Takin' it easy for a change (30/12/2012)

A group of 5 birders from Penang including yours truly made a trip to the Bukit Wang Forest Reserve in Kedah hoping to end our birding year on a high note. I know it is vital to start off any birding trip just after dawn when the birds are most active and most of the time we (well, I do) will be rushing to reach the birding locality just before the dawn chorus commences. But I guess sometimes you just have to stop and smell the flowers. In our case, it was the aroma of a hearty breakfast at the Gurun rest stop along the North-south highway. Choo Eng swears that this is the only rest stop that serves giant prawns!

Our journey veered slightly off track when we took the wrong exit from the highway. The lapse of concentration must have something to do with our full stomachs. As we traveled along the old trunk road, we decided to take the road less traveled and it cut across what used to forest. It is sad to see hectares of forest being replaced with plantations, orchards and scrub lands. Now, only the adaptable species survive like this Lesser Coucal sunbathing just next to the road.

One of the first birds to greet us when we finally reached our destination was an Oriental Honey-buzzard and it was also enjoying the warm rays of the morning sun.

Bukit Wang is remains one of the best places to observe the enigmatic Bat Hawk in its natural environment. This resident pair has been performing well for almost every visiting birder since the discovery of this locality.

And for the record, they still receive our attention and admiration till today. My birding companions for the day – (from the left) Kanda Kumar, Kheng Hong, James Ooi and Choo Eng.

On the contrary, this is the first time we have ever seen a Crested Goshawk here. It just goes to show the seemingly endless supply of goodies forests have to offer. Anyway, it was perched way beyond the reach of my gear and inevitably, I had to settle for record shots only this time.

But for how long?

The photographic highlight of the trip was this male Orange-breasted Trogon. He was a little more accommodating than usual but unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the lighting condition. But I still managed to capture my best image of this beautiful species to date and I guess that will do for now.

I almost had a belated Christmas when we came across a Rhinoceros Hornbill and a Great Hornbill alighting on the very same tree. As fate would have it, the tree was again beyond the reach of my gear and it was an encounter best enjoyed through my bins than my camera.

The forest here is home to a few extremely rare species. One of them is a little-known brownish bird called the Malaysian Honeyguide. It has a long time since the last time it was sighted and on this trip, we only managed to hear to its signature call from deep within a small valley. The other local celebrity is the Dusky Eagle-owl and we had the good fortune of observing one half of the resident pair roosting on a tall leafy tree. The foliage was so dense that it had the bird slightly obscured from every possible angle. Despite all the frustration, this encounter turned out to be the main highlight of the trip. Happy New Year, buddy!

There is another thing worth mentioning and that is the authorities have erected a gate to prevent cars from going in the back entrance. I suppose it is a good thing. Hopefully, it will help to keep the chastity of this beautiful place intact for a long time to come.

Northern delights (07/01/12)

The group of four of us decided to do some birding up north and our first destination was the Bukit Wang forest reserve in Kedah. The resident pair of Bat Hawks was resting at their regular haunt. Nothing like a good stretch after some pre-dawn hunting…

It is very unfortunate that the resident Malaysian Honeyguides here have gone into hiding but this locality still remains the best place to observe Bat Hawks.

Hornbills, despite their immense size, are extremely shy birds. The Bushy-crested Hornbills are commonly encountered at this locality but good views and photographic opportunities are certainly scarce - like this male resting near the canopy level at the edge of the forest. Don’t be shy, big guy. I’m not going to bite.

He must have heard my plea and on this rare occasion, obliged…

So, I finally managed to obtain a few reasonable images of this species. Although it is not as impressive as its larger cousins, it was still a breathtaking experience.

The Dark-necked Tailorbird is another common species that has evaded my camera thus far but today, it decided to give me a break. This particular individual was a little “sluggish” than usual and I was able to comfortably follow its movements. And when the right moment came along, I took the shots.

To top it all off, it even alighted momentarily on an exposed perch in a well-lighted area.

Our next destination was the Chuping sugarcane plantations in Perlis where a Eurasian Wryneck, a rare visitor and recent addition to the Malaysian checklist, was seen a few days back. Unfortunately, we dipped out on the target bird but we did manage to record a few other notable species in the end. The highlight from this locality was undoubtedly a pair of Plain-backed Sparrows that was collecting nesting materials from the grounds of an open area. Unlike the much commoner Eurasian Tree Sparrow where the sexes are identical, the male Plain-backed Sparrow is rather striking while the female has a much duller plumage. My last sighting of this Sparrow was back in my teenage years and at that time this species could still be found in my home state of Penang. Sadly, it is now locally extinct and I have to travel all the way to the northern tip of the country to see it.

26/11/2011: Bukit Wang (Kedah)

The Selangor Bird Group decided to visit this locality as part of their group outing to the north and being the “locals”, we had every intention to greet the visiting birders with our usual friendly hospitality. However, Mother Nature had other thoughts and it poured for almost three hours at daybreak. The entire group had to seek shelter in one of the huts but we took the opportunity to catch-up with old friends and meet new ones. 

When the rain subsided, the group finally got to experience the birds found here. Although it could have been better, I guess the locality did provide a memorable experience for our guests in the end.

The resident Bat Hawk gave a much-welcomed performance and posed long enough for everyone to enjoy excellent views.

The only other bird that I managed to capture was this Dark-sided Flycather hunting from the edge of the forest. 

The main highlight of the trip, surprisingly, was not a bird but it does fly. To more precise, it glides. Colugos are arboreal mammals that are found only in the forests of Southeast Asia. They are very unique creatures and possess flaps of extra skin between their limbs to enable them to glide great distances through their forest homes. This pair was seen resting on one of the tree trunks and at that distance, our group was no threat to them at all. So in return, we were rewarded with prolonged views of this beautiful but elusive glider.

05/02/2011: Bukit Wang (Kedah)

I finally found the time to some birding in the midst of celebrating the Chinese New Year. In my younger years, I would have plans like social functions, visiting of friends and families or even dating lined up for every single day of the New Year. Anyway those days are long gone and nowadays, I will usually have a couple of days to visit my feathered friends and spend some quality time with them instead. Anyway, Choo Eng, Kheng Hong and Hakim were my companions for the day as we headed up north to the forests of Bukit Wang.

We were delighted to come across the resident pair of Wallace’s Haw-eagles that Choo Eng and I discovered nesting last season. They were resting in the canopy level of a tree and at this distance the birds know that we are no threat to them. Fortunately for us, the foliage was rather sparse and we could observe these striking raptors with relative ease.

The juvenile from last season was in great condition too and still keeping itself close to the parent birds.

We spend quite a period of time with the family as this species is rather scarce and before the discovery of the nest, I have had only a handful of encounters. Hopefully, we would be expecting another successful season soon.

The resident Bat Hawks were also seen resting in one of their regular haunts. Typical of raptors, the male is slightly smaller than his mate.

A Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker offers a glimpse of the colourful birdlife that are regularly encountered at this locality but unfortunately not photographed often enough.

16/10/2010: Bukit Wang (Kedah)

Choo Eng and I arrived at the locality slightly after dawn and were greeted by the diagnostic calls of the resident Bat Hawks. These enigmatic raptors do their hunting mostly in the dark and it was no surprise to see them preening and resting at this hour as they probably had a pre-dawn feast earlier on.

A Tiger Shrike foraging along the lower levels of the forest caught our attention and upon further scrutiny, turned out to be a juvenile bird. I have noticed from past experiences that juveniles of this species are rather tolerant to human presence and will allow reasonably close approach. This is something that is quite impossible to achieve with the closely-relative Brown Shrike. Anyway, with a little perseverance and coaxing, the youngster made itself available for me to capture quite a few goods images despite the dim lighting conditions.

Thick-billed Green-pigeons used to be reasonably common in my home state of Penang but sadly, its number has decline drastically of late. This species is rather wary of human presence everywhere and I think it has got a lot to do with the fact that it is prosecuted as a game bird. Although we came across this same flock a couple of times, they certainly took the effort to keep themselves as far away as possible from us.

The Brown Barbet is a unique representative of this family of birds as it is the only one without any green colouration at all and it also does not possess the repetitive drumming calls typical of the family. Although it not an uncommon species, it tends to keep the canopy levels of the forest which makes photography rather challenging. However, one of them made my day by alighting on a much lower perch and remained there for a few minutes.

The Cream-coloured Giant Squirrel may be duller looking than the Black Giant Squirrel but it is certainly the rarer of the two and I have had only a couple of encounters with it in the past. This is the first time that I actually managed to capture a few of its images before it disappeared into the canopy levels.

A fruiting tree near the edge of the recreational area of the forest reserve attracted quite a number of bulbuls. A flock of Hairy-backed Bulbuls provided quite a number of good images as the fed on the fruits without much concern of our presence.

Spectacled Bulbuls also had their share of the fruits.

Besides the bulbuls, flowerpeckers were also pulled in by the fruits like this Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker.

The Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker is a very handsome bird but my efforts to capture its images do no justice to its true beauty at all.

The Raffles’s Malkoha is another attractive species that we came across but this male bird did not come close enough for any good shots.

It is a known fact that most bird species have beautifully-coloured males while the females are much duller in comparison. That makes identifying a male bird in the field generally much easier than a female or a juvenile. That is so true when it comes to Violet Cuckoos. There is no way that you can misidentify the stunning male bird but I had to wait till I got home and looked over the rather miserable photographs I took to confirm the identity of this juvenile bird.

On the way back to Penang, we took a detour to Bedong which is near the southern border of Kedah state to check on the migrating raptors that will pass over this area as they make their way south. Although the raptors were far and few this time round, we did managed to capture quite some good shots of an Oriental Honey-buzzard which was circling quite low overhead.