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.