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.

Hobart 2012

Flew to Hobart on 14th December 2012. Tasmania is an island, when looking at the map of Australia, it is a small island. Its 68,332 sq km is slightly smaller than Sabah which is 73,619 sq km. If you imagine taking 9 hours to drive from Tawau ti Kota Kinabalu, you will feel that Tasmania is not so small as it looks on the Australian map. 

 

Here are some travel pictures as well as birds that are cooperative enough for my Panasonic GF 1 and 14-45 mm lens.

 

 

This is the view from the cockpit before landing at Hobart, it is almost 100% cloud cover.

This is the view below the cloud. A totally different perspective.

Welcome to Hobart, Tasmania.

Country scene outside Hobart, which is so different from our trees-dominated landscape. 

Pirate of Salamanca.

Salamanca week-end Market.

Salamanca week-end Market.

Glow in the dark candles at Salamanca week-end Market. 

Pizza vender with his oven at Salamanca week-end Market.

 Street artist at Salamanca week-end Market.

Salamanca week-end Market.

Hobart city.

 Elizabeth a Street, Hobart.

Long Beach, Hobart. See the human tolerant Silver Gulls Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae.

Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus, much bigger than Silver Gull and quite approachable.

Float on Long Beach, on it  are two preening Black-faced Cormorant Phalacrocorax fuscescens.

Walk way along Long Beach.

A Common Starling Sturnus Vulgaris in winter Plumage foraging on the rocks next to the shore line. This species is a rare vagrant to NW Borneo. One was photographed last year at Penampang. Looking at its foraging ground, I suspect they might forage at our shore as well when wintering here.

Immature Common Starling Sturnus Vulgaris is a dull looking bird.

Scene at Long Beach.

 Scene at Long Beach.

Australian Magpie Cracticus tibicen hypoleuca, also known as White-backed Magpie. There are eight races of this in Australia.

 Immature Australian Magpie.

 

 

More to come on Tasmania.

 

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.





Chestnut-cheeked Starling

Chestnut-cheeked Starling Sturnus philippensis, a very local winter visitor to Borneo, usually flock with Asian Glossy Starling Aplonis panayensis.

Its appearance in Borneo is somewhat irregular, not seen in some years, while large flocks were seen roosting in other years, however, it is a very regular visitor to the Philippines,

It breeds in Japan, from Central Honshu to Hokkaido, South Sakhalin and South Kuril Island from April to October, winters in Southeast Asia and the Philippines.

These images of this species were taken near Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok, Sandakan in October (My new bird). They were seen flocking with a flock of Asian Glossy Starling.

 

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

Standard References for my blog

Birding in KK with Sifu Karim 20th November 2009 (Part 1)

Edited on 1 May 2018 text with green backgound.

There was a seminar on 20th November 2009 in Kota Kinabalu I wanted to attend and went there on the night of Thursday (19th November). Touched down  KK at 11.00 pm after flight delay. Spent the night resting at Capital Hotel.

Woke up next morning, at first wanted to go to take a look at the sea front to try my luck but saw these instead right outside the hotel window on a tree along Jalan Tun Razak. Have to take pictures of them as I find Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans are not that common in Tawau.

Pink-necked Green Pigeon 

 

  Pied triller Lalaga nigra

After taking the shots of the above from my room, I went to the sea front but there wasn't much activity there. Took picture of this landmark Blue Marlin along the sea front for record.

Kota Kinabalu landmark

The morning until 2.00 pm was occupied by the seminar. Fetched Sifu Karim at about 2.30 pm at Tanjung Aru Town and went straight to Tanjung Aru beach to photograph the famous resident feral colony of Blue-naped Parrot Tanygnatus lucionensis. Here it is, my first lifer for this trip. Blue-naped Parrot occurs naturally on Si Amil, Maratua and Mantanani islands, but population on Mantanani has been extinguished, their best hope now is in Tanjung Aru. (Phillips, 2009)

Blue-naped Parrot

 

Blue-naped Parrot

After photographing the Blue-naped Parrot, we left for Penampang to look for Snipe. Snipes and other migratory water birds that frequent the inland fresh water fields, marshes and swamps during  northern winter are not easy to find in Tawau as there is virtually no padi field in Tawau. We reached our destination and found the sky was overcast.

 

Penampang padi fields

Sifu Karim and me

We scanned the fields for snipes but there was none to be seen, however, there were plenty of Wood Sandpiper Tringa glareola, Black-winged Stilts Himantopus himantopus, Little Egret Egretta garzetta, Great Egret Ardea albus, (Now Eastern Great Egret Ardea modesta) Intermediate Egret Egretta intermedia (Now Ardea intermedia),  Chestnut Munia (Now Black-headed Munia) Lonchura atricapilla, Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia and presumably White-winged Tern  Chlidonias leucopterus or Whiskered Tern Chlidonias hybrida flying and skimming  in the distant water-filled fields.

Amongst the numerous Chestnut Munia (Now Black-headed Munia), we found this Scaly-breasted Munia Lonchura punctulata, foraging with the large Chestnut Munia (Now Black-headed Munia) flock,  which is my 2nd lifer for the trip. Java Sparrow Padda oryzivora (Now Lonchura oryzivora)is easier to spot in Tawau than Scaly-breatsed Munia. The Scaly-breasted Munia is quite easy to spot among the Chestnut Munia (Now Black-headed Munia) flock once you get used to it as its color is not as brownish as the Chestnut Munia (Now Black-headed Munia).

 

Scaly-breasted Munia

On a branch far far away, this Peregrine Falcon Falcon peregrinus  perched. Peregrine Falcon is reputed to be the fastest raptor in the world,  stoop speeds certainly reach 160 km/h, sometimes possibly 250 km/h (on occasion allegedly 400+ km/h), feeds mainly on small birds and bats. Borneo has its resident Peregrine Falcon race (F. p. ernesti) which is a rare bird in montane forests. and in hilly areas of lowlands This bird is the migratory race, and my 3rd lifer for the day. Phillips mentioned that migrant race as peregrinator (Phillips, 2009), whereas the more popularly accepted race migrating to Borneo is either F. p. japonensis or F. p. calidus, where the latter is a little paler than the former.

 

Peregrine Falcon

A flock of Crested Myna Acridotheres cristatellus (4th Lifer) was found feeding from a tree quite a distance away. Crested Myna has short crest and ivory colored bill. I have not seen Crested Myna nor Javan Myna Acridotheres javanicus in Tawau, though they seem to be quite common in Sandakan and here.

Crested Myna

 

 Crested Myna below a White-breasted Woodswallow

As the light began to fade, a pair of this rare bird flew in, albeit perched far away, its appearance was totally unexpected, a real bonus. The Blacked-collared Starling Sturnus nigricollis (Now Gracupica nigricollis) (5th Lifer) is a large bird, as big as a Hill Myna (Now Common Hill Myna) Gracula religiosa and a scarce vagrant in Borneo.

Blacked-collared Starling

 

Blacked-collared Starling

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

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo #283 to #287.