Taman Rimba Kiara is a little green gem located in a corner of the TTDI residential area. The above flowering tree, the firmiana malayana or mata lembu, flashes in testimony to man's care-less-ness - it's one of only two trees in the park that had flowered, since then the tree had been chopped down.

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Gigantic excitement in a little Kingfisher

This must be the biggest excitement to descend in the taman, the arrival of the Black-backed Kingfisher, very very much sought after bird and very infrequently spotted, although this unfortunate bird species has been reported almost every year to fly into glass doors, some rescued, some fatal.  Not even the arrival of the common kingfisher a couple of years ago generated this amount of interest among birders.  Many, and many birders consider this bird to be their lifer.
This little fella is considered an uncommon migrant that could have originated from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or southern China, flying down south to winter.  It feeds mainly on fish, insects, lizards, smaller amphibians.  Its arrival also marked my personal record of bird species no 98 to be sighted in the taman (and hopefully I could tick off my 100th soon!).
At 12-14cm the Black-backed Kingfisher is considered the smallest kingfisher, thus also the challenge to photograph it simply because one needs to get as close as possible to it, get its gorgeous dark bluish feathers, speckled too, just right under the light, its fine rufous-yellow underpart/feathers in focus, and of course its distinctive reddish beak.
This kingfisher is a sub-species of the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, of which the other sub-species is the rufous-backed kingfisher (however, many still tend to refer to this black-backed kf as the oriental dwarf kf).
I guess these pics could be considered my preliminary shots as I would certainly be making repeated visits to get ideal shots, for as long as this young fella is around.  There is no certainty how long it will be around.
14/2019





This young one certainly had the birders running all over the place after it as it flew around seeking its lunch.




A most untypical appearance when it perched like this and seen from this angle.









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