Birding

The Bigfella

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One of the things I've enjoyed doing whilst riding through Asia is observing the birdlife.

I was going to say, specifically the feathered kind... but I realise that my interests actually extend a bit beyond just the feathered variety.

Be that as it may, I've snapped a few images of the feathered variety and whilst in Thailand recently, enjoyed sitting back and doing some birdwatching from another forumite's verandah. I know he's getting some spectacular photos... so... how about a birding thread?

What have you seen out there folks?

Here's a few of mine












 
I hate these rats with wings, but they are native in Asia, so....



One from home



A tiny kingfisher... less than 100mm tip to tail, one of a pair sleeping on a verandah in Cuc Phuong National Park



and this one in Malaysia



One from southern Thailand



Back to Malaysia

 
I was hearing 2 wheels has been hooked & was astonished at your knowledge on the subject.

He's getting some great photos.

Can you ask him if he can identify this one for me please?

 
Golden Oriole is my favourite, Fairybird are nice, were they seen in Malaysia?
And of course the Rhinoceros Hornbill, where was that?
 
All of those were in Malaysia.

I ended up seeing quite a lot of Hornbills. The first in Sumatra - in the National Park between Berastagi and Bukit Lawang - a rather remote area, but I didn't get any photos of them... they were a quick fly-by.

Most of the Hornbills were near Lake Kenyir, in Eastern Malaysia. I stayed here for two or three nights.



That's the Lake at the end of the light blue track



Here's another one from Lake Kenyir. I'd love to have gotten him on a tree... but such is life



I was "under-gunned" there if I recall correctly. Most of the time I was travelling with an 18-200 lens. I have travelled at times with an 80-400 but its too damn heavy.

Here's some more Hornbills







Hard bastards to get. This is a Wrinkled Hornbill... but that's as good as I got of them



I took a guided trip as well as poking around by myself. Went up a washed out road



No signs marking that, btw. Could be nasty at night.... but plenty of elephant sign around, albeit a bit old, so best not to ride at night



Anyhow, I was sitting down, waiting for the Hornbills to come across and I asked my guide "ever see a Tiger". "No, but I saw their tracks on the road last year, it had rained and they left wet prints on the road"... "Where".... "There"



Okaaay.....
 
Can you ask him if he can identify this one for me please?

I'm just a mere beginner but it appears to be the Hairy Legged Tit doesn't it?

Ally is brilliant at identifying our feathered friends.

It all makes life here all the more pleasant and interesting.
 
Tough life for the birds around there. This bloke would clean up the eggs quick smart



Some more Pied H. if I'm not mistaken.



Oops... think I found a better shot of the Wrinkled



One of the things I really enjoyed, in both Sumatra and Malaysia, was seeing Gibbons in the wild. This female White Handed Gibbon, a long way up, took me ages to spot. Their calls are just amazing. She was only 75 metres off the road, but took me a good 10-15 minutes to get a shot of her



Here's a crappy shot of the male she was with



I saw a family of them on the move, down south in Sumatra. Amazing. Enjoyed them better than the Orangutans

Back to birds....

I wish I'd got a better one of this one.... I'll go back there and do a decent job of it some year



... and one from my verandah in Oz



- - - Updated - - -

I'm just a mere beginner but it appears to be the Hairy Legged Tit doesn't it?

Ally is brilliant at identifying our feathered friends.

It all makes life here all the more pleasant and interesting.


Wrong. Its a pair of Hairy Legged Tits.
 
Incredible pictures - must have taken you ages to get these shots at the right time and the right place.
 
As I said, I'm just a beginner at this but with the help and encouragement of Ally who, in her typically kind-hearted manner, gave me her copy of 'Birds of Thailand'
and 'BigFella' Ian who taught me to look down as well as up I am really enjoying sharing my little patch of Doi Saket with my new-found feathered friends.
They enhance my existence.

So here's a few I've seen recently.
I'm not sure that I have managed to correctly identify them so please correct any mistakes.

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Bulbul?

House Sparrow.jpg

House Sparrow?

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Blue throated Bee-eater?
 
That's them. Come on Ron... post that photo of the pair of bee-eaters... or I will.

Incidentally, I love how sharp those photos are.... but hate the fact that they were taken on a Sony..... I was an Imagestation user... so won't buy anything Sony after what they did to their customers
 
1-Red Cheeked / whiskered Bulbul (that so many folks keep in cages)
2-Plain-Backed Sparrow (not to be confused with the Eurasian Sparrow or even one of the weaver family)
number 3 is indeed the Blue throated bee eater


Ally
 
1-Red Cheeked / whiskered Bulbul (that so many folks keep in cages)
2-Plain-Backed Sparrow (not to be confused with the Eurasian Sparrow or even one of the weaver family)
number 3 is indeed the Blue throated bee eater


Ally

Wow... learn something every day. I was convinced that was the miserable old English sparrow.
 
Here's another of Ron's photos. He has a better chance than me of remembering the local name. Blue-throated Bee-eater to us farang



I visited a nesting site of a flock of bee-eaters (slightly different flavour to the CM ones) at Lake Kenyir, but it was very late in the day and I didn't get any decent photos. It was nice watching them fly into and out of their burrows at speed as they fed their young.
 
Trying to get bird photos from a fully zoomed iPhone is "interesting"





Some of the storks that I saw on the road trip to the former communist headquarters with Auke. The second photo is of an immature bird.

I saw a Black Baza on that trip... up close beside the road, but didn't get a photo. Never seen one before.
 
Just to finish off what I've got on Bee-eaters. Here's a nesting site



That is a near vertical bank beside a sports field at Lake Kenyir, Malaysia. By the look of it, one new and several old nest burrows. These burrows go in about one metre to a chamber where the young are raised. The adult birds "hit" these burrows at speed, folding their wings at the last second.

Here's an adult with an insect of some description... waiting for me to move away from the burrows.



Heavily cropped... just put it in for the sake of the story. You can see the pair of extended tail feathers.. behind the shrubbery.

Another heavily cropped shot from there. Taken from the bike. A larger kingfisher.

 
Those Kingfishers are spectacular and appear somewhat 'top heavy'.

Ground nesting Bee-eaters; didn't know that.
 
Yep.

Here's an immature Crimson Rosella on my verandah



and an adult



a fluffed up Crested Pigeon



and not so fluffed up



and one that got caught in the chook house and was too stupid to figure out how to get out



Sulfur-crested Cockatoo






- - - Updated - - -

a Scrub Turkey that was around here for a while



A Pacific Baza.... about 100' up above the house



The resident Rainbow Lorikeet again

 
Pelican



My daughter's (late) pet duck



I got a lot of the blame for its demise... because of all the bolts, etc of mine that it ate

Feeding time at my place. Mum, Dad and the two kids




King Parrot




A Galah, checking out a possible nesting site in a tree beside the house

 
Here's one of my Hornbill fotos.
Not a good picture but worth seeing I think
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The adults had bricked up the baby bird in a tree, and were flying up to feed it, in Sulawesi
 
Coincidently we've got one with a broken wing here today. Just bought him a cage and some food. Wing looks pretty bad hoping he doesn't die of shock





ForumRunner_20130620_124223.jpg
 
A bit of a sad one. This was a Powerful Owl. The largest owl in Oz. Killed on the power lines out front. I've got a photo of one that's alive somewhere...



That dead one went in the freezer and I took it to the Australian Museum... and they were glad to get it, as they are not all that common. Funny thing was, I had a couple of meetings with senior bank execs, before I could get to the Museum. Didn't tell them that I had a big dead owl sitting in the bag on their office floor

But what I was looking for, when I found all those, was this fellow. Oz's largest kingfisher, the Laughing Kookaburra. This guy is a road hit victim. Broken wing... can't fly





He's in the aviary in the back yard... which has a few other cripples in it. There's a damn fox trying to dig his way in at present. He might get lead poisoning if I see him, as these no-flying birds wouldn't stand a chance.

Here's another one in my back yard. A Wonga Pigeon aka Bush Chook... big, juicy and apparently quite nice eating.



The early days with Kooka... back when he was getting frozen baby rats for dinner... at about $3 a pop.

 
Here's one of my Hornbill fotos.
Not a good picture but worth seeing I think
View attachment 18297
The adults had bricked up the baby bird in a tree, and were flying up to feed it, in Sulawesi

Fabulous bird, Alex. Amazing, aren't they?
 
Great stuff you guys :)

Thank you sooo much for sharing them.

Here is a pic of a Dark Backed Sibia that 2wheels & I saw yesterday at Doi Inthanon whilst sipping hot drinks at the the Cafe
DSC_3056a.jpg

And also joining us at the table was this little urchin (in mid scoff of the garlic bread kindly laid out by the cafe folks)

DSC_3095a.jpg

Ally
 
Nice ones Ally.

How's this bird?





and here's one of my sons with that King Parrot

 
Powerful Owl, on the clothesline.




Wingspan is over 1 metre. (1.1m to 1.35m)
 
Nice thread.

Stunning parrots in Oz.
Informative day yesterday Ally, thank you.
You did well to capture those 2, given the lack of light where we were.

Can some-one please check my pics marked with question marks as I want to get this right.
 
I think this one is a Sunbird, taken last year at Bukit Lawang, Sumatra



and another one... that I just missed, Lake Toba, Sumatra

 
Haven't got a clue what this is. Lake Toba, Sumatra



Same place with a rather well camouflaged green dove



Got a couple here from a National Park, down south in Sumatra. Well worth a visit. Well worth the $80 or so (IIRC) that it cost to do a river cruise. I was solo... same price could be split among several.



This is a grey-headed fish eagle





Another bee-eater

 
This one took some chasing... through fresh elephant tracks








This is where the wild elephants crashed through.







Trying to spot the crocodile we'd seen, again...




Ahhh this one. One of the big frogmouths... the biggest of them. Interesting story. We hung around at the river after the cruise until it was well dark.. then went looking for these



I was rather glad we'd taken the 4WD from the lodge. Driving through the jungle, we spotted a Tiger - biggest, brightest yellow eyes shining back at us in the headlights. No photo.... sure as hell wasn't expecting it. A kilometer further along, the driver stops and says "birds here"... and got out with his iPod and external speaker... started playing the frogmouth's call.... and we eventually got a response. First up though, I'm saying "what about the Tiger?".... "They don't eat anyone here... only up in Aceh". Yeah, right...

So we end up 150 metres down the track and 100 metres into the jungle. I got a couple of photos and convinced him it was time for a beer



Never have I been happier to see a crappy old 4WD




.... and off topic... but here's the first Gibbon we spotted. Hard things to photograph

 
Is that a Laughing Thrush in Lake Toba?
Gibbons are difficult to fotograph, so high in the trees,and shy
 
Oriental Turtle Dove (?) under my back verandah.

DSC03306.jpg

New life.

DSC08789.jpg

Two chicks.
Tomorrow I'll try to have a non-intrusive look at the chicks ... and avoid that twig that my camera focussed on!

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Beware of lice if you get too close.... ask me how I know this!

I'm no fan of the turtledove... mainly because they are a feral pest at home. Here's a couple I ran across in a rather remote warung (pub) on Samosir Island, Lake Toba, Sumatra



It seems the bird is tethered there...

Just to digress slightly, it was a rough crowd in the warung, but they were nice to us - fed us and plenty of arak, wouldn't take money.

 
Oops sorry think my link to RA is broken found this Twitcher's site by accident :-)

My mac must need a re boot

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner
 
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