A Wildbird Photographer's Diary

Some Waterbirds at Thale Noi

2011-12-17T22:09:00.000+08:00

During the trip to Krung Ching Waterfall on early September, we also took the opportunity to explore the famous Thale Noi Lake at Patalung. Our primary target was to photograph the Pheasant-tailed Jarcana, unfortunately September was not the right timing to see the Pheasant-tailed Jarcana at this area.

The Boat Ride on Thale Noi Lake

Searching for the waterbirds at the Lotus plant habitat

We were very delighted to find the Bronze-winged Jarcana and Purple Swamphen.

Bronze-winged Jarcana

Purple Swamphen

Purple Swamphen with its young chicks

An Un-common species at this area, the Cotton Pygmy Goose

Thanks for reading.

Javan Frogmouth

2011-12-11T21:42:00.000+08:00

Javan Frogmouth

In early September this year, I went to the Krung Ching Waterfall of Khao Luang National Park at Southern Thailand. One of the primary target of the trip was the Javan Frogmouth. After numerous attempts to find the bird along the park main road, we ended with no sighting of the bird.

The Main Road at Krung Ching Waterfall

On the last day of the trip, we were getting desperate of finding the target bird. The local guide suggested to "venture" into the forest. At first I was a bit reluctant and fear of bumping into a king cobra inside the forest canopy. I could not resist the temptation of getting the photo lifer. I followed the guide into the forest. It was a big challenge carrying the bulky equipments, moreover the hilly terrain made the hiking very tough. Here is the video clip of the adventure inside the forest:

Shooting under the forest canopy. The Javan Frogmouth perched few meter away

In birding, we always say "no pain no gain". This video is a good testimony of the "no pain no gain" motto.

Thanks for reading.

A Break From Birding Activities

2011-10-31T22:05:00.000+08:00

My previous post for this blog was dated July 31. You may be curious that why I did not update my blog lately. I lost my passion and mojo in bird photography, thus I decided to take a hiatus from birding. I spent most of my leisure time on mountain biking There are more excitements on mountain biking.

Thanks for reading.

My Photo Won a Photo Contest

2011-07-31T19:15:00.001+08:00

My photo of a female Black-naped Monarch feeding on the young chicks won the monthly photography contest organized by PhotoMalaysia Website. The photo was selected as the second runner up.

Here is the link to the site:
PhotoMalaysia Jun 2011 Contest

Thanks for viewing.

Black and Yellow Broadbill

2011-07-03T14:19:00.000+08:00

Species: Black and Yellow Broadbill (Eurylaimus Ochromalus 17 cm)

Location: Ulu Paip, Kedah, Malaysia.

Shooting Data: 1 D mk4, EF 800 IS, ISO 1600 - 2000, AP Mode F8.

Thanks for viewing.

Bar-backed Partridge

2011-06-26T18:12:00.000+08:00

This is my first lifer of the Partridge species (Arborophila brunneopectus 28 cm). I managed to photograph it at the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand. The photos were captured using the Canon Eos 1 D mk4 with EF 800 Is lens.

Thanks for viewing.

Baya Weaver

2011-05-06T19:54:00.000+08:00

It is really amazing to see the nest of Baya Weaver. The nest is perfectly weaved with natural fibre. Recently I took some time off while visiting Singapore to photograph the nesting process of the Baya Weaver. We found a series of nests at a remote north west corner of Singapore. Some of nests were completed, the adult birds were actively ferrying food into the nest. I also found a few other nests which are partially constructed. The adult birds were working hard gathering the nesting material into the nest. The adult birds weaved the nests using leaf and natural fibre found nearby. The "craftsmanship" is really superb, I would call it the world best weaving "machine".

Working hard on the partially completed nest :

Thanks for reading.

Long-tailed Broadbill

2011-03-20T18:51:00.000+08:00

March 19 2011. Last week, I went for a 4 days (12 to 15 March) birding trip to Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand. One of my main target was to photograph the Long-tailed Broadbill. I have tried many times searching for it at Fraser's Hill but were without success. About 2 weeks before my trip, I received news that the Long-tailed Broadbills at Kaeng Krachan had started the breeding and nesting activities. I was very excited upon hearing the news. With the nesting activities, it made sighting the birds more easy.

It was a week-end when I arrived at Kaeng Krachan. Knowing that the park will be packed with visitors, I opted to photograph the Pheasant, Partridge and other common birds at some small pond outside the park. We will look for the Long-tailed Broadbill inside the park on Monday and Tuesday when traffic is lesser along the mountain road.

We started the day early on Monday (14th March) morning. The morning called was on 5 am and breakfast was served at 5.30 am. By 6.30 am we were already at the park main gate.

The ride to the km27 near the summit was about an hour. There were plenty of scenic views during the ride uphill.

The blur photo caused by the bumpy ride behind the Hilux.

Upon reaching the km27, I was delighted to hear a series of voice of pseew, pseew, pseew, I realized that the target was nearby, my adrenaline rush when I was setting my gears. I decided to carry only minimum gears and opted to shoot with my Eos 1 D mk4 with the EF 800 lens only. I left behind the flash system. I realized that we have to do some miles of hiking today thus weight is a critical factor.

We found an uncompleted nest at a tree beside the mountain road. The adult birds were busy carrying nesting materials back to the nest. The birds would perched at some twigs nearby before heading into the nest.

Isn't it cute ? A cartoon look bird.

Happy faces, after the close encounter with the Long-tailed Broadbill :

We found another nest further uphill from the first location. This one was already completed and the adult bird was incubating inside the nest. I stop briefly near the nest and quickly proceeded to the next location.

Later at another location, we all have to squeeze under some bamboo trees for getting perfect picture composition of the subject.

The black color feather at the head section reminded me the classic hair style of "Elvis". Elvis is alive at Kaeng Krachan !

By noon, I had accomplished my objective and so do my partners. We all left km27 with a happy face.

Birds of Bukit Tinggi

2011-02-20T18:37:00.000+08:00

Last month I took some time off to visit Bukit Tinggi. The last time I visited this place was on May 2009. I saw in some local bird forum that the Orange-headed Trush (OHT) was sighted here by some photographers. I have been long wanted to photographed the OHT but on the past few occasions I was not able to find time to visit Bukit Tinggi due to work commitment. For this new sighting, I would't want to miss the opportunities again.

I arrived at the peak of Bukit Tinggi at about 7.30 am. I immediately set up my gears. Without wasting time (because it was a half dat trip only) I headed to the first shooting location, the plant nursery at the Japanese Garden. Many birds came to the nursery hunting for the moths and other inserts in morning.

A Dark-sided Flycatcher perched nearby the nursery:

Later I spotted a bird with light blue feather perched at a tree nearby, it was a Verditer Flycatcher:

After the Verditer Flycatcher left, a bird with the "punk hair-style" came and perched at the stem of a plant. It was an Ochraceous Bulbul. The fella was looking for the moths as its breakfast.

The Ochraceous Bulbul only stayed on the perched briefly but long enough to let me took a few snap shots. After the Bulbul left, I was attracted by an orange color bird perched on a single horizontal twig. It was a Orange-breasted Trogon.

A Yellow wagtail stood at the side roof of the nursery.

It was a busy morning at the nursery. Unfortunately there was still no sighting of the Orange-headed Thrush (OHT). As I was walking toward the car park. I saw my fellow bird photog, Adrian. He hang around this place very often, he was so kind to tell me the precise location of the OHT.

My lifer of the day, the OHT:

The winter migrant bird from the far north, Mugimaki Flycatcher :

Thanks for reading, your comments are welcome.

Doi Inthanon - Inthanon Bird Centre

2011-02-17T18:52:00.001+08:00

Inthanon Bird Centre is the place that you should not miss out if you are birding in Doi Inthanon. Many birders or photographers hang out here, they came here for delicious Thai food or lodging. Besides food and lodging, this is an important place where information on the recent bird sighting is exchanged among the visitors. There is also a bird sighting log book at the main desk, many visitors recorded the sighting information into the log book. It provided vital information of recent bird activities in Doi Inthanon.

At the backyard of the Bird Centre, some species of birds frequently come there looking for residual food or worm on the soft soil. During my stayed there, I was lucky to photograph 2 species of migrant birds and 2 resident birds.

Dark-sided Thrush:

Blue-whistling Thrush (Migrant species)

Hill Blue Flycatcher

Female White-rumped Shama

A group photo with the owner (Mr & Mrs Daeng) before I left Doi Inthanon:

Thanks for reading, your comments are welcome.

A video Footage of Blue-banded Kingfisher

2011-02-12T16:23:00.002+08:00

Feb 12 2011. Finally I am done composing a video footage of the Blue-banded Kingfisher. Enjoy the video. The video was composed using the Apple iMovie video editing software. The footages were captured using the Canon Eos 1 D mkIV, EF 800mm lens with the new Canon 1.4 mkIII tele-converter. Your comments are welcome.

For HD quality, kindly click and select the 720 p resolution:

2nd Round of Blue-banded Kingfisher

2011-02-05T13:59:00.002+08:00

Feb 5 2011. Today is the 3rd day of Chinese New Year holiday. This morning I decided to try my luck looking for the Blue-banded Kingfisher at Ulu Paip. Nelson came to join me, without his lens (sent to Canon for servicing). He brought with him the 7D body and just in case if we found the target, he wanted to use my lens for some record shots.

We sat down at a rock in the middle of the stream. We drank coffee and constantly scanning upstream and downstream for the target. I decided not to move around as the movement would distract and alert the target should it decided to perch at some rocks nearby.

At 8.45 am, while I was looking upstream, Nelson alerted me to a small rock few meters downstream. OMG, it was really the Male Blue-banded Kingfisher. Perching there quietly, the fella was looking at the stream for its morning breakfast. I repositioned my lens and looked through my viewfinder. I was greedy, hmm... the target was not big enough since I had many photos of it the other day, I want some "full frame" shots. I slowly raised my body and moved the camera, the fella was kind enough to let me went nearer. I fired about 50 frames with mirror lock-up. After that I dis-mounted my 1 D mkIV and mounted Nelson's 7D. He made a couple of shots using my gears.

Here's the selection of shots from this morning's outing:

Canon Eos 1 D mkIV Ef 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 1600 1/5 f8

Canon Eos 1 D mkIV Ef 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 1600 1/13 f8

Canon Eos 1 D mkIV Ef 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 1600 1/15 f8

Thanks for viewing.

Blue-banded Kingfisher

2011-02-01T21:17:00.000+08:00

Feb 1 2011. On last Sunday morning, I decided to bird at Ulu Paip lowland forest. It was about 4 months that I last visited this place. At about 9.30 am, while we (my brother and me) were shooting landscape at the middle of the stream. I saw a blue color bird flew passed me. It was flying toward downstream. I quickly turned my head and tracked the target. Bingo I saw the bird stopped and perched on a rock few meter away. After a careful checking with my binocular, it is a Male Blue Banded Kingfisher. Apparently the Blue-banded Kingfisher stopped by to hunt for "breakfast". I slowly carried my equipment and approach the target. Here are some selected shots:

Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 3200 1/50 F8

Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 1/1600 1/30 F8

Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 3200 1/40 F8

Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800mm IS + 1.4 TC
ISO 5000 1/50 F8

Thanks for viewing.

Happy Chinese New Year (Lunar Calendar)

2011-02-01T09:46:00.000+08:00

Feb 1 2011. It will be Lunar Calendar New Year (Chinese New Year) in 2 days time. I take this opportunity to wish all my friends a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Doi Inthanon - Second Gate Km38

2011-01-15T23:22:00.000+08:00

Throughout my 4 days stayed at Doi Inthanon, the Second Gate at km38 was the first visiting location on my daily travel itinerary. We usually arrive at the gate at 6.30 am. After a fast breakfast, I set up my gears and got ready for some actions. Birds were active at the gate, many species of birds come here regularly looking for insects and residual foods near the gate.

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta.

Rufous-bellied Niltava (Female).

Small Niltava (female).

White-headed Bulbul at a leafless tree.

White-browed Shortwing (Female)

White-gorgetted Flycatcher

Yellow-cheeked Tit.

Thanks for viewing.

Singapore Botanical Garden - Hooded Pitta

2010-12-29T15:25:00.000+08:00

December 29 2010. I am currently having the Christmas Holiday with my family in Singapore. Yesterday I received news from some bird photographers that a Hooded Pitta is spotted at Singapore Botanical Garden. I was invited to join them to photograph the Hooded Pitta together. Chris and Wong are very kind to lent me their gears since I only bought my Sony NEX 3 to Singapore.

I am really surprise to see the Pitta at the Ginger Garden. The subject is very tame and not shy to human activities. Here are some photos shot with Chris equipment :

Here is a panoramic view of the shooting site, click the image for larger view:

Thanks for reading.

Doi Inthanon-Day 1

2010-12-28T21:12:00.000+08:00

I was at Northern Thailand again on 20th Dec to 23rd Dec for a 4 days birding trip. I was mainly concentrating at Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain (2500 meter) in Thailand. I also engaged bird guide service from Mr Panuwat, the same guide that guided my last month trip to Doi Ang Khang and Doi Lang. The flight landed at Chiang Mai on time. The flight service from Thai Airway was very smooth. TG opted to use bigger aircraft such as 777 and 747 for the Bangkok to Chiang Mai sector is really brilliant. The flights were very comfortable and gave "value for money" service.

Upon stepping into the arrival hall, I was welcome by my guide, Par. We headed straight to Doi Inthanon in his Hilux. It was a 2 hours travel. At 10 am, we arrived at the first gate at the foothill.

At the Main Gate

After the gate, we headed to the Wachirathan Waterfall (at km 21). Our target at the waterfall are the Plumbeous Redstart and Slaty-backed Forktail. The view of the Wachirathan Waterfall is splendid.

Wachirathan Waterfall
Sony NEX-3

I spent a short moment at the waterfall. After that, we headed downstream to look for our target birds. I found a pair of Plumbeous Redstart, both male and female, not too far away from the waterfall.

Male Plumbeous Redstart took bath at the stream

Female Plumbeous Redstart

While I was photographing the Redstart, I heard a high pitch sound of "clik, clik, clik.......". Oh ! A Slaty-backed Forktail landed on rock not far from me. A dream come true.

Slaty-backed Forktail
Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800 IS + 1.4 TC

After breaking for lunch at Mr Daeng's Restaurant, we headed to the camp site to look for the Black-tailed Crake. This species is quite shy and skittish, thus I had to use blind to "camo" myself and some worm to "seduce" the bird from the bush to the open area.

Black-tailed Crake

At about 5 pm, we went up to the view point near the summit for some landscape photography. I bought along my new Sony NEX-3 with the 16mm lens. I wanted to test the sweep panoramic capability of the camera. Click the photos for larger view :

Panoramic View from the Summit
Sony NEX-3
Sweep Panoramic

At the summit, I came across a pair of very tame Grey Bushchat.

Female Grey Bushchat

Male Grey Bushchat

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome.

Doi Lang - Part 5

2010-12-11T18:27:00.001+08:00

December 11 2010. 26th of November was the last day of my 5 days Northern Thailand Trip, I had till 10 am to do a last round of shooting at the foothill of Doi Lang before heading to the airport. I went back to the Pink Cassia Tree which was discovered by some Thai Photographers on the previous day.

At 7 am I saw some species of Sunbirds, White-eye and Leafbirds came to the tree. I was very excited to see the birds coming. The birds came to feed on the flower nectar. Unfortunately It was windy and foggy. The bad weather condition caused most of my shots blur.

Foggy and windy condition

At 8.30 am, the fog started to clear and the wind slowed down. The golden morning sunlight created a perfect shooting condition.

My first lifer of the day is the colorful Gould's Sunbirds.

The Black-throated Sunbird was also attracted to the pink Cassia tree.

I got 2 species of White-eye from the same tree. There were Chestnut-flanked and Oriental White-eye.

A pair of Orange-bellied Leafbird :

Female

Male

An un-expected visitor also came to the tree, a Female Daurian Redstart :

Female Daurian Redstart

It was a very productive morning. I got 4 species of lifers at the pink Cassia Tree.

Overall my 5 days at Northern Thailand were full of excitement. I enjoyed the beautiful landscape of Northern Thailand and food. I managed to photographed over 30 species of birds. I would like to thank my bird guide, Mr Panuwat Sasirat (whoever interested on his bird guide tour, click the link here: wildbirdeco), who has worked very hard to find many species of birds and also his hospitality during my trip at Chiang Mai.

Thanks for reading.

Doi Lang - Part 4

2010-12-09T22:09:00.000+08:00

December 9 2010. On the 25th of November, it was the last full day at Doi Lang. I put in more efforts to look for some other species that I did not manage to photograph the day before. I also spent part of the morning session shooting behind the army kitchen, aiming to get improvement shots of the "tame birds".

Here are some highlights of the day :

Rufous-winged Fulvetta

A small and fast moving bird

Thanks to Par (my bird guide), he managed to find this fella before we headed back to the foothill.

Yellow-bellied Fantail

Some birds at Doi Lang are quite shy and skittish. It was not easy to get near. Here are some highly cropped photos:

Black Bulbul

White-headed Bulbul

Crested Finchbill

Ashy Drongo

Ashy Bulbul

Yellow-browed Warbler (P.inornata)

I also met a group of very friendly Thai Bird Photographers. We had a group photos before we left the place.

At the foothill, the Thai photographers discovered something un-expected, a blooming pink Cassia tree. The pink Cassia flowers attracted some species of birds to the tree. However, it was getting dark soon thus I decided to come back here early in the morning the next day.

This is the first blooming tree at this area.

I was excited to see many species of birds came to the tree.

To be continued. Thanks for reading.

Doi Lang - Part 3

2010-12-02T23:03:00.004+08:00

At the view point.
The far end is the Burmese Border

December 2 2010. I spent two and a half days at Doi Lang. I personally feel that this is the best birding place for my 5 days trip. This place is quite remote thus the habitat here are not disturbed by human activities. There are more species of birds sighted here compared to Doi Ang Khang.

At the Thai Army Camp.

On the first day at Doi Lang, I started the day photographing some "tame" birds behind the Thai Army Champ kitchen. Among the species that frequently come here looking for left-overed foods are Red-faced Liocichla, Black-headed Sibia, Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush, Blue-Whistling Thrush and Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher.

Red-faced Liocichla

Chestnut-crowned Laughingthrush

Black-headed Sibia

Blue-whistling Thrush

Rufous-gorgetted Flycatcher

By 10 am, it's time to proceed to the summit view point. Along the way, my guide and I stopped over a few places.

Whiskered Yuhina at a fruiting tree

Getting ready for the White-gorgetted Flycatcher

A pair of White-gorgetted Flycatcher came to feed on some worms.

Some scenic views at the view point:

Here is a view of Thai and Burmese border

Shooting landscape with my 70-200 F4 IS

I met a British motor-rider who was embarking a journey from here to Peninsula Malaysia.
I provided him some tips of places of interesting in Malaysia.

By 12, it was time for a lunch break.

Lunch was prepared at the back of the Hilux. I like Thai food.

Bird's activity was slow from 1 pm till 4 pm. There were not much species sighted. By 4 pm, it was time for last round of shooting before we headed to the foothill.

I spotted a Spectacled Barwing not far away from the army camp.

Spectacled Barwing

Flavescent Bulbul

While driving toward the foothill. We saw a lonely Blue-breaded Bee Eater perched high up at a tree. I managed to get some "grab shot".

Thanks for reading.

Doi Ang Khang - Part 2

2010-12-01T22:08:00.000+08:00

December 1 2010. I started the second day early. By 6.30 am my guide and I hit the road to the first location, a patch of pine forest further from the Chinese cemetery. We were looking for the Hume's Pheasant. It was a no show after an hour of waiting. However, I managed to see the Eurasian Jay and photographed the male and female Grey Bushchat.

Male Grey Bushchat

Female Grey Bushchat

After that, I moved on to an open ground near the rubbish dump area. I spotted 3 species of Bulbul at the open ground.

Brown-breasted Bulbul

Flavescent Bulbul

A small flock of Sooty Headed Bulbul

The excitement of the day was when we saw the Siberian Rubythroat. We decided to play the "tape" trying to lure the fella to a nearer tree. We were excited to see it responded to the call and flew nearer.

Siberian Rubythroat
Easily identified by its red throat

Responded well to our call by perching at tree nearer to our hiding location

Siberian Stonechat

Misty morning.

After lunch, we went to the King Project Garden to check out the Thrush behind the restaurant kitchen. There was very quiet, we realized that our timing was not right, the Thrush would not be here on November, probably some months later.

The natural trail was also very quiet during afternoon. There were no birds sighted except an Brown Shrike.

We decided to head back to the resort to look for the Orange-bellied Niltava. Upon arriving at the car park, we were greeted by a Great Tit.

Great Tit

After an hour of waiting, the Orange-bellied Niltava was no show. We realized that there was a Brown Hawk Owl perched near the stream, that why the Niltava was too afraid to get near to its regular place.

Brown Hawk owl

By 5 pm, we decided to move on to Tha Thorn town. I was a bit disappointed with my trip to Doi Ang Khang. I have seen many beautiful photos of birds by Thai photographers shot here at Doi Ang Khang. All those beautiful photos inspired me to explore here. Unfortunately I only got a few of the species. Maybe I was here on the wrong timing. For sure I will come back again soon, perhaps after the pink flower bloomed.

On the way to Tha Thorn, a Long-tailed Shrike greeted me "Good Bye"

Trip of Northern Thailand - Doi Ang Khang - Part 1

2010-11-30T19:04:00.001+08:00

The scenic view of mountain range of Doi Ang Khang.

November 29 2010. Last week, I had a 5 days birding trip to Northern Thailand. The first birding site was the scenic mountain range of Doi Ang Khang. It is one of the famous bird watching place in Thailand and located about 2 hours drive toward north from Chiang Mai. DAK consists of mountain range and peaks, some of the areas have excellent habitat for birds.

Bann Lung Resort

After 2 hours drive on the scenic and winding mountain road, I arrived at Bann Lung Resort. My first target at DAK was to look for the White-capped Redstart at a stream behind the resort. I set-up a blind few meter from the stream. After 5 minutes of waiting, I saw a red and black color bird perched at a rock beside the stream. Photographing this active bird under the shade was not easy, I ended up with many blur pictures. Here are some good one:

White-capped Redstart (Riverchat)
Canon EOS 5D mkII EF 800 mm IS ISO 3200 1/50 F5.6

Canon EOS 1D mkIV EF 800 IS
ISO 2000 1/20 F8

I shot about 200 frames of the fella. At about 5 pm, I proceeded to the open land near the Chinese cemetery. As I was walking on a trail leading to the rubbish dump, I saw 4-5 Scimitar-Babbler perched on the dry twig few meter away. I regretted that I left my gear in the car. As I was trying to get back to the car to grab the gears, the small flock of Scimitar-Babbler get alerted and flew away and disappear into the bushes near by.

Twilight view of the mountain range

By 6 pm the sun has disappeared on the horizon. I decided to head back to the resort for dinner and went for bed early to have a good rest for a long day tomorrow.

Northern Thailand Trip

2010-11-18T20:11:00.009+08:00

Birds of Thailand

November 18 2010. Yahoo !! in another 4 days, I will embark on a 7 days birding trip to Northern Thailand. The places that I am going to visit are Doi Inthanon, Doi Lang and Doi Ang Kang. Hopefully, I will be able to photograph as many species of the montane and the sub-montane birds of Northern Thailand.

Here some preview of birds of Thailand:

Khao Yai National Park, March 2010

Bumped into a group of Thai bird photographer.

Male Stonechart, Thailand.

Red-whiskered Bulbul, Thailand

White-crested Laughingthrush

I will post the trip report once it is available.

Some Big Birds

2010-11-10T20:40:00.000+08:00

November 10 2010. Grey and Purple Heron are abundant at Batu Kawan mudflats. Here are some photos of the big birds, the photos were captured over the weekend.

Grey Heron
Perching on the top of a tree. This shot is captured using the EOS 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS plus the 2x TC (Manual focus using the Live-View feature)

Grey Heron.
A pair of Grey Heron perched at the top of tree.
EOS 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS plus the 2x TC

Purple Heron.
EOS 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS plus the 2x TC

Purple Heron.
Hunting for prey.

Thanks for reading.

An Injured Lonely Lesser Sand Plover

2010-11-07T19:07:00.000+08:00

An injured Lesser Sand Plover
A portion of the left leg was missing

November 7 2010. Yesterday I spotted an injured Lesser Sand Plover at Batu Kawan mudflats. It has a broken left leg. It was probably injured during the south-bound migration and could not further its journey with the original group and ended up stranded here. It was a sad situation, I wonder will it survive.

How miserable ?
Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800 IS

Thanks for reading.

Captured The Moment

2010-11-05T15:14:00.000+08:00

November 5 2010. Have you ever tried shooting a sequential shot of the spontaneous actions of a bird ? You will be amazed when you play the sequential shots on your screen.

Here is a sequential shot of 10 frames capturing the fast actions of a Little Heron hunting for its prey (a prawn). The photos were captured using the Canon Eos 1 D mk IV and EF 800 IS lens.

Tips for shooting fast action sequential shots:

1) Use a higher ISO to achieve a faster shutter speed of 1/800 and above.

2) Pre-focus on the head of the subject.

3) Try to use the highest frame rate setting so that you would not miss out capturing the actions of the subject. (ideally a minimum of above 5 frames per second)

4) Stabilize your gears with a tripod or bean-bag.

Waiting patiently for the prey at the river-bank

Focusing and using its long bill to strike on the target

Got it ! a prawn.

Why water birds like to swing its head after catching its prey from the river ?
To shake off the moisture from its head ? or trying to kill the prey before eating it ?

Swing, swing, swing !!!

Swallow it !

Burp !!!

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcomed.

More Waders

2010-11-03T10:26:00.002+08:00

A crab and a Terek Sandpiper

November 2 2010. Yesterday morning I went to search for more waders at the coastal mudflats of Batu Kawan area. It was an overcast day with intermittent rain. A perfect condition for shooting waders due to minimum heat-waved from the ground.

Terek Sandpiper
A winter visitor or passage migrant from northern hemisphere.
Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800 IS with 1.4 TC. No Flash.
Shooting from my car using a bean bag to support my gears.

Using its long and upturned bill to pick up food from the tiny hole at the mudflats.

A flock of Whimbrel

Whimbrel is also a winter migrant from the Northern Hemisphere.

Pacific Golden Plover

A Godwit but I am not sure if it is Black-tailed or Bar-tailed.

Common Kingfisher

Thanks for reading.

Winter Visitors

2010-10-24T13:24:00.000+08:00

October 24 2010. This morning I shifted my attention from the forest birds. I explored the marshes at the Pulau Burung area to look for the common winter visitors such as waders and Kingfisher. I arrived at the location at about 8 in the morning. It was low tide period. I scanned the vast low-lying waterlogged area with the binocular. I was excited to spot some waders. However, it was not easy to photograph the targeted birds. They were relatively far away from my shooting location. I had to use the 1.4 TC with my EF 800mm IS in order to get the maximum reach. With this set-up, I retained only the center point AF.

The first target that got my attention was the Common Redshank. It was easily identified by its orange color leg.

Common Redshank

The next species that draw my attention was the Lesser sand Plover (non-bleeding plumage).

Lesser Sand Plover

Lesser sand Plover

As I drove further, I saw waders with very long and curved bill. After careful checked with my binocular, it turned out to be a Whimbrel. Yahoo !!! another lifer to my photo lifer list. Unfortunately it was difficult to get sharp photos of the subject due to the heat-waved generated from the ground.

My Photo Lifer of the day
Whimbrel

Pacific Golden Plover (non-breeding plumage)

In addition to waders, I saw the Common and Black-capped Kingfisher while I was driving along the trail. They were quite skittish, it either flew away while it saw my vehicle coming or perched far away from my shooting location. Anyway, here are two record shots of the species.

Common Kingfisher

Black-capped Kingfisher

Thanks for reading.

Little Spiderhunter Again

2010-10-18T20:11:00.000+08:00

Little Spiderhunter.
Canon EOS 7D EF 800mm IS
ISO 2500 F5.6 1/160 Without Flash

October 18 2010. Yesterday I went back to the same location where I got the Little Spiderhunter last week. Upon setting up my gears, the Little Spiderhunter came and stopped by at a banana flower. It perched at the top of the banana flower and used its long bill to suck on the nectar. Due to poor light source, I had to use ISO 2000 to 2500 on my Canon EOS 7D to get a reasonable fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur. I am very surprised with the outcome of the photos. They were not as noisy as what I had expected.

Sweet, sweet nectar

Thanks for viewing.

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha

2010-10-17T21:34:00.000+08:00

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha. Sungai Sedim Kedah.
Canon EOS 7D EF 800mm IS. ISO 1600 1/500 F5.6
I struggled to frame the entire body of the subject into my viewfinder. I ended up only photographing the head and body without the tail.

October 17 2010. I spotted the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha at Sungai Sedim this morning. The subject alighted at a tree branch and partially hidden behind dense vegetation. Initially, I thought it was the Green-billed Malkoha. After a careful checked using my binocular, I saw the breast and belly area are in chestnut color rather than grey color. I was very delighted that I managed to add a new species into my lifer list.

Thanks for viewing.

Little Spiderhunter

2010-10-08T22:51:00.000+08:00

Little Spiderhunter, Sungai Sedim Kedah.
1 D MarkIV EF 800 IS
ISO 2000 1/50 F5.6 Without Flash

October 8 2010. Wild bananas flowers are everywhere at Sungai Sedim lowland forest. This morning I saw many wild bananas trees were blooming with flowers. The Little Spiderhunters were busy feeding on the nectar. I pre-focus on the bananas flower and waited for the subjects to stop by the flowers.

Thanks for reading.

More Violet

2010-10-06T21:55:00.000+08:00

October 6 2010. Here are additional photos of the Violet Cuckoo. I hope you enjoy the color.

Thanks for viewing.

Sungai Sedim Revisited

2010-10-03T20:58:00.001+08:00

My Lifer of the day, a Violet Cuckoo.
While I was photographing the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha, this purple looking bird pop up
from the dense vegetation. The photo was captured with the Canon 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS lens.
ISO 1250 F8 AP Mode. Without Flash.

October 3 2010. This morning I went to Sungai Sedim to look for the winter passage migrant bird. My target is the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. Last year, there were multiple sighting of the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher at Sungai Sedim. Unfortunately I did not find my target bird. I ended up with a "consolation prize", a close relative of the Yellow-rumped, the Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher.

I like the sweet melody called of the Grey-headed Canary.
Canon 1 D Mark IV EF 800 IS
ISO 2000 1/60 F5.6

I shot without flash in order to retain the original color of the feather.

Thanks for viewing. You comments are welcome.

HD Video Footage of Rhinoceros Hornbill

2010-10-02T23:09:00.000+08:00

Thanks for viewing.

Rhinoceros Hornbill

2010-10-01T09:10:00.003+08:00

Female Rhinoceros Hornbill

Rhinoceros Hornbill, Sungai Sedim, Kedah, Malaysia
Canon 1D mkIV, EF800 IS + 1.4TC
ISO800 AP Mode F8

Indian Roller

2010-09-28T22:14:00.000+08:00

Indian Roller, Phuttamonton Park Bangkok Thailand

August 28 2010. Indian Roller is a common resident bird in Thailand. It is easily found at open country or coastal scrub. It likes to perch at exposed perches. This is the species of bird that you would not want to miss if you are bird watching in Thailand.

1 D MKIV EF 800 IS, ISO 640 AP Mode F8

HD Video Footage of Streaked Wren Babbler

2010-09-26T12:13:00.000+08:00

August 26 2010. I just finished editing a HD video footage of the Streaked Wren Babbler. The footage was edited using the Apple iMovie software on a Mac Pro machine. I hope you will like it or you have any comments to contribute, feel free to leave your comments.

White-Browed Shrike Babbler

2010-09-24T20:22:00.000+08:00

August 24 2010. White-browed Shrike Babble was another montane bird that I got over the weekend. I was lucky to catch this beautiful song bird busy fed on an insect. The male White-browed Shrike babbler was trying hard swallowing an insect as its breakfast. While I was photographing the male, the female White-browed Shrike babbler perched at a twig nearby.

Female, White-browed Shrike Babbler

A frontal view of the Male

White-browed Shrike Babbler

Thanks for viewing.

Snowy-Browed Flycatcher

2010-09-22T20:10:00.000+08:00

Sep 22 2010. Another montane bird that I successfully photographed over the weekend was this cute little Snowy-Browed Flycatcher. The habitat for the Snowy-Browed is broadleaved evergreen forest range from 1000 to 2500 meter.

I saw this fella perching at a mossy log facing eastern direction. The sunlight from the raising sun created a warm color hue. It was a golden opportunity that I don't want to miss.

Canon 7D EF 800 IS, ISO 1250, AP Mode F8

Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.

Hi ! My name is "Streaked Wren Babbler"

2010-09-21T18:25:00.001+08:00

I shot from ground level, in order to get a smoother background

Sep 21st 2010. Over the weekend, I managed to photograph this "fella" at Cameron Highland. This species can only be found at highland of up to 1650 meter.

The target was busy fed on the worm found on the mossy log

This photo series of Streaked Wren Babbler was captured using

the Canon 7D and EF 800 IS. ISO 800-1250, AP Mode F8,

Without Flash.

Thanks for viewing.

Wow Yummy Fruit

2010-09-05T21:40:00.000+08:00

Sep 5 2010. For the past one week I had the opportunity photographing avian with foods in the bill (mouth). Here are some selection of the photos featuring some species of birds eating the fig fruit.

The short and stout bill of barbet is a useful

feature for fruit eating bird

Yellow-crowned Barbet

This poor Gold-whiskered Barbet with

a broken lower mandible.

A female Red-throated Barbet swallowing a fig fruit.

Scaly-breasted Bulbul.

Red-eyed Bulbul. Having a fruit galore.

Asian Fairy Bluebird

Thanks for viewing.

Ulu Guar

2010-09-02T21:32:00.000+08:00

Female Green Broadbill

September 2 2010. Apart from the 3 Barbets species, there were also other species that I managed to photographed at Ulu Guar. There were Black-headed Bulbul (lifer), Scaly-breasted Bulbul (lifer), Thick-billed Green Pigeon (lifer), Female Green Broadbill (lifer), Asia Fairy-bluebird (lifer), Asia Glossy Starling, Red-eyed Bulbul, Raffles's Malkoha and a pair of Checker-throated Woodies.

The Pigeon was the "early bird" at the fig tree.

Thick-billed Green Pigeon (lifer)

Male

Female

Asia Fairy-bluebird (Lifer)

Black-headed Bulbul (lifer)

Scaly-breasted Bulbul (lifer)

Always stay high up and hide behind the thick leave.

Occasionally It will fly out to the open for the fig fruits.

A pair of Checker-throated Woodies.

The couple was looking for insects at the main tree trunk.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome.

New Photo Lifers of Barbet

2010-09-01T12:12:00.000+08:00

August 31 2010. Thanks to the intel provided by Chien and Weefar, I managed to get 3 new species of Barbet from a fig tree at Ulu Guar Recreation Park. There were small flock of Barbets and others came to consume the fruit at the fig tree.

The first species that got my attention was the Gold-whiskered Barbet. It is the biggest size among the species that came to this fig tree.

After photographing the Gold-whiskered, I noticed a smaller size species, which has a obvious red color feather at the throat, were actively hopping from twig to twig feeding on the fruit. I later found out that it is the Red-throated Barbet.

Male Red-throated Barbet

Female Red-throated Barbet. The feather at crown and throat is less

striking and colorful

The highlight of the day was when I saw this species with striking yellow color crowned perched at one of the twig at eye-leveled. It was the Yellow-crowned Barbet, the rarest among the three. I guess the Yellow-crowned also could not resist the temptation of the juicy fruit of the fig tree and decided to come out to this fig tree at the forest edge.

Yellow-crowned Barbet

I am glad that I decided to make the trip here and rewarded with many beautiful shots of the Barbets. I was completed exhausted when I finally reached home at the evening. Thanks for reading, you comments are highly appreciated.

Red-naped Trogon

2010-08-23T20:22:00.000+08:00

Male Red-naped Trogon (Harpactes kasumba)

August 23 2010. It had been many times I heard the call of Red-naped Trogon at the Jungle trail of Sungai sedim Lowland Forest. All my previous encountered were ended up without any photos of the subject. On last Sunday, I ran into the Red-naped Trogon again. I heard the sweet call at one of the jungle trail but was very frustrated not been able to see it. The subject was well hidden behind the thick tropical vegetations.

I decided to play the call of the Red-naped Trogon, hoping that the tape-play would lure the subject into an open area. After 5 minutes of trying, my friend Wong spotted it perched at an open branch. It was a very brief stop there but long enough to allow me to take a few record shots.

1 D mkIV EF 800 IS + 1.4 TC ISO 1600 1/60 F8

Thanks for reading.

Whiskered Treeswift

2010-08-22T17:55:00.000+08:00

Whiskered Treeswift (Male)

August 22 2010, Recently I successfully photographed the Whiskered Treeswift (hemiprocne Comata) at the Sungai Sedim Lowland Forest. Broadleaved evergreen forest is the habitat for Whiskered Treeswift. It likes to perch high up at the exposed branches, sometimes making it difficult to get a good shot of the species. Yesterday, I found this pair of male and female perched at an exposed branch of a tree at Sungai Sedim Lowland Forest. Luckily the exposed branch is low enough to let me have a decent shot of the subject. The photos were captured using the 1 D mk IV and the EF 800 IS with 1.4 TC.

Female

The adult bird incubating the eggs at the nest

Thanks for reading, your comments are welcome.

Bulbul Galore - Part 2

2010-08-16T22:36:00.000+08:00

The fruiting tree (click the image for larger view)

August 15 2010, This morning I headed to Sungai Sedim again hoping to continue the Bulbuls galore. The day before I successfully photographed 7 species of Bulbuls at the proximity of a fruiting tree. My aim this morning was to get more improvement shots of the Bulbuls at the fruiting tree.
At 7.45 am, I arrived at the empty main car park, I was the first visitor of the day. Moment later while I was enjoying my breakfast, I saw more cars came into the car park, this place started to become crowded with bird photographers.
I selected an angle where the sun was behind me in order to have better lighting at the subjects. The first species that got my attention was the Streaked Bulbul. This species is slightly large size then the other species of Bulbuls that hangout at this tree. It has a unusual behavior where it likes to hangout at the top level of the fruiting tree.

Streaked Bulbul

The second species that drew my attention was the Buff-vented Bulbul. I saw it busy picking up food from the tree.

Buff-vented Bulbul

The rest of the species that I managed to get improvement shots were Finsch's, Cream-vented, Grey-bellied and Spectacled. Here are the photos:

Finsch's Bulbul

Cream-vented (easily distinguished by its white eyes)

My highlight of the day was to see this Grey-bellied Bulbul came to the tree. Prior to this, all my photographs of this species were merely record shots. It was either blur or the subjects are partially blocked by the twigs. I am glad that this "fella" was willing to post for me at an open area where I can get un-blocked shot.

Grey-bellied Bulbul

Here are the rest of the species:

Spectacled Bulbul

Throughout the 2 days, I "harvested" 9 species of Bulbuls from my bird outing. I guess my efforts really give good returns. Thanks for reading, your comments are highly appreciated.

Bulbul Galore

2010-08-14T21:56:00.000+08:00

August 14 2010, It was a Bulbul galore at Sungai Sedim lowland forest this morning. I managed to photographed 7 species of Bulbul from a fruiting tree at the main car park. Out of the 7 species, 4 species are lifers. In addition, I also managed to get 2 others lifers, there were the Raffles Malkoha (both male and female) and the Little Spiderhunter.

Canon 1 D mkIV, EF 800 IS

Finsch's Bulbul

Hairy-backed Bulbul (Lifer)

Cream-vented Bulbul (lifer)

Spectacled Bulbul (lifer)

It looks very similar to Red-eyes Bulbul but it has an orangey eyering.

Red-eyed Bulbul

Grey-bellied Bulbul

Yellow-bellied Bulbul (lifer)

Thanks for viewing.

Two Hornbills and a Forktail at Sungai Sedim

2010-08-07T20:21:00.000+08:00

August 7 2010, It was almost 2 weeks ago I last went out for bird outing. I was busy with my business traveling, thus I got no leisure time to pursuit my un-accomplished target, the Chestnut-naped Forktail. Yesterday, I received information from fellow birding partner, Chien, he told me that he saw the Forktail several times at the main car park area at the Sungai Sedim Lowland Forest during his previous visit.

This morning, I decided to try my luck at the Sungai Sedim at the main car park area. On the many outing here before, I was mainly concentrating at the forest trail further in from the main car park. I arrived at the main car park area at about 8.15 am. This place is quite crowded with visitors during weekend after 11 am, so I have about 3 hours to look for my target. While I was middle through setting up my gears, Chien and I saw a pair of Rhinoceros Hornbill flew by and perched at a fruiting tree. The couple were busy feeding on its breakfast.

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Canon 1D mkIV EF 800 IS

ISO1250 F8 1/200 Fill Flash

Male

Female

After half an hour, the Rhinoceros Hornbills flew away and disappear into the deep forest. About few minutes later, the White-crowned Hornbills stopped by at same tree. There were 4 together, one pair of adult bird and 2 juveniles. Oh this species looks ugly, dull and unattractive feathers. The appearance of this species is less attractive than the Rhinoceros but this is one of the rare species of Hornbill at this area. I guess we were quite lucky to see it here.

White-crowned Hornbill

Canon 1D mkIV EF 800 IS

ISO1250 F8 1/200 Fill Flash

Juvenile

Feeding on the red color fruit. The one at the back-end is the adult bird.

After the White-crowned Hornbill left, I decided to take my morning break and sipping some coffee. Half way through my break near the river side, I heard a series of metallic whistles of "dir-tee". Without any doubts, I recognized that it was the call of a Chestnut-naped Forktail. I immediately moved to the edge of river bank and placed my gear under a tree. I saw the male Chestnut-naped Forktail hanging around some mossy rocks at the other side of the river. The target was picking up food from the ground. It hopped from one rock to the other. He noticed that they were human being at the other side of the river but still continue staying there. In contrast with the one at Ulu Paip, it would be long gone before you were able to step foots near the river-bank. It was a golden moment that I would not want to miss. Here are the improvement shots from this morning outing,

Chestnut-naped Forktail

Canon 1D mkIV EF 800 IS + TC

ISO1600 to 2500 F8 1/80 or below

It was a very satisfied outing, 2 lifers and 1 improvement shots from this morning outing.

Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.

How I Photograph Birds - Part 2

2010-07-21T19:26:00.000+08:00

July 21 2010. Remember ?? I posted here a short video footage of "How I Photograph Birds" few weeks ago. Now, here is the part 2 of the same topic :

Thanks for viewing.

Chestnut-naped Forktail

2010-07-16T21:02:00.000+08:00

July 16 2010. Over the past few days, I was trying very hard to photograph the Chestnut-naped Fork-tail at Ulu Paip lowland forest. I was lucky and successful in getting the Blue-banded Kingfisher but it was non-success for the Fork-tail.

I realized that the Chestnut-naped Fork-tail is a very shy and smart bird. It always sensitives to human present. During a few instances, I was wearing a camouflage netting and hid under a tree. The Fork-tail some-how knew about my present there. It diverted away from me when it approached my hiding location although I was along the flight path. I only managed to get 2 blur pictures of the Fork-tail so far. I am still looking for ways to get near to it. Hopefully my hard work will bring success soon. Here are the 2 blur photos :

Photographed on July 15

Photographed on July 16

Thank for viewing.

A Closer Encounter With the Blue-Banded Kingfisher

2010-07-15T19:47:00.000+08:00

July 15 2010, I decided to take a half day off from work. I spent the entire morning at the Ulu Paip lowland forest searching for the Blue-banded Kingfisher. At 10 am, I found the subject at a small pond near the waterfall. The male Blue-banded Kingfisher perched at a rock under a tree. He was very kind to let me photograph him for 5 minutes. Due to the poor lighting condition, I had to use an ISO of 1600 to 2500. Even with this ISO range, the shutter speed was between 1/20 to 1/40, most of my shot ended up with motion blur. Here are some better one, out of the 60 shots :

This morning he allowed me to get nearer, compared to my first encounter last week.

1 D mkIV EF800 IS + TC, Center point focus, 1/20 F8 ISO 2000

Thanks for viewing.

Blue Banded Kingfisher

2010-07-11T15:30:00.000+08:00

July 11 2010, My efforts of searching for the Blue-banded Kingfisher at Ulu Paip came into success. This morning, I managed to get my photo lifer of the Blue-banded Kingfisher. It was a male species that I successfully photographed. It was three and a half hours of waiting at the riverbank. During the wait, I saw the Blue-banded Kingfisher and the Chestnut-naped Forktail flew upstream and downstream. It was so frustrating to see the subjects flew past without stopping and perching at the rocks nearby.

I had some coffee and sweet potatoes to keep me awake and occupied. There were a lot of mosquitoes bugging me, that I had to put on my insect repellant.

A Lizard on a mossy rock

At 11.15 am, I saw the Blue-banded Kingfisher flew upstream. Out of sudden, it landed on a river rock in front of me. Bingo, I quickly pressed the shutter of mk IV and triggered a series of long burst.

1 D MK IV EF 800 IS

1/60 F5.6 ISO 2000

After a series of shots, I had a quick check on the images on the LCD. The subject looked small on the the LCD, I decided to put on the 1.4 TC in order to get more reach to the Blue-banded Kingfisher. Unfortunately, my sudden movement of mounting the TC must have alerted the Kingfisher. It flew away while I was trying to gain focus on it after mounting the TC.

It started to rain heavily 10 minutes after the Kingfisher left. I decided to pack and head home. It was a very satisfied outing. Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.

Silky Waterflow

2010-07-10T13:33:00.000+08:00

July 10 2010, How you tried photographing the water flow of river ? This morning I went to shoot the river landscape at the Ulu Paip Recreation Park. In order to get a more dramatic effect, I shot from middle of the river. My gears for this morning shooting were the 7D, 16-35 L, manfotto tripod and a cokin ND 8 filter mounted on the P filter holder. I packed all the gears into my Think Tank Photo Speed Demon belted bag.

In order to get a silky effect of the water flow, I shot with a slow shutter speed of 10 second to 30 second. The normal shutter speed will freeze the water flow, thus it makes the picture less dramatic. How to achieve a slower shutter speed in the broad daylight ? There are a few methods, use the lowest ISO, smaller aperture or using a ND filter to reduce the light going into the sensor. I achieved the slower shutter speed by using the combination of the 3 methods.

Here are some photos from my morning outing :

Thanks for viewing. Your comments are welcome.

How I Photograph Birds

2010-07-08T09:46:00.000+08:00

July 8 2010. Are you curious on how I photograph the birds pictures ? Well, there are a few methods. One of my favorite method is shooting from car by mounting the camera and lens on my car window. You need a kirk window mount and a big ball head to support the camera and big telephoto lens. This method is suitable for shooting birds at open land, paddy field or mangrove area. You can either drive around to look for the target or position your car at a particular place to wait for the subject to appear at the pre-set perch.

No birds have been harmed in making this video. Thanks to my younger brother who shot this video during one of my outing.

Your comments are welcome.

Here is a short video footage on shooting from car :

Unable to Post Comments

2010-07-06T23:49:00.000+08:00

July 6 2010. This evening I received an email from a fellow blogger, madibirder, who informed me of the problem in the comments button. I have ratified the problem. Now the comment box will pop out for the readers to post their comments.

Thanks to madibirder for highlighting the problem.

Sights and Sounds of Ulu Paip

2010-07-05T21:55:00.000+08:00

July 4 2010, This morning I decided to visit the Ulu Paip Recreation Park. This is a low land forest with a waterfall and fresh water stream running through it. It is an ideal habitat for the Blue Banded Kingfisher and Chestnut-naped Forktail. The park is a popular place for picnickers. In order to avoid the picnickers, I decided to explore the park before the picnickers arrived.

Hiking along the stream

The Blue Banded Kingfisher and Chestnut-naped Fork-tail are 2 very shy birds. One the first occasions, as my partner and I hiked along the trail parallel with the stream. I heard the thin shrill whistle of "dir-tee, dir-tee, dir-tee" voice. My partner Tsien quickly pointed toward the river direction, I saw the subject flying across the river headed toward the dense forest. It disappeared into the dense forest. That was the only sighting for the entire morning. The same thing happened on the Blue Banded Kingfisher. As we were approaching some bamboo trees (30 meter away), my partner and I saw a blue color bird took off and fly away toward the dense forest. It was a frustrated outing. We ended up empty handed with zero photos of the subjects.

Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker (Better than nothing !!)

A chick of the Scarlet-Backed Flowerpecker that just fled the nest being feed by the parents

Besides birds, there were frogs and lizard.

I concluded my writing today by featuring a shot video footage of my outing titled "Sights and Sounds of Ulu Paip"

Thanks for viewing.

Buff-necked Woodpecker

2010-06-20T22:38:00.000+08:00

June 20 2010, Lately It has been tough to find good bird photography location. The migratory birds have moved north bound, back to their summer breeding ground at Northern Hemisphere. I decided to try my luck at the Sungai Sedim lowland forest again. I was trying to look for some resident lowland forest birds.

This morning I bought along my 16-35 L wide angle zoom lens. I planned to shoot some scenery photos of the forest. I packed the 16-35 L into ThinkTank Speed Demon and belted it on my waist. The Speed Demon is really handy, I can keep most of my birding accessories, such as my apple ipod, a mini speaker, a Nikon binocular, blackberry phone and etc. The padded belt and bag fitted comfortably on my waist as I hiked on the small trail with the EF800 IS mounted on the Gitzo carbon fibre tripod carried on my shoulder.

ThinkTank Speed Demon

Scenery of the lowland forest

1 D mkIV 16-35 mkII L

It was not a bad day, I managed to get a photo lifer and few other improvement shots of the Buff-necked woodies, YellowBreasted Flowerpecker and Lesser Green Leafbird. However, it was tough to shoot in the dense lowland forest. The dense vegetation made a perfect hiding place for forest birds. On a few occasion, I heard the call of Banded Broadbill, Red-napped Trogon and Green Broadbill but was frustrated not able to find the birds

Buff-necked Woodies

Photo Lifer of the Day

1 D mkIV EF 800 IS with 1.4 TC

Lesser Green Leafbird

Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker

Thanks for viewing.

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

2010-06-19T22:23:00.002+08:00

June 19 2010, This morning I went to a park near Relau at Penang Island to photography the nesting activities of the Tickell's Blue Flycatcher. Unfortunately, I was a bit late, the chicks have left the nest. I found the adult birds hang around the hiking trail at the park. Both the male and female were actively hunting for food and on some occasion perched at the bamboo trees. I managed to get some record shots of the male and female while it perched there.

Male Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Female

Thanks for viewing.

Blue Throated Bee Eater Breeding Ground

2010-06-13T20:03:00.000+08:00

June 13 2010, This morning I re-visited the Bee Eater breeding ground. I saw a few pairs of Blue Throated busy building nests. The adult birds were busy digging small hole at the ground. Some other adult birds were busy hunting for insects and bring it to the nest for feeding the young birds. I decided to try to shoot some flight shot of the adult birds hovering above the nest. It was a very "rewarding " outing this morning, I managed to get some decent photos and video.

Hovering above the nest

Landing at the nest

HD Video footage:

Thanks for viewing.

New Look

2010-06-08T19:27:00.000+08:00

June 8th 2010, Today I revamp my blog. I upgraded the standard template to the 3 column wider template. The new template allowed me to embed a full youtube video screen. On top of that, I am able to place additional gadgets on the left and right column. I hope the readers and followers would enjoy the upgrade.

Thanks for viewing, your comments are most welcome.

Blue Throated Bee Eater (Pic and Video)

2010-06-08T09:50:00.006+08:00

June 8th 2010, Recently the Blue Throated Bee Eater arrived at its breeding ground at an open scrubland at Penanti Penang. I photographed a series of "food in the mouth" shot during my visit here last weekend. The adult birds were hunting for insects for feeding their young birds.

"Dragon Fly as breakfast"

For more pictures, please view it at Pbase Bee Eater

Thanks for viewing. Your comments are welcome.

Video Footage with DSLR

2010-06-06T21:36:00.002+08:00

Lately, I started to capture video footage of birds. Over the weekend, I edited all the footage and combined it into a video clip. I made the video clip by using the Apple iMovie. The title of the video is "After Rain". Hope you like it.

Or you can view it at "After Rain"

Flight Shot of Whiskered Tern

2010-05-20T21:14:00.000+08:00

I just finished processing some flight shots which I photographed at Byram last month. The series of shots were captured with the canon 1 D mk IV and EF 800 IS lens. I set the focus to manual focus and pre-focus at the rotten tree branch. Secondly, I set the camera to shutter priority and set it at 1/1600 so that it is fast enough to freeze the flying subject. I also dialed the ISO to 800 in order to use a smaller aperture of F10. The smaller aperture created a wider depth of field to ensure greater sharpness of the subject. Here are the flight shots :

Approaching the Landing Spot

Thanks for viewing.

Mr Green, again.

2010-05-16T12:43:00.001+08:00

For the past two weekend, I went to explore the low land forest of Sungai Sedim. My partners and I decided to hike further in than our regular place hoping to find some new species of birds. It required extra efforts as we walked up and down on the hilly track carrying 7 kg of gears.

The sunlights shone through the dense tropical forest (captured using Iphone)

Halfway through the hiking, we heard the call of the Green Broadbill and immediately went searching for it. It is very difficult to spot for this little green "gem" of the forest as the green color feather made it a perfect camouflage among the dense forest vegetation. We decided to play the "call" and hoped that Mr Green flew around. It is much easily to spot a moving objects in the dense vegetation.

Finally we spotted it. Perching high up.

The last time I spotted the Green Broadbill was 4 months ago. I saw a male and female. However on this latest encounter, we saw total of 3 birds and one looked like a juvenile. If our observation is true, we are glad that the population has growth.

As we walked further into the trail, we spotted this pair of Orange-backed woodies.

Male Orange-backed woodies

We decided to rest at a area where there is a stream running parallel beside the trail. As we were relaxing, we saw the Blue Banded Kingfisher, a shy and rare forest Kingfisher, flew up stream into the forest. It was too fast for us to photograph. 5 minutes later, we saw it flew down stream again. The same pattern repeated several times while we were unwind here. After half an hour of resting, we decided to head back home. Perhaps the next trip, we will spend more time here to search for the Blue Banded Kingfisher.

A Day Trip to Ulu Langat

2010-04-25T22:04:00.000+08:00

On the 23rd of April, I decided to take a day off from my work and went to Ulu Langat for a one day birding trip. The main purpose of the trip was to photograph the nesting and feeding activities of the Rufous Back Kingfisher at the lowland forest of Ulu Langat. According to the information from the local photographers, the nesting activities was toward the end of the cycle, the chicks will vacate the nest by this weekend. In order not to miss this rare opportunity, I decided to fly to KL on the first flight and return to Penang on the last flight of the day. The airfare itself was not cheap, it almost burnt a hole on my wallet, but I had no choice else I will miss the rare opportunity.

The adult Rufous Back Kingfishers were busy

feeding the chicks. The main source of food was

insects, frog, and lizards

The interval of each feeding was about 45 to 60 minutes. While waiting for the adult Rufous Back Kingfisher returning to the nest, I had the opportunity to photograph the Banded Kingfisher and Horsfield Babbler.

Banded Kingfisher

Horsfield Babbler

It was a very satisfied trip to Ulu Langat. I was glad that I made the decision to visit here. I successfully added another 3 species to my lifer list. Oh not to forget, I would like to thank Mr No Good who came to airport to fetch me and bought me to the shooting location.

Your comments are most welcome.

My Thailand Trip - Final Part

2010-04-24T21:59:00.000+08:00

I spent the last day of the Thailand trip birding at the the Army University and also the paddy fields outskirt of bangkok city. Among the highlights are:

Black Collared Starling

(Army University)

1 D mk IV EF 800 IS

Vinous-breasted Starling

(Army University)

Female Stonechat

It was memorable and fun trip. Throughout the 6 days trip, I successfully photograph over 50 species of birds and among the many species, there are over 40 species are lifers. You can see my entire collection of bird of Thailand at my pbase website ((Birds of Thailand). I would like to thank my bird guide Mr Parnuwat Sasirat for his excellent service and hospitality. I would not hesitate to refer friends who wish to do bird watching in Thailand to engage service with Wildbird Eco.

A group photo with Mr Par

My Thailand Trip - Part 5

2010-04-13T22:00:00.001+08:00

I spent the day 4 and day 5 birding at Khao Yai National Park. My primary targets here were the Red-headed Trogon, Long-tailed Broadbill and the Blue-breaded Bee Eater. Unfortunately, I had no luck with the targeted birds and I ended up with a record shot of the Blue-breaded Bee Eater.

Blue-breaded Bee Eater

1 D mk IV and EF 800 IS

Here are some lifers at Khao Yai National park:

Ashy Bulbul

Ashy Woodswallow

Eurasian Kestrel

Black-crested Bulbul

Blue Rock Thrush

Blue Whistling Thrush

Thank for viewing.

My Thailand Trip - Part 4

2010-03-29T20:30:00.002+08:00

Day 3 of 6, we started the day early. 5 am was the morning call and at 6.30 am we were on the road to the newly found habitat of the Pied Kingfisher. We decided to skip the hotel morning breakfast buffet and opted to stop by the 7 eleven to pick up some coffee and bread on the way to the location.

Upon arriving at the location, we saw 4 to 5 Pied Kingfisher hovering or hang around exactly the same location that we last saw it yesterday evening. The sun was raising behind us, it was the frontal light on the subject. Since the light condition was on the perfect condition and I would not need a very high ISO, I decided to shoot with my 7D. Furthermore the 18 mp sensor would able to retain more detail should I need cropping.

Pied Kingfisher

It was a very productive morning photo session, I managed to get many species of lifer for shooting at along this small trail leading through a large paddy field.

Little Cormorant

A pair of Asian Pied Starling

Indian Cormorant

Bronze-winged Jarcana

Female Asian Golden Weaver

Plain Prinia

Plain-backed Sparrow

Red-collared Dove

At about 11 am, we completed the morning photo session. It was a mission accomplish at Ayuthaya. We decided to head to Khao Yai.

My Thailand Trip - Part 3

2010-03-26T20:48:00.001+08:00

Day 2 of 6, my primary target for the 2nd day was the Pied Kingfisher at Ayuthaya. Ayuthaya was the old capital for the Kingdom of Thailand. It is about 1 1/2 hour to the north of Bangkok. However before we headed to Ayuthaya, we had to visit the airport again to pick up my traveling partner, Markus, who arrived a day later then me.

We arrived at the destination at about noon. My bird guide Mr Par immediately went to survey the target site. He got information that a pair of Pied Kingfisher was sighted frequently hanging around our target location at the river bank. He wanted to set up some natural perches at the river bank and 2 hides few meter away from the perches for me and Makus to hide and photograph the Pied Kingfisher.

Preparing the hide

After finished setting up the hides, Mr Par told us to break for lunch. Furthermore, he wanted to leave alone the hide for a few hours and let the subjects became familiar with the newly elected hides. Otherwise, the subjects may be too skittish to perch near the hides.

Thai food is really fabulous and delicious.

Here are the famous rice noodles and deep fried mushroom

At about 2 pm, we were back inside the hides. It was a hot and sunny day. I was sweating heavily inside the hide. I kept scanning the perch few meter in front of my hiding location hoping that the Pied Kingfisher perched there. Hmm..... but the target refused to fly near our target location, something not right ! After 1/2 hour of waiting, the Streak Bulbul stopped by the perch.

Streak Bulbul

Another 2 hours gone, we decided to move the hides further up the river bank. We thought that the hides were too obvious and had alerted the Pied Kingfishers. At about 5 pm, we spotted the Pied Kingfisher at the opposite side of the river bank. The subjects were too far away for a good record shot. I decided to wait for another 15 minutes, if the Pied Kingfisher refused to return then I shall move to the paddy field to shoot the Asian Openbill. Another 10 minutes passed, I was about to pack my equipment, suddenly I heard a loud shrill of "chirruk, chirruk, chirruk" sound. Makus alerted me that the Pied Kingfisher is near, I scanned the target location, I saw a pair of Pied Kingfisher perched on a twig. I triggered the shutter of my 1 D mk IV, the camera was shooting at 10 frames per second. After a series of shots, I checked the image at the LCD screen, I realized that the targets were rather small size due to distance away from my hide. Without hesitating, I mounted the EF 800 IS with the 1.4 TC, "he.. he.." luckily I was using the 1 series body, I can reach further with the TC and also maintaining the center point autofocus. The following are the series of photos captured:

The first sighting of Pied Kingfisher

After finishing with the lifer shots of the Pied Kingfisher, we felt we have gotten the target that we were here for, we moved to the paddy field to photography the Asian Openbill.

Contrasting to the Pied Kingfisher, there were abundant of Asian Openbill at the target location. The sun was about to set at the horizon. It created a orange color "last light".

An Asian Openbill hovering above the nest

Some flight shots of the Asian Openbill

Photo-taking the Asian Openbill. There were many perching at the tree.

During the shooting of Asian Openbill, my bird guide met a local villager who gave some valuable information that he always see a group of Pied Kingfisher hanging around at the another end of the paddy field. The villager was so kind to give us the direction. We decided to head for the direction to search for the target before the sky turned dark.

As we were approaching the paddy field, we spotted a few Pied Kingfisher hovering above a river. We were quite excited that we had found a new habitat of the Pied Kingfisher.

A Pied Kingfisher successfully caught a fish from the river

Unfortunately, the sun has set at the far side of the horizon. The light source was not in the perfect condition for further shooting. We decided to come here first thing in the morning.

My Thailand Trip - Part 2

2010-03-25T10:19:00.001+08:00

After spending about 3 hours at Phuttamonton Park, I moved to photograph Gulls at Bang Poo. It is about 1 hour by car from my previous location. Upon arriving at the pier at Bang Poo, I was stunned to see so many gulls at the shore. Occasionally, the gulls will fly off from the shore at instant to grab the food being fed by the visitors. The place is very noisy with wave of wave of call of Gulls.

I planned to get some fly shots of the gulls, so I setup my 7D and mounted it with the 70-200 F4 IS. On the hand, for normal shot, I relied on my 1 D mk IV with EF 800 IS.

My guide told me that there were 2 main species of gulls here, the Brown Headed Gull and Black Headed Gull. Many of the Gulls were in breeding plumage. I had difficulty in identifying the gulls as there all looked alike. I am going to put up the photos here and whoever know the ID of the species, kindly provide me the ID of the species by replying at the comments section. Your help is very much appreciated.

Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Photo 4:

Photo 5:

Photo 6:

Here are some flight shot :

Responding to the food feeding by visitors

A lonely Bar-tailed Godwit at the last light moment

Thanks for viewing.

My Thailand Trip - Part 1

2010-03-23T21:34:00.001+08:00

On 12 to 17 of March, I embarked on a bird photography trip to Thailand. Prior to departing to Bangkok on the 12 of March, I was in a dilemma on deciding to cancel my trip as the "Red Shirt" was going to stage a mass demonstration in Bangkok. After consulting with my bird guide and friends in Bangkok, I decided to go ahead with the trip.

I bought along with me 2 camera bodies ( 1 D mk IV and 7D) , 3 lens ( EF 800 IS, EF 70-200 F4 IS, EF 17-40 L) and 2 tele-converters (1.4 x and 2 x). All the primary gears fitted nicely into a Think Tank Airport Security roller bag. This bag is cabin size compliance so I did not encounter any problems in fitting it into the overhead compartment.

Upon arriving at Bangkok, my bird guide Mr Par bought me to the Phuttamonton Park. It is located at the outskirt of Bangkok city at the Nakom Pathom Province. The park is covered with open woodland and under the tree canopy are water ponds and gardens.

My primary target here is to photograph the Indian Roller. After searching through the park, we managed to find a pair of Indian Roller perching at a tree trunk.

Indian Roller

My other "great catch" at the park are:

Coppersmith Barbet

Racket-tailed Treepie

Olive-backed Pipit (The subject looks blur due to massive heat-wave from the ground)

Black-capped Kingfisher

Thanks for viewing.

White-Browed Crake

2010-03-07T15:02:00.000+08:00

This morning at Byram, I sighted a great number of White-Browed Crake at the pond. I had never seen so many crakes before at this place. I even spotted a juvenile White-Browed Crake at the dense grasses near the edge of the pond. Could it be the White-Browed Crakes are nesting here at this moment ?

Juvenile White-Browed Crake

Some shots captured during the golden light

Thanks for viewing.

My Lifer, a Crake, a Duck and a Snipe at Byram

2010-02-27T22:21:00.001+08:00

It has been 2 months that I last visited Byram. The weather this morning was not in the perfect condition, the sunlight was blocked behind a thick overcast created a dull and "moody" atmosphere. I was there this morning to look for the Chinese Egret that my birder friend sighted few days ago. Unfortunately, it was a no show for the Chinese Egret. My guessing it was a winter passage that was stopping over here the other day and now it is on the north-bound journey.

To my surprise, there were many Lesser Whistling-Duck. I estimated there were about 40 to 50. I had never see this species here before. Could it be another north-bound winter visitor ?

Canon 1D mk IV with EF 800 IS

Auto ISO Aperture Priority F8

One Shot AF

A pair of the Lesser Whistling-Duck perching together

created a unique composition

White-Browed Crake (Photo Lifer)

It was quite difficult to photograph the Snipe as she likes to rest and take shelter inside the dense grasses. This morning I was lucky to find a Common Snipe came out to the edge of the pond. She was looking for food.

The long bill made a perfect tool for its to pick up food from the ground.

Thanks for viewing.

Little "Jewel" of Fraser's Hill Forest, Rufous Brown FC (Photo Lifer)

2010-02-25T21:37:00.000+08:00

I came across this cute little flycatcher called Rufous Brown Flycatcher at Fraser's Hill last month. It was at the "Telecom Loop" that I saw this cute "fella" flying and perching at a pile of mossy stone. Coincidently, there was some foods (worms and residual of insects) on the mossy stone, thus the subjects kept coming back to the mossy stone searching for food.

Canon 7D EF 800 IS

ISO 1600 1/500 F5.6

AI Servo, Zone

Pre-focus on the mossy stone

Canon 7D EF 800

ISO 800 1/10 F8

One Shot AF

ISO 1250 1/80 F5.6

Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.

My Consolation Price For My Kota Bahru Birding Adventure

2010-02-20T23:20:00.000+08:00

Finally on the fifth day of bird adventure at Kota Bahru, I managed to get a consolation price, a lifer also, by spotted this Oriental Reed Warbler at a open grass land on the way to the town of Bachok on the D5 trunk road.

I almost miss ID it, initially I thought it was a Paddy-field Pippit but after a closer look I realized that it should be other species.

Oriental Reed Warbler

Canon 7D EF 800 IS

IS0 500 Aperture Priority F8

Kota Bahru, Kelantan Trip

2010-02-19T18:13:00.000+08:00

I am having my Lunar New Year holiday at Kota Bahru, Kelantan. Why ??? because it is a custom to visit the relative or family members of my wife side during the Lunar New Year. This year, I will stay here for 6 days. Initially, I was planning to explore for the local bird species here but after 2 days of searching, I gave up. I could not find any rare species but only common birds such as Pond Heron, Cattle Egret and Zebra Dove. One interesting observation, I noticed that there are many bird pet shops here with exotic birds. Could it be most of the rare birds ended up here ? Just my speculation.

I found that the scenery and people are much more interesting topic to photograph, so I decided to do some landscape and street photography. I put aside my EF 800 mm and pack my Canon 7D, 17-40 L and 70-200 L F4 IS into my Lowepro Sling Bag 200 AW. Here are some places I visited:

Kota Bahru Central Market

Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB) Beach, a photo series of Kite seller.

At a paddy-field

Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.

Crimson-Breasted Flowerpecker (Lifer)

2010-01-24T21:18:00.000+08:00

It was a "dry" outing at Sungai Sedim this morning, no sight of Broadbill (Green or Banded), Scarlet-rumped Trogon, forest Bulbul and etc. I almost wanted to "call it a day".

As I walked toward the car park, I came across this fella, Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker, busy fed on pollen. It turned out not a bad day at all, at least another photo lifer to my bird photos collection.

Canon 7D EF 800 mm IS

ISO 800 F8 Aperture Priority

Thanks for viewing, feel free to comments.