Who is sleeping with who?

It is a common sight at night in towns of Sabah that flocks up to thousands of Asian Glossy Starling Aplonis panayensis will congregate to roost on trees in parks and road side.

This inevitably occurs at dusk when it is hard to clearly see and identify the individual bird, all you can see is the feverish and hectic activities of birds flying in to choose a perch and hear the accompanying  noise. While this is happening, and if you have not witness one, you can be assured that it is a messy affair, passers-by will normally move away for fear of being 'bombed' by their droppings.

Here is a video I took on the evening of 5th June 2013, showing activities on an Ironwood Tree Mesua ferrea, in Tawau. I suggest you watch this video in Youtube for a better rendition.

The Asian Glossy Starling  is unmistakable as they can been easily identified while flying in to roost. However, to my astonishment, they is another species totally unrelated to the Asian Glossy Starling both in habitat and behavior choose to roost with them in the same trees as seen in the above video.

The species is Java Sparrow Padda oryzivora, which are the paler and smaller birds in the above video, I saw hundreds of them, flying-in in flocks.

During the day, Java Sparrow scatters in the outskirt bushes feeding on grass seed, they are hardly seen as they are normally away from roads, I have not seen them feeding inside Tawau town, it is surprising they choose to share roost in town with the Starling.

Java Sparrow is an introduced bird in Borneo, and it is evidently doing well here.

Here are some still images I took in the fast failing light.

 Java Sparrow with two Glossy Starlings psrtly hidden.

 This is one of the sharper images, a Starling is at the top left.



There is a flying Java Sparrow and some of both species.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

Dusky/Dark morph Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow Passer montanus,  is a very common bird in Borneo, co-existing happily with human. 

They feed on excess rice and bread crumbs thrown out of the kitchen, and often seen bathing in puddles at road side after a shower. The urban ones even feed inside food stalls and coffee shops.

While common as they are, individuals with plumage variations are hard to chance upon. 

Here, I share some photos I took of a dark morph individual, it was playing with other normal looking birds in a puddle after a shower, the rising heat wave had created havoc to the image. The images were taken in Tinagat, Tawau. You could see the obvious differences in plumage with the normal looking individuals.

Here it flew to land on an overhead cable. The belly is darkish grey and the upperparts patterns are indistinct.

Here is a image of a normal looking adult feeding a juvenile for comparison.

Here is another picture taken in Sahabat, Lahad Datu by Victor Luke Petrus, showing two dark morph individuals.

Image courtesy of Victor Luke Petrus

There could be more of them around, and next time you see some common Eurasian Tree Sparrow, do not write them off right away.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

Three Lonchuras at my neighbour's backyard

My next door neighbor moved to KL  a number of years ago and he stopped renting out his house recently in preparation for sale. Long grass unattended attracted three members of the seed-eating Lonchuras. I just need to stand at my kitchen door to photograph them.

First is the extremely common Chestnut Munia Lonchura atricapilla. This bird is all over the place, nesting in housing estates' gardens, traffic islands and even in your potted plant.

Than, the attractive feral Java Sparrow Lonchura oryzivora. Originally introduced as pet birds, the escapees are evidently well established as large party numbering more than 50 birds can be seen congregating to feed on suitable locations here.

Later the rarer White-bellied Munia Lonchura leucogastra palawana, this bird is, unlike its Chestnut Munia cousin, very shy and difficult to approach, it will flee at the slightest sign of you approaching.

Interestingly, Borneo has four races of this. Both Phillipps' and Susan Myer's Fieldguides illustrate the L. l. smythiesi found in western Borneo (Sarawak). The race in Sabah is L. l. palawana, similar to L. l. smythiesi but with less chestnut on the flanks. Also note that only the belly is white, not the vent.

And this is a shot of three of them together, Java Sparrow on top, White-bellied Munia at the bottom.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

Standard References for my blog