Green Crested Lizard Bronchocela cristatella is a familiar lizard from parks and gardens, as well as lowland forests to midhills, found on shrubs and tree trunks. It is not one of the flying Draco lizards, but it does make short glides in between trees.
Its range is from Southern Myanmar, Thailand, the Nicobar Archipelago, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Lesser Sundas, Mukulu and the Philippines.
It is commonly believed that it changes color to match its surrounding for purposes of camouflage, but actually the usually bright green lizard will change to brown when threatened. It is the most often encountered lizard when we are out in the field shooting birds. Here are some shots of this lizard in its many faces.
Happy birding.
Nice shots. The recent finding shows that tis lizard turn dark brown or nearly black when it gets excited n mate with female.
ReplyDeleteMuin, thanks. I think you are right on that one, as I witnessed one that was turning to darker brown in a displaying pose, only later than I discovered that there was another lizard nearby, in fact they were eyeing each other, could be mating or fighting ritual.
ReplyDeleteFascinating!
ReplyDeleteYes and this lizard also live in the small forest land area of taman sinar baru, lrg kenawai 7D, KK Sabah
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