The only drongo+cuckoo

 I've been waiting to sight it since the migratory season started and finally found it in the taman, and it was just behind the tree to where I was standing.  Fortunately it didn't fly off when I rounded the tree and saw it, that I guessed it had spied the caterpillar and was bidding its time.

The Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo (Surniculus lugubris) has been a regular here since I first spotted it in 2018.  About 24.5 cm, it's not difficult to spot this one and not difficult to approach it especially if it has found a choice hunting ground.

13/2022

But as soon as it got its catch and finished it, it flew up and scanned again, to fly down to just meters off the ground suggesting there was a caterpillar in one of the undergrowths.

But unfortunately within seconds it was chased off by the resident Oriental Magpie Robin ...

... perhaps the adult was looking out for its juvenile that was flying about.

As I was passing by

Thanks for the presence!

 

Birdwatching, no sweat!

 Sometimes it feels like birdwatching is effortless as one walks into a beauty every few metres away, or the beauty simply flies your way.

Even this one came so close I had to back off to get it into frame!

And then this too, although it only allowed its belly view!

And this one was high up but suddenly flew down to eye-level although not as close as the others.

And to top it off, this one didn't budge when I walked up.

As I was passing by

 Any time is a good time to sight the Black-thighed Falconet, even when all it did was play by itself ...

... or did nothing.

A 'sitting' shrike

 It looked adorable, that one could be fooled to think it's docile and vulnerable, perhaps on this occasion this young Tiger Shrike was as it was surrounded by noisy and hostile territorial resident birds like the Stripe-throated Bulbuls and the Oriental Magpie Robins.

It was still perched like this when I left after waiting for a few minutes to no avail to see how it would react.

As I was waiting

 And which one could this be?!

Almost fooled by the Banded Woodpecker!

The Surili way

 And so it should be, as the White-thighed Surili (Presbytis siamensis) shows, feeding quietly on young leaf shoots, among their diet of seeds and forest fruits.

It's almost refreshing to watch this one so gentle with its food, unlike the Long-tailed Macaques that are more aggressive for their food source.

And this one paid absolutely no attention to me as it slowly continued to feed as if it had all the time in the world, uhh, as it really has.

More than one

 It's just a matter of time before they arrive in the taman too after they have been sighted elsewhere especially in paddy fields where they tend to be among the early arrivals and looking by far bigger and plumper than their avian cousins, say, that refuel in parks.

 As usual the adults and sub-adults of the Blue-tailed Bee-eaters (Merops philippinus) will spend a few days here in the taman, and then off they will go and return later.

These are the birds that many bird photographers take pleasure in practising flight shots  with as it's delightful to get them as they soar, plunge, dive, somersault, etc for their preys in mid-air, and listen to their crisp snapping successes as they hit their targets!

12/2022

And images of prey in beak are also sought after.

However, when this one left without swallowing its prey, I had thought my presence compelled it to do so but on examining the image later on, it looked like it's another issue as it seemed to release (or drop?!) its catch as it fled.

In and off, in a blink

 And they came, and ohh, so high and so fast, and they were gone but don't let it be said ... 'we didn't show."

And it's always a local one that showed the way, this time it was the Black-winged Flycatcher-shrike that came to announce their imminent arrival, or rather passing-through.

And the visitors ....

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher

Amur Paradise Flycatcher

Eastern Crowned Warbler

Arctic Warbler 11/2022

Hark, what goes on!?

 I would think it was an ordinary scene to have a pair of Changeable Hawk-Eagles looking rather cosy in the nest, till a puzzling bout took over.

Firstly, nothing extraordinary when what seemed to be the male took off to the upper branch, leaving the other to practically bury its head into the nest, although what was in the nest could not be detected at all from my spot.

And then the series of moments had me raking my brain for a possible avian exchange when an indignant-looking male decided to descend but looked like was totally ignored by its mate!

The male then simply took off to the next branch and eventually fled followed by the female.

And stranger still, the nest looked abandoned thereafter without any of them returning since this incident.  Could a young left alone in the nest had tragically perished, and so the squabble?!

Retracing to earlier moments when I was first alerted to prolonged cries of these birds, I had hurried on upon spotting one flying into the nest (but unaware then that one was already there), perhaps it's not wrong to assume that there was a chick in the nest but did not make it (going by the flustered looks of these birds).

Looking like a blame-exchange going on with the dominant male.

If I could be an insect on the tree bark!!!