The other birds of Maliau Basin

Further to my earlier post on our trips to see the secretive Bulwer's Pheasant Lophura bulweri, here is a collection of the other birds that I managed to photograph from those expeditions.

A young Short-toed Coucal Centropus rectunguis, this species is primarily a forest dweller and can be seen quite easily there.

A young Greater Coucal Centropus sinensis

Please see this post for a comparison between the coucals of Borneo.

Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinera foraging on the road side mud.

Male Whiskered Treeswift Hemiprocne comata, this species can be regularly seen perch on low twigs at almost eye level

Bristlehead Pityriasis gymnocephala, this group of Bornean endemic is seen here foraging on a road side tree.

Rufous-fronted Babbler Stachyris rufifrons, this pair is seen here constructing a nest.

Silver-rumped Spinetail Raphidura leucopygialis is abundant there. Occasionally they form into group and fly in circles.

Blue-winged Leafbird Chloropsis cochinchinensis, a species that was previously thought to occur only south of Sabah was first photographed here by Khairul Ikhwan Matnin.



Straw-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus, now a very difficult bird to see in the wild, this one was partly hidden and left without coming into clear view.



 Green Iora Aegithina viridissima, feeding on the same tree with the Blue-winged Leafbird.

A young  Rufous-bellied Hawk-eagle Hierraetus kienerii.

Black-and-white Bulbul Pycnonotus melanoleucos, one of the rarer bulbuls of Borneo.

Endemic female Bornean-blue Flycatcher Cyornis superbus.

Endemic male Bornean-blue Flycatcher Cyornis superbus.

Roulroul Rollulus rouloul 

 Large Green Pigeon Treron capellei, only found in remote forests in Sabah.

Chestnut-naped Forktail Enicurus ruficapillus foraging along Sungai Agathis near the Agathis Camp.

Bornaparte Nightjar Caprimulgus concretus , a very rare nightjar in Sabah.

 

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

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Mahua Waterfall

Mr. Kong Ket Leong and I drove to Rafflesia Information Centre on 14th December 2013 to photograph the Whitehead's Spiderhunter Arachnothera juliae, which story will be told in another episode.

This posting is about Mahua Waterfall and the birds we managed to photograph there, it is 6 km detour from Kampung Patau along the Tambunan Ranau road. (Rafflesia Information Centre is along Tambunan Penampang Road).

On recommendation of Sifu Chee Su Ken we stayed at Hostels in Mahua, aptly called Mahua Rainforest Paradise for the night before our return to Tawau the next day. It has good accommodation with electricity supply, in contrast to Gunung Alab Resthouse (the place we used to put up while photographing birds in Rafflesia Reserve) which supplies electricity using its own generator for the earlier part of the night only.

Mahua Waterfall is 1000m above sea level, about the same altitude of Gunung Lucia in Tawau Hills Park and Crocker Range Park near Keningau. It is at this zone that we see the coexistence of both montane and lowland bird species, however, the density of montane/submontane species is more than lowland species in this altitude zone.

Here are some of the pictures taken during the trip.Unless otherwise stated, they all taken at Mahua.

 Endemic Mountain Barbet Megalaima monticola, calling from the top of a faraway tree.

 Leucistic Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica, taken along the way from Tambunan to Tawau, infront of Maliau Basin, you will not miss it if it is flying there with the other swallows.

  Leucistic Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica, side view of the same bird.

 Male Whiskered Treeswift Hemiprocne comata, taken along the way from Tambunan to Tawau, along this stretch of road, there are many Whiskered Treeswifts perch on the telephone wire, oblivious to the passing traffic.

 This is Female Whiskered Treeswift along the same stretch of road.

 Silver-rumped Spinetail Rhapidura leucopygialis, taken in Maliau Basin entrance, one of my few shots of this species showing its rump.

 This is either a female Oriental Cuckoo Cuculus optatus or Himalayan Cuckoo Cuculus satararus from Rafflesia Reserve,  I am not sure which as it was silent. For a discussion of these two Cuculus species in Borneo, please see my earlier post here.

 Mountain Imperial Pigeon Ducula badia, a lone bird perched at the tip of a bare branch early in the morning, however, many individuals were seen flying overhead later.

 Male Grey-chinned Minivet Pericrocotus solaris, common and approachable bird in montane forests.

 Female Grey-chinned Minivet.

 Female Blue and White Flycatcher Cyanoptila cyanomelana

Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea, wintering species commoner in montane habitats in Borneo, Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava is commoner in the lowlands. An easy way to tell them apart is by looking at the color of the feet, the later has dark legs.

 First winter male Mugimaki Flycatcher Ficedula mugimaki, my last lifer for 2013, my number 393 bird photographed in Borneo. This is another migrant that prefers montane to lowland forests here.

 Black-and-Crimson Oriole Oriolus cruentus, this bird just refused to come lower.

 A group of wintering Eyebrowed Thrush Turdus obscurus, they prefer montane and hill forests here during winter.

 Hair-crested Drongo Dicrurus hottentottus

 Endemic Bornean Treepie Dendrocitta cinerascens,

 Checker-throated Woodpecker Picus mentalis, a species found from lowland to montane forests in Borneo.

 Endemic Bornean Ibon Oculocincta squamifrons, submontane species.

 Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea, this individual was foraging downstream of Mahua Waterfall.

 Ochraceous Bulbul Criniger ochraceus, commonly seen in montane forests.

 Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher Culicicapa ceylonensis, found also in lowland forests in Tawau Hills Park.

 Endemic Bornean Whistler Pachycephala hypoxantha, another common inhabitant of montane forests.

 Sunda Laughing-thrush Garrulax palliatus.

 Grey-throated Babbler Stachyris nigriceps, commonly seen in bird wave in montane forests.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of the wild birds of Borneo.

Standard references for my blog.

Bird with Sifu Jason in Kota Kinabalu areas

I was in Kota Kinabalu for some personal matters and took time off to photograph some birds with Sifu Jason, Sifu agreed to fetch me to visit all those interesting places and thanks to him, I managed to get three lifers in 24 hours.

First we got this Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus (my lifer) at Tanjong Aru at late afternoon, when the sky was heavily overcast and a storm was brewing. There were about ten of them there, in winter plumages and mostly first winter birds, flying above the shallow sea  occasionally diving for the surface for food.

Black-headed Gulls are very scarce winter visitor to coast of northern Borneo, however, despite scarce, they are quite regular along coasts of Sabah during the migratory season.

 Black-headed Gull

Common Teal Anas Crecca (my lifer) was photographed at Tuaran the next morning. A pair was seen there, the male bird was in the process of moulting into summer plumage, leisurely preening amongst the thick weeds growing on the unplanted paddy field.

Common Teal is a vagrant of Borneo, 4 records before this, only one from Sabah at Padas Damit in December 1984. This is the second record in Sabah.

 Common Teal - Male (top), Female (bottom)

A Common Kingfisher was also feeding from a stick placed in the middle of the flooded paddyfield.

 Common Kingfisher

After photographing this beauty, we left to look for the earlier spotted Garganey Anas querquedula , Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata and Tufted Duck Aythya fuligula but they were no where to be found. Hope they have made their way back to their respective homelands and not trapped and ended in dinner plates of some uninformed farmers.

Hoping to have a glimpse of the Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis, Tampasok plain was our next destination,  this bird too was not seen but the place was rife with activities.

A group of otherwise foraging Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus took flight, flashed by the fastest raptor in the world from above, the migratory Peregrine Falcon Falco pereginus, who was looking for lunch.

Black-winged Stilt

Its lunch was an unlucky White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus.

 Peregrine Falcon

Yellow Wagtails Motacilla flava, an abundant passage migrant,  can be seen in some open fields in Tawau, where it is often seen singly, in Tampasuk, they are all over the place, all seen were of the race tsuchutschensis,  flying and perching on dried paddy straw.

Yellow Wagtail

A hovering Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus was looking for lunch as well.

Black-winged Kite

We too went to lunch and later dropped by at Lok Kawi. We were handsomely rewarded with this rare Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes (my lifer), which I have been trying to photograph for quite a while. This elegant looking bird was oblivious of our presence while busy feeding close to the shore.

Chinese Egret

Chinese Egrets are uncommon winter visitor to Borneo, IUCN red list status is vulnerable due to lost of habitats to human economic activities.


Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

Standard References for my blog