It was the least expected of birds when I saw this one flying up and down to the ground for food. On zooming in, and I was far across the river, I could hardly believe it, a Ruddy Kingfisher!
This one would undoubtedly be a winter visitor. The best and probably the only resident record is presently the one in Johor.
A migrant Ruddy Kingfisher (Halycon coromanda) or Pekaka Belacan could have come from China, Korea, Japan or the Indian subcontinent. Its normal habitat is the forest, forest edge, wooded areas and mangroves, certainly not parks, so TRK would be a stopover for this bird, once again proves how pivotal this taman is in the path of migrant birds.
This bird feeds off crustaceans, fish, frogs, and large insects. In fact for the brief period I saw it, it was only going for insects and not once did it attempt to dive down for fish.
Unfortunately since the shots were taken from a far, I failed to capture properly the bird's bright brownish rufescent upper plumage which is violet-tinged, nevertheless one can still imagine its gorgeous colour. Fortunately I still managed to capture a hint of its whitish lower back and brilliant blue rump as it took flight from a perch.
16/2020
CMCO Day 27/28
Running down to the river, and risking getting wet, I just managed to obtain a couple of frontal shots, in the late afternoon with fading lights, but good enough (for the time being!), definitely a record for the taman, and the number of species sighted todate to no 104!
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