Friday 15 September 2017

Birds of Langkawi : My Migrant Highlight

Shrikeys are back on Langkawi!

While on my wader check at the rice fields last week, I spotted one Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus and more of them are checking in now. I have missed their chit-chit-chit calls during the day that have replaced the rollicking calls of the Asian Koels.

Lanius cristatus
On my recent birdwatching tour, Subramanian spotted one while I was driving. He managed to capture a record shot on his bridge camera while in the car before it flew off and before I could even see it. Good thing he got it on his camera!
I snapped a photo from Subramanian's screen camera with my phone camera 
A Tiger Shrike! This would be my first Lanius tigrinus seen in this area. And it has been ages ago since the last time I have seen one of this shrike on Langkawi.

I returned to the same spot on the following day on my own and it wasn't there! There was another winter visitor around which is the Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea. I did wait for awhile and the area seemed quiet on that day. And so I moved on hoping to get better shots of any raptors. I dropped the expectation of having to see a Tiger Shrike.

After one hour of dropping Tiger Shrike off my mind, guess who whizzed past my car? I immediately knew it was a Shrike!
A record shot of Lanius tigrinus . It didn't hang around for long. Kinda skittish too.
Yay! I finally got one as a record shot on my DSLR!

There are only two confirmed species of Lanius genus. 
My next shrike on the list will be a Long-Tailed Shrike Lanius schach which was reported seen by a local guide but no photographic evidence. The search is on.

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