Monday 18 April 2016

MY LANGKAWI TODAY: Exotic Feathered Creatures

LANGKAWI YESTERDAY: On a Langkawi bird watching tour with Mrs Pirjo Laakso from Norway. Her quest was to see a Mangrove Pitta and the Brown-Winged Kingfisher.

In the quest for that elusive pitta, it is so nice to see a Stripe-Throated Bulbul Pycnonotus finlaysoni free in the wild than seeing them in those pathetic cages. Mrs Laakso is a good spotter with very keen eyes, saw a pair of this bulbul while I was getting my car to pick her up. These bulbuls were observed to be feeding on a fruiting strangling fig tree growing next to a mangroves habitat. Thank you, Mrs Laakso!
Striped-Throated Bulbuls are one of the favourite caged birds which often poached as song birds. They are now considered as rare in Langkawi.
Next... record shots of a Mangrove Pitta Pitta megarhyncha




A Mangrove Pitta perched high up on a tree in a scrub habitat next to the mangroves and calling for a long time. We were swarmed by mosquitoes and bitten through our pants while in the humid forest trail.
The amount of insect repellent used were useless on these blood-thirsty mozzies. It was well worth getting those mozzie bites for this bird! Pitta season has arrived! Woohoo!

This is my first observation on a Mangrove Pitta perched on that high level. The Mangrove Pittas that I usually seen were always on ground but did not make any calls at the same time.

Mrs Laakso checked her field guide to The Birds Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore by Allen Jeyarajasingam and informed me that a Mangrove Pitta often calls from a high perch. Thank you again!


The rain came shortly after ... Yeah!!

Special thanks to Dave Bakewell.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment here.