Large-tailed Nightjar

I must confess, this is my first nightjar, I have not photographed a nightjar before, though I have heard this often enough in Sandakan. Large-tailed Nightjar Caprimulgus macrurus is the commonest of the four nightjars occuring in Sabah.

Nightjars are nocturnal or crepuscular, which mean they are active from twilight, thus they are not likely to be encountered during the day when we  photograph along the forest trails, however, one might chance upon them roosting on the ground or along branches in day time.

This bird was photographed in Sandakan Sports Complex. It was heard not long after the lights were switched on, a pair was seen foraging for insects later and occasionally perched on the fence pole.It has long and pointed wings with hawklike flight, catching insects on the wings.

Large-tailed Nightjar is patchily distributed in Borneo, being commoner in Sabah, Brunei, Sarawak and in adjacent areas in Kalimantan.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

Paratised Caterpillar

This is something other than birds.

We came across this strange looking but colorful caterpillar, it has many tiny white cocoons on its body. Apparently the cocoons are of braconid wasps, which will eventually emerge and kill the poor caterpillar.

Happy birding.

Pelagic birding on 17th September 2011

This is our second pelagic trip to Davel Bay in Kunak, our last trip in August saw only a few birds.

The number of birds for this trip was better but no new birds were seen, the sightings were the usual common migrants.

We did not see a lot of terns as seen by Dave Bakewell in Tanjong Dawai Kedah. Our boat is identical to the one there and I have yet to see any Terns perched on the yellow floaters. May be we do not have that number of Terns here, or may be our timing was off, we will wait and see from our future trips.

Species seen during the trip comprised Aleutian Tern Sterna aleutica, Common Tern Sterna hirundo, Greater-crested Tern Sterna bergii, White-winged Tern Chlidonias leucopterus and Lesser Frigate Birds Fregata ariel ariel. Except for the lone Greater-crested Tern, the other birds were all numbered less than ten.

A few Aleutian Terns were flying around, some in breeding and some in non-breeding plumage, at times they were trailing our boat.

The non-breeding birds look similar to non-breeding Common Tern and please let me know if I got the ID wrong.

There were a few Common Terns.



This Common Tern looks odd in its yellow legs.

The lone Greater Crested Tern seen that day.

 

There were also a few White-winged Terns.

 

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.