Sometimes I do forget my own counsel to not miss to capture shots of any bird even if it's familiar, and in this particular case I was grateful that I was given a second chance.
I had ignored a flying malkoha yesterday brushing it off as a Green-billed Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus tristis) probably a young one because of its relatively shorter tail length.
And the next day when this one flew in again in the same area, I decided to take shots simply because the target bird didn't appear, and thank God, I did because it turned out to be a Black-bellied Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus diardi), my first sighting of this bird in the bukit!
This would be the third species of malkoha sighted here, the third being the chestnut-breasted malkoha.
And I've learnt that a useful way to differentiate these two is to look at the nostril which is rather circular in the green-billed whilst triangular in the black-bellied, a feature normally easy to spot for a shot. In addition the other distinct feature in the green-billed is the bright white line round the eye patch which is absent from the black-bellied.
The Black-bellied Malkoha, unfortunately, has a Near Threatened status compared to the Green-billed Malkoha which is of Least Concern.
The brownish tinge to the tail-end of this black-bellied is also its distinct feature.
And I had just captured images of the Green-billed Malkoha the day before.
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