Taman Rimba Kiara: August 2021

Tuesday 31 August 2021

Monday 30 August 2021

It's a healthy population going by the frequency and size of sightings, and needless to say, healthy appetites. I wouldn't have thought that just a year ago that the bukit will now host this population of Hume's White-eyes, that was a treat in the past whenever I chanced upon them.

These birds would appear with a burst of energy and disappeared but perhaps because of the flock of easily four this time, a couple lingered long enough to afford admiration from different angles.

As I was passing by

Feast for the eyes but not the stomach, all left very much alone.

TRK

Friday 27 August 2021

A new babbler species

I wonder if it's due to the lockdown thus lack of human presence that brought them out or they have been there but not sighted nor heard before. Whatever, I couldn't be more thrilled than to discover another new species for Bukit Kiara.

It was the incessant exchange of calls and movements that attracted my attention to the energetic movements in the lower trees down the slope. An initial image captured stirred my excitement but these birds were truly difficult to zoom in being hyperactive.

Following confirmation checks with a couple of birders, I can now proudly add the Abbott's Babbler (Malacocinla abbotti) to the avian presence in the bukit.

It is of Least Concern status and can be found to forage singly or in pairs low down in secondary forest or wooded areas. A rather plain bird with a couple of distinct features to differentiate it from the very similar Horsfield's babbler:

- whitish throat

- greyish face with prominent supercilium

- rather large bill with hook-tip

- longer tail

Another possible id confirmation way would be to record its call.

Tuesday 24 August 2021

A new spiderhunter sighting

On the 'maiden' visit to the bukit I couldn't be happier too having sight a new avian species for the bukit, the Purple-naped Sunbird (Hypogramma hypogrammicum nuchale).

I hadn't expected much when I came across a flock of pin-striped tit babblers but whilst trying to track a couple that were foraging low down, I noticed a lone one apart, flitting about. Thinking this was easier to photograph, I zoomed in and was cautiously thrilled when it looked like it could be something different, and true enough it turned out to be a female purple-naped sunbird, its distinct streaked underpart and olive-green upper-part suggesting its identity. Unfortunately it was neither close enough nor in brighter lighting and coupled with the rather busy undergrowth, I only managed a couple of standard shots.

It's of Least Concerned status, but can be considered uncommon as it's not easily found in its habitat of forested area. Although relatively larger than the regular sunbirds, it also can be missed for the dark upper-part in the male and olive-green upper-part in the female that blends well into the surrounding. Also known as purple-naped spiderhunter, this bird feeds on insects and of course spiders besides nectar, seeds and fruits.

Early migrant arrival

And so the count has begun.

My first visit to Bukit Kiara since it re-opened following the recent lengthy lockdown, I was almost immediately greeted by this dark plummage bird that flew across my path, that I guessed immediately to be a migrant visitor going by its unmistakable tail, and I was happily right.

The Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo (Surniculus lugubris) has been a regular visitor to the bukit for the past years but this is the first time I recorded such an early arrival in August.

Being of seemingly black colour, it's not really sought after by photographers although it's relatively easy to photograph as it could be rather sedentary if undisturbed.

01/2021

Get it at the right angle, it displays a lovely metallic sheen.

And it also has striking white bars in its undertail which I was not able to capture this time as the bird was rather skittish this time, perhaps because I was pursuing it.