SULTAN TIT

It has been quite a while since i last posted an entry into this blog. It is not that i have stopped birding but i have been quite busy with work. I have done some birding here and there but did not have the time to sort out my photos and simply did not have time to edit them.

There is one species that i have been trying hard to take a record shot for so long but i simply did not have the luck. It is a matter of not being at the right spot at the right time. But this time the lady luck was on my side as the species i was looking for for so long just showed up while i was taking a break eating my banana fritters by the road side. It must have been attracted to the sweet smell of the fried banana i just bought a couple of minutes earlier at a stall not far from the spot i was seating at. Birds must have an acute sense of smell i think. So next time i know what to do to attract these little birds to come to me instead.

Sultan Tit, sound a bit vulgar isn't it? I mean why would anyone want to insult a Sultan by combining a word which refers to a certain part of the human sexual organ? Couldn't he or she have selected a better name? One guy got into trouble by saying out loud the name of the bird in front of the royalties in a birding function in the Fraser Hill! Lucky he got a book to proof he was not mocking the Sultan and his wife at the function.

Anyway, the Sultan Tit bird is a small size bird with bright yellow color at the belly, chest with black color on the wings and head, and yellow crest on top of the head. The yellow color is the favorite color use by the Sultans in Malaysia which explain the Sultan part, but i cannot figure out the Tit part...err maybe i need to study the bird anatomy more?Ha ha..

Anyway, here are some record shots of the bird that has been so elusive for so long:

NIGHT HERON

WHITE-THROATED KINGFISHER (Burong Pekaka Dusun)

This bird is a frequent visitor to the river near my office. I am using my new Canon PowerShot SX50HS superzoom bridge camera with 24-1200mm zoom lens to take this photo. Obviously at 1200mm i should have used a tripod as any movement would result in a blurred image. Anyway i am still trying to get used to using this camera features and all.

BLUE-TAILED BEE EATERS (Merops philippinus/Burung Berek Berek Sawah)

Bee Eaters are one of my favorite birds because they are colorful and cute. I have been trying to shoot photos of them for so long however i have not had much luck despite doing so many trips to the Fraser's Hill and Bukit Tinggi in Pahang state. Maybe i was there at the wrong spots and the wrong time. Maybe it was not the migration season yet.

Anyway, my wife had just bought a point and shoot Samsung Galaxy camera with 21x optical zoom which operates on Android Jelly Bean OS two days ago and i brought it to the office to test shoot it. As i was walking next to the river beside my office during my lunch time i noticed a Yellow-nape Oriole flying away. I could not locate the Oriole but to my surprise a pair of Bee Eaters were taking shelter from the hot sun. I was pleasantly surprised because my favorite bird just dropped by just next to my office, unbelievable! Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy does not do justice to the bird's beauty even with the 21x optical zoom. I should have brought my Canon 5D MK3 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens to get good shots of the bird. Anyway beggars cannot be choosers, i just have to take as it comes. Below are two shots i made with a bit post processing in Photoshop to get rid of color fringing.

Tomorrow i will bring my heavy gear to the office and see whether these birds will still be around. I hope they are because i want to post better quality photos than the above to show the beauty of these birds.

Updated: new photos using Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF400mm f5.6 lens:

A Gift From A Birding Friend

Last 1st of February 2013 i went up to the Fraser's Hill after more than two months of absence from there due to my busy work schedules just to see what i had been missing. They say come March or April the place will start to get pretty busy with new migrant species passing through or staying around for a while before moving on to their destinations.

Unfortunately, i did not notice any increase in the number of new species as expected instead it was the opposite. I did get a few species like the orange-bellied Leafbird, White-eye Everrette, Fire-tufted Barbet and Yellow vented Bulbul. So while i was sitting around with my son Amin (an avid birder also), one nice American gentlemen birder stopped by and said hello and we ended up with a good half an hour chat on birding and sharing our experiences not only on the Fraser's Hill but elsewhere too. This Mr.Malcolm White from New York, USA, apparently is widely traveled birder who had been to so many countries around the world and currently spending some time in Thailand. He had just arrived from Thailand and was a first timer on the Fraser's Hill. Since i have more experience on birding in the Fraser's Hill area i gave him a few tips where to look for certain species and the trails that are scattered all over the hill. I was shocked when he told me that he had just come out of the Bishop Trail alone, something i would not be brave enough to do on my own due to the meandering 1.5km had led 5 Singaporean lost a few years back. There were found 20 over kilometers downhill by a search party.

Anyway, my new friend here showed me a copy of a book called "Birds of Southeast Asia" by Craig Robson. It is a great guide book with superb hand painted illustrations of various species and sub-species and variation of birds found in the Southeast Asia with descriptions on their characteristics, habitats and distributions. The size of the book make it easy to lump it in a backpack when going birding and it is not that heavy either. One thing for sure it is a great reference for birders to distinguish various birds especially when the differences in between them might be just a few stripes or dots or tinge of colors at the back of the heads or the tip of the wings. I append the image of the book covers below for reference for those interested to get a copy of the book:

  

The cost of the book is US35.00 however i am not sure whether it is available in the bookstores in Malaysia, you might want to google it on the net. I am lucky that Malcom is kind enough to let me keep the book when he left Malaysia for Thailand since he said he did not need it anymore. It is such a great book that i think all serious birders out there should get one as a reference.

Thanks Malcolm, i appreciate it very much.

ORANGE-BELLIED LEAFBIRD (Chloropsis hardwickii/Burung Daun Bukit)

These nice colored birds are very hard to find in the Fraser's Hill especially the green colored females which camouflage well with the tree leaves. The males are more colorful than the females with bright sage-green above and subtle orange below, black sides to face and throat. There is also purplish black patch along the wings. The male ones can be mistaken as the Olive-backed Sunbirds to untrained eyes. I was lucky to come across these birds along the road while looking for other species.

FIRST OUTING 2013

These are the shots i took during my first birding outing this year up north in the state of Perlis at the end of January. The locations of the shots were around padi fields,Kuala Perlis river mouth and mud flat at the edge of the sea.

Great Egrets- Casmerodius Albus

Javan Pond Heron - Ardeola Speciosa

Eurasian Tree Sparrow- Passer montanous

Baya Weaver

Brown Shrike

Bridled Tern -Sterna Anaethetus

Common Iora - Aegithina tiphia