Gong Xi Fa Cai 2010

Wishing all my friends who celebrate Lunar New Year a happy and prosperous Year of the Tiger.

May you get all the birds that you want.

Cheers.

Semi leucistic Pacific Swallow

I photographed this bird which  behaved and acted exactly like a swallow/swift flying above the lake in Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok, Sandakan. Suspecting it was a Needletail, I tried hard to take flight pictures of it in the dimming evening light. I was reward with a few viewable images.

After I viewed the images in my computer than I noticed how different it looked. I thought it was something new until I requested for ID help from Mr. Dave Bakewell, who kindly identified it as a  partially leucistic Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica.

Here is a brief explanation of leucism and albinism.

Leucism (or Leukism) Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing on the animal, or, more rarely, completely white creatures.

Albinism is a different condition. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that in albinism the eyes are usually pink or red, and albinism affects the entire animal, not just patches.

This occassionaly causes very excited biologists to think they have discovered a new species, when in fact leucism is the cause of the unusual markings they have seen.

Here are the pictures of the bird.

partially leucistic Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica

Happy birding.

Standard References for my blog

Black-headed Pitta

Black-headed Pitta Pitta ussheri, another endemic resident of  Sabah, in the west, south to the extreme north of Sarawak north of the line between Lawas and Meropok rivers, and in the west, south to the border with Kalimantan Timur, at the catchment of Sungei Sesayap and Sungei Mentarang, parapatric to Garnet Pitta Pitta granatina.

Parapatric means their ranges do not significantly overlap but are immediately adjacent to each other; they only occur together in the narrow contact zone, if at all.

Initially, this species was lumped with Graceful Pittta Pitta venusta in Garnet Pitta  Lambert and Woodcock (1996) split them as separate species.

Black-headed Pitta sounds very much like the Rail Babbler Eupetes macrocercus, with a more prolonged whistle than the Garnet Pitta. Incidentally the Blue-banded Pitta Pitta arquata also has very similar calls.

It is very similar to Garnet Pitta except that it has an all black head while the later has the hindcrown to mantle bright red. 

It is a very elusive bird, although having brilliant colors, it is a secretaive bird of the forest floor, and the casual bird watchers are very lucky if they chance upon one. I was extremely lucky to have taken its pictures  at RDC Sepilok, Sandakan, which is my number 302 wild bird of Borneo.

 

 

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo #302