fields around as they love the ripe padi and grass seeds as their food. They would flock in small groups and create nests out of dry grass.

As Perlis and Kedah have plenty of wet areas like padi fields, canal, lakes and rivers, the White Throated Kingfisher will be found in abundance. You will see them on trees or telephone lines along the padi fields, canal or roads searching for food. This one was taken along the highway in kodiang after it successfully caught its lunch.

These Egrets are beautiful to observe as they waded the padi fields looking for fish. They would hunt in small groups but you can see them flying in large formation in the evening along the highway in Kedah and Perlis. There are also the grey color species which i am not sure exactly their names. I will make sure i get the shots next time.

This little fella of which name i do not know liked to mingle with the Egrets in the padi fields. The locals do not know their name so i take it might be a migrant species from Thailand or further.(Update: I just found out that this little fella name is Red-wattled Lapwing, a migrant from most probably India or Southern Asia subcontinent. March to August is usually the mating month.)

This Black-winged Stilt are usually found in small numbers wading the padi fields looking for small fish. Sometimes they are seen together with Egrets in the padi fields.

This White Throated Fantail was shot near the Timah Tasoh lake on the roadside. They would flock in small groups looking for food.

Another shot of the White Throated Fantail. They were quite camera friendly i would say.

This Changeable Hawk-Eagle Dark Morph was shot along the highway in Chuping near the sugarcane plantation. It seemed to make a small hill near the highway its home. There were at least five or six of them in the hill.

A shot of the bird as it landed on the tree branch.

My trip to Langkawi on the third day of Aidil Fitri produced this shot as this White-belied Sea Eagle was circling the town of Kuah looking for a prey. It was quit high up in the sky when this shot was taken.

Langkawi's icon is this Brahminy Kite. You can see its statue when you landed at the jetty. I took this shot at Awana Porto Malai as it was circling looking for fish. The shot is not so good because of the great distance but it is good enough for a record shot.

This little friend of mine is called Little Tern which followed me wherever i went while sea fishing. I do not mind one or two terns flying over but a big group hungry for our baits would be a nuisance!

On the seventh day of Aidil Fitri we went to Penang for a couple of days at the beach. I have searched for this Black-naped Oriole for so long, and guest where i found it? - at the back of my Paradise Hotel in Batu Ferringhi!

This Olive back Black-throated Sunbird was shot during my visit to Bukit Bendera,Penang. I have taken a lot of Sunbird photos in the Fraser's Hill but not this species.

After Penang i went to spend a few days in Kuantan, checked into the Swiss Garden and Spa Hotel in Berserah hoping that i would encountered a few interesting species especially the eagles. I did manage to find one eagle hovering over the beach at the back of the hotel, however i could not tell of which species as the image was quite poor.

I am looking forward to going for another Eid celebration cum birding trip again in October this year possibly up North again. This time i will bring along a friend who loves birds as much as i do albeit in a different way, he likes to keep birds as pets while i like to capture their beauty in the wild. Well, see you again next time, happy birding.

BIRDING IN RAMADHAN

Looks like the first day of Ramadhan has arrived, and like any other Muslims, i too have to carry out my duty fasting from dawn to sunset for the whole month. It will be quite a challenge but i am used to it since i have been practising it since i was a kid.

The main challenge is if i still want to go birding during this fasting month. As you know Malaysia is a hot and humid country since we are located in the tropics, so being out in the sun the whole day will cause us to sweat heavily and takes its toll on our bodies if we cannot drink during this fasting month. It will not be a problem if i do birding by staying under a shade or a hide and wait for the birds to come to us. But, i do not like this method as the chance of encountering birds is less. This method is only good at the well known birds hang out spots.

So, i am going to lie low for a while and shoot when the opportunity present itself. I am going to concentrate my effort at the end of the month during the Eid celebration instead. This is because i will most probably be spending a week up north in Perlis and Kedah where there are plenty of padi fields, irrigation canals and limestone hills which attract a lot species like Egrets, Herons, Waterhen, Falcons and Raptors just to name a few. Then there is the river mouth area of Kuala Perlis where a healthy mangrove forest is located which has its own habitants like Kingfishers. Another good birding location is the sugarcane plantation in Chuping, Perlis, bordering Thailand. Over here you can see for miles as the land is quite flat. It has many irrigation canals and ponds which attract birds. It is also a good location for fishing too especially for big haruans (Snakeheads).

I just cannot wait for the end of the month as the species that i will encounter up North are totally different than what i am used to in Fraser's Hill. Till then, happy birding guys.

BIRDING GEARS

Birding photography is a very demanding genre as it involves trying to capture the birds at a quite a distance from the camera. What makes it more difficult is the size of the birds which most of the times are quite small. Add to this the constant movement of certain species like the Sunbirds which do not stay still more than a second, the gears that are required need to be the top of the line.

Whatever camera that is used needs to address the issue of distance,fast focus and shutter speed so not to miss the shot. Of course the high noise compression capability at high ISO of the camera is crucial especially during a bad light day (overcast), early morning or late evening in order to achieve a reasonably fast shutter speed to avoid blur when not using an external flash. This requirement usually point to using full frame cameras with native ISO up to 12800 or 25600. Some like Canon full frame EOS5D MK3(which what i use for my birding) can boost the ISO up to 102400, which becomes too noisy to be used for anything in my opinion. However, using full frame camera has a slight disadvantage as the crop factor of 1.6x of the image is lost as opposed to using the APSC camera like the EOS7D, which is quite popular among the birders. The 1.6x crop factor also magnify the longest focal length of the zoom or prime lens i.e 1.6 x 400mm = 640mm which can address the distance issue when shooting a bird perching high up on a tall tree. A full frame camera like the EOS 5D MK3 will read the 400mm lens as 400mm only. However, because of the high resolution of the image of 22mp, and the high quality produced by the sensor, the image can be magnified many times more through cropping in the computer and still able to produce detailed and high quality images. On the other hand, using an APSC camera like EOS7D with a crop factor can save you money because you do not have to break a bank in order to buy high end prime like EF500, 600 or 800mm L prime telephoto lenses which will cost between RM20,000 to RM45,000 respectively! I only use the Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 OS HSM zoomlens and an EF400mm f5.6L non-IS Canon lens for my birding as they are quite affordable costing RM4200 for the Sigma and RM3500 for the EF400mm f5.6L Canon lens. Using these lenses with my EOS60D will give me maximum focal length of 800mm for the Sigma and 640mm for the EF400mm f5.6L Canon lenses. As i use both APSC EOS60D and full frame EOS5D MK3 camera i have the flexibility of swapping lenses for distance or image quality in the field.

Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 OS HSM lens with Canon EOS60D APSC body

                                                  

    

                                              

Canon EF400mm f5.6L non-IS lens with Canon EOS5D Mark 3 full frame body                                                     

                                                     

Another issue when selecting the type of camera or lenses for birding is the IS capability. IS stands for image stabilisation in lenses for Canon, VR (vibration reduction) for Nikon lenses or OS (optical stabiliser) for Sigma lenses.Sony has the IS in the camera body instead of in the lenses. The importance of the IS is when we have to shoot using the low shutter speed (1/30 second downwards) in bad light handheld with the subject keeps moving. Any movement of the subject or the shooter will result in blurred images. Of course a lot of birders solve this issue by using good tripods and remote shutter release. Good IS lenses will automatically sense the tripod and switch off the IS anyway to save battery life and produce sharp images. Another way to solve the issue of shooting using low speed without IS is using an external flash unit, however some hardcore birders treat this as a taboo. I shoot most of my birds using the handheld technique as i find that the tripod that i have is not fluid enough to follow the birds movement and it is such a burden to carry the tripod all over the place. Investing in good tripod like the ones by Benro or Wimberly can cost a bomb as they cost between RM1500 to RM2500 for the head alone! I have tried using the Monopod but at the end i threw it away because it is useless if i cannot keep my body still.

So if you are the type that like to shoot handheld and on the move like me, investing in fast telephoto lenses or camera body with fast auto focus and tracking capability is crucial especially when shooting bird in-flight (BIF). Of course not all of us are endowed with tons of money, so buying the best you could afford. Lenses with the aperture f2.8 with IS or below ( smaller f number means bigger opening therefore more light going into the lens ) are preferred as they perform well in low light condition even when handheld and able to produce fast shutter speed. Lenses with f4.0 aperture are acceptable while f5.6 and above are considered slow and should be used in bright condition to obtain fast shutter speeds. The difference in cost for some lenses with a one stop or two stops difference in aperture and IS is quite huge, take for an example my Canon EF400mm f5.6L non IS lens which costs RM4200(RRP), while the EF400mm f4.0 D.O IS cost RM19000 and EF400mm f2.8L IS USM lens costs RM31500! All is not lost if we cannot afford the most expensive lenses with the fastest speed because we still can boost the ISO up to say ISO 1000 or 1600 in order to get high shutter speed like 1/500 or 1/800 second which are good enough to prevent blur or freeze birds in flight in low light condition,even without IS. The noise produced at this setting is acceptable with high end bodies like EOS7D, 5DMK3 and 1DMK4. Some of the Nikon models like D700, D300s and D3s are very good low light performers.

When selecting lenses for birding we always got into this dilemma between choosing the zoom lenses and telephoto prime lenses. The issue at hand is between weight, flexibility,and cost on one hand, and high image quality produce by prime lenses on the other. I went through this at the beginning by buying a Canon EF70-300mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at a cost of RM4300 thinking that it should cover all the distance needed to shoot birds. However, the 300mm focal length is not enough and the image produced at the long end is soft. Pairing it with my Kenko 1.4x Pro DG teleconverter will give me 420mm f8.0, however the image produce is so soft, furthermore i have to rely on manual focus as Canon cameras are designed to auto focus below f8.0 aperture. Some people taped the contact points in order to fool the camera into believing that the teleconverter is not there and the aperture is still f5.6 in order to use the auto focus. Anyway, i have never tried this trick because the final image with the teleconverter is not acceptable to me unless i pair it with a lens with f2.8 or below. So, i bought the Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 OS HSM zoom lens as i could not afford a 500mm prime lens by Canon. It is a good zoom lens up to 400mm focal length with sharp images produced in reasonably good light. However, at 500mm the images are soft and the color saturation drops. The biggest problem is the weight at 1.9kg which can give you shoulder aches when carried for the whole day.

Sigma 150-500mm zoom lens - flexible but heavy                                                     

  

                                                 

Canon EF400mm prime lens, affordable light, and produce very good image quality                                                     

                                                    
 While i still use the Sigma paired with my Canon EOS60D which give me a maximum 800mm focal length option, i just bought a Canon EF400mm f5.6L non-IS lens which costs RM3500 (RRP RM4200) because i want to know what i can achieve with a prime lens. The f2.8 IS USM version RM31500 which is equivalent to a new small car in Malaysia and without a return on investment it does not make any sense to buy it, unless i want to turn pro, which i am miles away from it. So, how is the EF400mm f5.6L perform for birding? The answer is fantastic considering the cost issue against the more expensive EF500, 600 and 800mm prime lenses.It is 660gram lighter than the Sigma, smaller and very easy to carry all day long. Its auto focus is very fast and good for bird in flight shots. The absence of IS is felt since i am used to IS, however i managed to overcome this by supporting my arm to my chest and holding my breath while shooting to avoid blurred images. Using the burst shot mode and leaning against something also helps. The only thing i wish it had is a full weather sealing against light drizzling in the jungle. Anyway, i will recommend this lens as it is a good value for your money.

I will not go too much into using flashes as the images produced are harsh if not set up properly and i rarely used them in the field. However, i do own a Nissin Di 622 Mark 2 with Guide no.144ft/44m at 105m ISO 100 with zoom in case the situation calls for it. A lot of professional birders used a flash funnel which is attached to the flash unit to concentrate the beam to far away birds, therefore increase its effectiveness.

I think i have cover enough on the gears required for birding photography to get you started. I will add more in the future to this post when i have tried new gears or new techniques.

INTRODUCTION

Lately i have rediscovered my passion for photography. The last time i was obsessed with photography was when i was studying in the university about thirty five years ago. Back then i had acquired the best film camera i could afford -the Minolta XGM with a 45mm lens. Of course time has changed as we are now in the digital age and very few people still use the film cameras except the die-hard fans and those who wish to get certain effects. Gone are the days that we only get to see our work after sending them to the camera shops for processing just to find out that the lighting was bad, focus was out, or certain parts of the images were excluded. Now, we get to review immediately our shots using the digital cameras and discard any images that we do not like. We even get to process them using the in-camera processing software by converting the raw images to jpegs if we use the high-end models by Canon or Nikon. Along the way we get to save the cost of film rolls, processing and printing. Of course the trade off is we have to buy memory cards instead, but still it is cheaper in the long run.

Anyway, after using a few digital camera models from Samsung, Pentax, Olympus and Panasonic Lumix, i finally made the decision to go Canon as my expectation for the performance and image quality become more demanding. Initially i thought the Lumix FZ100 zoom camera was good enough and convenient for the purpose of shooting far objects and saving weight (no need to change lens), however later the image quality when compared to DSLR cameras were just not good enough, especially when cropped 100 percent. So i decided to acquire a Canon EOS60D DSLR which came with a 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 lens. Some people asked me why not buy Nikon? Well, Nikon cameras are good, it is just that Canon cameras are more ergonomic for my hands and feel comfortable holding them.

So, as time goes by my arsenal grew with addition of new lenses, a macro Tamron SP90mm f2.8lens, a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 non-IS lens, a Canon EF70-300mm L lens, a Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3,OS HSM lens, a Canon EF24-105mm f4 L lens, and recently a Canon EOS5D Mark 3 body and EF400mm f5.6 L prime lens. It is amazing how our appetite for new gadgets grow as our passion for the subject increases.

So as my arsenal grows, the genre of photography also has changed. Birding has always been my passion since i was a kid. I used to go look for birds after school all the time because they were so beautiful and still are. I used to have a tree house in the compound of my house where i used spend a lot of time observing the birds. Nowadays, i appreciate them differently by observing and taking record shots with my Canon EOS camera and zoom lenses that i own. I also enjoy visiting parks and jungles and being close to nature. It make me appreciate God's creation while at the same time giving me a good workout and relaxation.

So, with this i decided to create this blog to share my experiences, thoughts and photos with those out there who enjoy flora and fauna especially birds.

Enjoy!