Smooth Otter

Smooth Otter Lutra perspicillata, occuring in mainland Asia, India, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra.

Recorded to live at the coast as well as inland.

I have seen a group along the river that runs next to Tabin Wildlife Reserve chalets, also seen two at the coast at Apas Parit in Tawau.

This beautiful looking small group, however, is living in a golf course.

Tawau Golf Club is located next to a forest reserve, and the club's committee has made it a point to co-exist with whatever wildlife that live in the vicinity.

Apparently they have moved in from the reserve to live in one of the ponds dotting the golf course. They have grown to know the habit of golfers, whom they know is not a threat, they will continue to sun themselves despite the constant moving golf buggies and golfers. However, when someone get too near, either to retrieve a stray ball or to make a shot, they will quickly slide into the pond for safety, only to emerge again in a short while after the departure of the buggies and golfers who have continued on to the next hole.

Happy birding.

Tabin Wildlife Reserve 28th November 2009 (Part 2).

The next morning was greeted by the laud singing of this Rufous-crowned Babbler Malacopteron magnum As typical of all babblers, its picture proved to be a nightmare to take as the light was  dark and it moved incessantly amongst the thick undergrowths near the restaurant. Rufous-crowned Babbler looks very  similar to Scaly-crowned Babbler Malacopteron cinereum, however, the darkish legs confirm this as Rufous-crowned Babbler.

Rufous-crowned Babbler

This White-crowned Shama Copsychus stricklandii was perched in the open while looking for breakfast. White-crowned Shama is endemic to Northern Borneo, where it is replace by  White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus south of Sabah, and the range of these two species overlaps from Lawas to Sg. Padas in the West, and from somewhere between Sg. Sekatak and Talisayan in the East Kalimantan (Holmes and Burton 1987) to Danum Valley (Kiew 1977), Darvel Bay and the Semporna islands on the east. D. Wells (in Kiew 1977) noted a few specimens from Danum Valley have crown feathers tipped in black, suggesting hybridization among the two.

White-crowned Shama

A family of Smooth Otter Lutra perspicillata was  swimming upstream along the Lipid River in search for fish.

 

Smooth Otter

This Nymph Butterfly was basking in the morning sun.

This Wallace's Hawk Eagle Spizaetus nanus must have caught a rat from the oil palm plantation, it was well hidden among the leaves on this tall tree. There could be a nest with chicks somewhere near here as it flew away with its prey tightly in its grasp.

Wallace's Hawk Eagle

A family of Bornean Gibbon Hylobates muelleri was feeding on young shoots at the canopy quite a distance away. Bornean Gibbons are endemic to Borneo, dwell in the lowlands and hills, up to 1,500 m on Mt. Kinabalu, usually found in small groups of one adult male, one adult female and up to three young. Bornean Gibbons are often heard as their unmistakable laud calls can be heard miles away in the forest, however, as they dwell on tall trees they can be difficult to spot and even harder to photograph.

Bornean Gibbon

I took the above two pictures with my DSLR and my 600mm lens and the following picture with my compact camera. The primate is almost impossible to discern in the following picture, so length does make a lot of difference.

Can you see the Gibbon?

We continued along the road and this Indian Black Eagle Ictinaetus malayensis flew overhead.

Indian Black Eagle

This group comprising photography Sifus were in front of us.

We carried on and saw a bird hopping along the road, from a  distance we thought it was a Yellow or Grey Wagtail, but decided against it later as it did not have the characteristic white outer tail  feathers of a  Wagtail. So we stopped the car to investigate, and very much  to our delight we found it to be a different bird and another lifer for me (#295), the Eyebrowed Thrush Turdus obscurus. When migrating this bird can be found both in the lowlands and montane forest in Borneo, we saw  a number  of them foraging along the road in Tabin on that day.

Eyebrowed Thrush

This Verditer Flycatcher Eumyias thalassina was perched in the shade far far away.

Verditer Flycatcher

Its yellow belly and streaky throat and upper breast indicate that this is a Long-billed Spiderhunter Arachnothera robusta, another lifer for me (#296). A Streaky-breasted Spiderhunter Arachnothera affinis would show greyish belly and the similar looking Grey-breasted Spiderhunter Arachnothera modesta does not occur in Sabah.

Long-billed Spiderhunter

This lone Williamsoni race Asian Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa dauurica was hunting from this perch far away. This much rarer Williamsoni race Flycatcher differs from the commoner Asian Brown Flycatcher by having broad streaky breast. The Williamsonni race  is considered by some taxonomists to be a seperate species, called Brown-streked Flycatcher Muscicapa Williamsoni.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Along the road and we were alerted by the whistling sound from a stream nearby and we were jumping with joy to spot the White-crowned Forktail Enicurus leschenaulti, another lifer (#297). While it has been long recognized that there are two races of White-crowned Forktail in Borneo, the montane race (used to be E. l. borneensis) and the lowland race (E. l. frontalis). Now White-crowned Forktail is reserved for the lowland species while the montane species  is now called Bornean Forktail Enicurus borneensis.(split by Moyel et al. 2005).


I have taken pictures of Bornean Forktails in Kinabalu Park, which look much larger and have longer tail then the White-crowned Forktail we saw here.

White-crowned Forktail 

After lunch, we made a trip to Lipid Mud Volcano via Tomanggong Road. There were a few White-bellied Munia Lonchura leucogastra among the flock of Chestnut Munia Lonchura atricapilla feeding in the tall grass along the road.  White-bellied Munia are much rarer than Chestnut Munia, they are also very very skittish, will fly off at the slightest movement and sound. This shot was taken by hand holding my DSLR with the 600mm lens (without VR), glad that it looks acceptable.

White-bellied Munia

The 700 meters trail from the Tomanggong Road to Lipid mud volcano was muddy and wet. However, Wellington boots provided by Tabin Wildlife Resort saved the day. The mud volcano is huge and more than 10 feet tall, as nothing grow on it so the area provides open and unobstructed view of all birds flying over the area.

Lipid Mud Volcano

Lipid Mud Volcano, see its size with the human on it.

These Green Imperial Pigeon Ducula aenea were perched on a tree at the edge of the mud volcano.

Green Imperial Pigeon

This pair of Wreath Hornbill Aceros corrugatus flew by in a distance.

Wreath Hornbill

End of Part 2, to be continued. Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo #295 to #297

Tabin Wildlife Reserve 27th November 2009

Our photography sifu from Tawau, Mr. Winston Tai organised a group of photographers to visit Tabin Wildlife Reserve for a 3D2N trip, from 27th to 29th November 2009.

Our group from Tawau consisted of Winston Tai, Kan NJ, Datuk CK Hon, Kong Ket Leong, Liew Lun Fatt, and myself. Andy Choak and YC Lee comprised the other group from Sandakan. Both groups departed at 6.00 am and met at Lahad Datu for breakfast.

Unlike our visit last year, the Tabin Road has been resurfaced with gravels and is in  good shape for 4WD vehicles, this is the road we took instead of the Permai Plantation road.

Not long after passing the main gate to Tabin Wildlife Reserve, we encountered a flock of feeding Blue-throated Bee-eater Merops phillippinus, hawking along the access road between the oil palm plantation on one side and secondary forests on the other. I have seen them in Sandakan, Kinabatangan and Penampang but not in Tawau, so Kong, Liew and myself stopped to take pictures of them while the other cars continued on to the Tabin's Reception office.

 

 

 Blue-throated Bee-eater

While the Bee-eaters were hawking for flying insects on the wings, I spotted this Grey-cheeked Bulbul Criniger bres in  the shrubs near the forest. Grey-cheeked Bulbul looks very similar to the montane Ochraceous Bulbul Alophoixus ochraceus. Apart from habitat difference, Grey-cheeked Bulbul  has less prominant crest, yellower underparts and buffy undertail converts.

Grey-cheeked Bulbul

After we had enough of the Blue-throated Bee-eater, we moved on to find this lone juvenile Tiger Shrike Lanius tigrinus caught a grasshopper in the shrubs beside the road.

Tiger Shrike Juvenile

During the guests registration, Resort manager Mr. Fernando informed us that there were a number of fruiting fig trees in the Resort and along the Lipid River, which was delightful news to us as the fruits would bring a variety of birds to the Resort.

While waiting for lunch, we were entertained by the feeding of Scaly-breasted Bulbul Pycnonotus squamatus (my lifer), Red-eyed Bulbul  Pycnonotus brunneus and a 1st winter male Blue-and-white Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelana on top of the tree adjacent to the restaurant. Scaly-breasted Bulbul has been photographed regularly by  photographers in Poring, Ranau, during the flowering and fruiting season, and we were more than happy to see it here in Tabin.

Scaly-breasted Bulbul 

Blue-and-white Flycatcher - 1st winter male

This flying lizard (looks like a Black-bearded Flying Lizard Draco melanopogon) also flew in.

Black-bearded Flying Lizard

Left after lunch to try our luck along the road leading to the Core Area (Core area represents almost 9,000 hectares of pristine rainforest), however, we did not travel far enough to reach the Core Area, we traveled only about 7 km along the road to look for birds. To reach the Core Area, one had to travel much further. We first encountered a Spectacled Bulbul Pycnonotus erythropthalmos.

Spectacled Bulbul

Than, more than 100 meters away, a very skittish flock of Slender-billed Crow Corvus enca, took off right after I took this shot.

Slender-billed Crow

A Plantive Cuckoo Cacomantis merulinus was singing her familiar song .... weee wit weee, weee wit weee, weee wit weee........, near the entrance gate of the Resort.

Plantive Cuckoo

An Oriental Pied Hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris flew overhead. It was too big for my camera.

Oriental Pied Hornbill

A Greater Coucal Centropus sinensis was foraging in the thick undergrowth. Although this bird has a relatively short tail, I think it is a Greater Coucal rather than the much rarer, smaller and similar looking Short-toed Coucal Centropus rectunguis,  as sighting and records of  Short-toed Coucal in Sabah have been considered provisional, owing to the difficulty in distinguishing the species from the larger look alike Greater Coucal (Sheldon et al. in press). (Edited on 21 May 2017: This should be a Short-toed Coucal, as I have taken more pictures of Short-toed and Creater Coucals for comparison after the original posting. See http://borneobirds.blogspot.my/2014/08/short-toed-coucal.html)

Greater Coucal

Along the Lipid River, the fruiting fig trees brought a number of  small birds, but I only managed to catch decent shot of the Velvet-fronted Nuthatch Sitta frontalis.

Encountered this Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinera along the road near a stream. Grey Wagtails winter in both lowlands and montane forests of Borneo, but thy are more commonly found in montane areas of Borneo in the Northern winter.

Grey Wagtail

The road going to the Core Area is in a very well kept condition and with a 4WD, our birding trips going up and down the road are like a piece of cake.

A Red-eyed Bulbul Pycnonotus brunneus perch on a dead branch. Red-eyed Bulbuls are hard to distinguish from the Cream-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus simplex  in Borneo as the latter also has red eye, but an easy way to tell them apart is Red-eyed Bulbuls have more rufous underparts.

Red-eyed Bulbul

On our way back to the resort we saw some Smooth Otters Lutra (Lutrogale) perspicillata drying themselves on the bank of Lipid River.

Smooth Otter

End of Part 1, to be continued. Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo #294