Eurasian Wigeon

Eurasian Wigeon Anas penelope, rare winter visitor to north-eastern Borneo. Recorded ten times from Borneo, only once in Bintulu, Sarawak in 1875. More recent records up to late Ninties are from Brunei and Sabah. No record yet from Kalimantan.

We were lucky to see one male and one female in Tinagat, Tawau on 22nd February 2014 (my lifer for 2014), they were in the same pond with the male Northern Pintail Anas acuta.

The female bird was closer with the male Northen Pintail, they always stayed close to each other. The male bird on the other hand was seen singly all the time when we were there. The male bird stayed on for at least another week while Northern Pintail and female Eurasin Wigeon left the next day as we were unable to locate them at the pond.

 Eurasian Wigeon - male

 Northern Pintail is seen staying close to the female Eurasian Wigeon.

Eurasian Wigeon - female

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.  

Northern Pintail

Northern Pintail Anas acuta, rare winter visitor to Borneo.

All precious records except two were from the north west coast of Borneo; they were from west coast of Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak, no record yet from Kalimantan. The only two records so far from the east coast of Sabah were six birds from Mumiang, near Kinabatangan in 1985 and one female from Tinagat, Tawau in November 2012.

On 22nd February 2014 my birding buddy, Mr. Kong Ket Leong and myself went to our usual places in Tinagat, Tawau to try our luck and spotted this male in a pond with a group of local resident Wandering Whistling Duck Dendrocygna javanica, we spotted it immediately when we drove near the pond,  we quickly reversed our car to a spot further away so as not to spook it. We than scampered  to get our photographic equipment to take photos of this beauty.

It was quite content with our presence as the pond was large enough for it to stay on the far end with the group of Wandering Whistling Duck without feeling threatened.

The different in size is apparent here.

The Duck Pond.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.  

Northern Pintail

Northern Pintail Anas acuta, a rare winter visitor to Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak side of Borneo. Quentin Phillipps lists this as the second commonest migrant duck after Garganey Anas querquedula (11 of which was sighted in Tawau last year, see link here).

One female was photographed on 13th November in Tawau, foraging with a group of resident Wandering Whistling Duck Dendrocygna javanica, however, it was not to be found the next day, it might have moved on further south.

It is my lifer bird; it is getting harder and harder to score a lifer now a days.

 Northern Pintail among the Wandering Whistling Ducks.

The brownish speculum indicates that this is a female instead of an eclipse male. Male in eclipse plumage resembles female but retain it distinctive metalic green speculum.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.



Some waders at Tinagat, Tawau end November 2011

It is the migrating season again, visits to Tinagat beach were rewarded with these waders.

I managed to record a new lifer, Grey-tailed Tattler Heteroscelis brevipes.

 A section of the hundreds of Great Knot, which is the commonest waders here.

 Grey-tailed Tattler, my lifer.

 Two Great Egrets, showing the range in size.

 Lesser Frigatebird, L to R, adult ♀, adult ♂ and immature.

 Eurasian Curlew

 Eurasian Curlew, showing its diagnostic white rump.

 Broad-billed Sandpiper

 Terek Sandpiper

 Bar-tailed Godwit with a Great Knot

 Pond Heron, suspected to be Chinese instead of Javan as they are only around during the northern winter, however, it is not possible to positively confirm in this eclipse plumage.

 Common Redshank

 A composite of diving Little Tern

 A Mangrove Skink Emoia atrocostata

 Common Greenshank

Far-eastern Curlew.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

First waders of 2010 have arrived.

Went to Tinagat beach, Tawau, today to establish whether the migrant waders are here already, and true to records, which said that the first of the waders would arrive in Borneo towards the end of July, I saw a big congregation of waders on a sand bar far far away.

From observation, they comprise  mostly of Great Knot  Calidris tenuirostris, with a few sand plovers and a Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva, and may be a Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus and a Red-necked Stint Calidris ruficollis. Here are the photograph of the sand bar, the afternoon heat-wave had wreaked havoc to the quality of the photos.

Great Knot should look like this without the heat wave. (picture taken in 2008).

Great Knots (2008)

The following images are taken today, 18th July 2010.

The stitched image of the sand bar.

A magnification.

A further enlargement showing most of them are Great Knot.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo 

Standard References for my blog