Dusky Broadbill

Dusky Broadbill Corydon sumatranus brunnescens at 27 cm is the largest broadbill in Borneo, the other large broadbill is the montane Whitehead's Broadbill Calyptomena whiteheadi which is a bit smaller at 25 cm. It is a scarce and uncommon resident sparsely distributed from sea level to montane forests up to 1,220 meters, may be higher to 1,835 meters.

This is a bird of the tree tops and forage in family groups from their tree top perch. It is a dark bird with a pale buff throat and pinkish bill.  

I manage to see them in Tawau for the first time, true to its habits, three of them were foraging  near the canopy of a tall tree, my lifer and my #324 photographed wild birds of  Borneo. 

 

Incidentally, this is my second last Broadbill of Borneo, the last one to be added to complete my Broadbill collection is the super rare Hoses's Broadbill Calyptomena Hosii, wish I have a chance to photograph it one day.

My photo collection of Bornean Broadbills is here.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo 

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Red Knot

Went to Tinagat  today (22 August) to check on the waders. 

When I reached there, the tide was low and the waders were out a few hundred meters away and there was not many of them. I saw some Great Knots Calidris tenuirostris, many of them still in their breeding plumage, some presumably Red-necked Stints Calidris ruficollis, a few Terek Sandpipers Xenus cinerea,  a Grey Plover Pluvialis squatarola, a few Charadrius Plovers, two Little Terns Sterna albifrons, a few Tringa waders, a few Great Egrets Ardea alba. Nothing spectacular and none of the big curlews and Godwits were in sight.

Great Knots in various stages of moult from breeding plumage

However, on closer scanning, I saw a single bird that looked different from the group of feeding Great Knots. It has chestnut breast and is smaller than the Great Knot, it is the middle bird in the following picture.

To my delight, it is a Red Knot Calidris canutus. My lifer and my #323 photographed wild birds of Borneo.

I am lucky as it is still in partial breeding plumage, otherwise I  would have just treated it as another Great Knot, as in non-breeding plumage and size and bill differences with the Great Knot would not be that easy to differentiate from this far. It is a little smaller than the Great Knot and has shorter bill, as evident from the picture, and of course, in breeding plumage, it chestnut-red face and underparts is distinctive, we can still see the chestnut color breast here from hundreds of meters away. In contrast, a Great Knot in breeding plumage shows blackish breast and flanks made up of bold black spots, as in the first picture.

Red Knot  is a very uncommon or rare passage migrant to Borneo. Singletons and small flocks reach Borneo from Northern Asia.They have been recorded sparingly from Sabah.

The few Great Egrets are in breeding colour as in this picture, they could be actually breeding here somewhere, as they have been proven to breed in Sabah here.

 Great Egret

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo 

Standard References for my blog

Great Slaty Woodpecker

Great Slaty Woodpecker Mulleripicus pulverulentus, at 51 cm is the world's largest woodpecker. Range from Himalayas to Southwest China, Southeast Asia, Greater Sundas and Palawan, occurs on lowlands and hill dipterocarp forests, sometimes wanders into logged forest and plantations.

It is a scarce and rather uncommon resident of Borneo. It usually seen on high rising tree trunks of the towering tropical forest trees in Sabah, with laud drumming that resonates far and wide which can be heard far away on the forest floor. I once heard one drumming on a tall tree while I was just standing beneath, however I could not see it until it flew away as it was too high above on a horizontal trunk that blocked it from my view below.

The two problems of getting a good photograph of this bird are, a), it usually stays high above, making the bright sky as unavoidable and unpleasant background, and b) it is too far and too high away from the camera, however, these two problems are partially eliminated if you have a chance to photograph them from the canopy walkway of the RDC at Sepilok, as they can come quite near and you can shoot from a much better angle from the raised platform of the canopy walkway.

The Bornean race is M. p. pulverulentus, and the Bird Forum Opus site on this species is displaying a picture taken by me earlier.

I photographed this pair (male bird on top in both images) in Merotai, Tawau, the same place where I photographed the Common Goldenback, they came down very low on a dead tree, doing some ritual, may be some sort of mating rituals, I am not sure, spreading their wings to make displays while calling out loudly.

This was the first time I encountered them so near and some of my photos had cropped wings, even though I had the full-frame shots but I could not have a nice background as the paticular tree was a lone standing tree and I had to shoot against the sky. Here they are, the largest woodpecker in the world.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo 

Standard References for my blog