Malaysia I (1 Viewer)

opisska

rabid twitcher

• Apr 24, 2018

• #1

On a more cheerful note, some birds from our recent (end of March) trip to Malaysia. Sorry for the terrible pictures, we kinda do the nice ones ourselves now So who dares to tackle some Indomalayan challenges?!

1. Kuala Selangor - Mangrove reserve

2. Bukit Tinggi, NE of Kuala Lumpur ~850 m asl, sole picture of the bird

3. Fraser's Hill, again sole picture, could it be Buff-breasted Babbler?

4. and 5. Taman Negara, lowlands (Bumbun Kumbang), different birds. For 5 we discussed Moustached Babbler and Grey-chested Jungle-flycatcher, but neither fits perfectly.

 

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andyb39

Well-known member

• Apr 24, 2018

• #2

Not sure about any of these but:

1. Mangrove Whistler?
2. Plain Sunbird?
3. I think you're right with Buff-breasted Babbler
4. Large Cuckoo-shrike?
5. a very poorly-marked Cinereous Bulbul? - maybe an immature?

 

G

Grahame Walbridge

Well-known member

• Apr 24, 2018

• #3

1. Golden-bellied Gerygone
5 Finsch's Bulbul?

Grahame

 

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andyb39

Well-known member

• Apr 24, 2018

• #4

Grahame Walbridge said:

1. Golden-bellied Gerygone
5 Finsch's Bulbul?

Grahame

Click to expand...

Right you are about the Gerygone. Rather obvious, but the rear view confused me, and I thought the yellow coloration was an optical effect. To think I saw one of these last month.

I see what you mean about the Bulbul but the colours are all wrong. The bill shape is better for Finsch's though.

 

opisska

rabid twitcher

• Apr 24, 2018

• #5

Thanks to both!

For 1 we have reached the Gerygone conclusion in the meanwhile, it's pretty obvious actually, don't know how did we keep missing it.

2 - I can't find any good photos of Plain sunbird's rump, is it really this contrasty? If yes, it looks quite nice.

4 - I don't think this is Large Cuckooshrike, they have much bigger bill, we actually saw one.

5 - Finch's it is probably. The drawing in the book is really misleading, even some photos look confusing, but it's a lot about the bad light not making the yellow/greenish tones show.

 

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andyb39

Well-known member

• Apr 24, 2018

• #6

Re no. 2, was the rump really yellow? I'm not sure I trust it, as the colour seems to have "bled" onto the tail a bit and looks almost superimposed onto the bird. I'm not sure the yellow face is reliable either. Did you get a good look at the bird? One species which has a broad black terminal band on the tail is Grey-breasted Spiderhunter - just sayin'.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2018

opisska

rabid twitcher

• Apr 25, 2018

• #7

We didn't get any good look sadly. It was just "look a bird" and then we managed to snap one photo, where the bird is in the very corner and that was the "observation" and we never found it again. I have put it up just because the marks seem to be somewhat prominent even on the blurry image, but I agree that judging the exact color is tricky - no. 5 in this very same thread is a great evidence of that

 

A

andyb39

Well-known member

• Apr 25, 2018

• #8

The blue morph of Rufous-winged Philentoma is a possibility for no. 4. It should show a red eye though.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/madbirder/16759223022

 

opisska

rabid twitcher

• Apr 25, 2018

• #9

one more picture for no. 4

 

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andyb39

Well-known member

• Apr 25, 2018

• #10

That clinches Rufous-winged Philentoma. Credit is due to Grahame Walbridge for the initial suggestion, before you posted this image.

 

opisska

rabid twitcher

• Apr 25, 2018

• #11

now we think it might be a Lesser Cuckooshrike, we saw one 5 minutes before

 

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G

Grahame Walbridge

Well-known member

• Apr 25, 2018

• #12

opisska said:

now we think it might be a Lesser Cuckooshrike, we saw one 5 minutes before

Click to expand...

Whoops...certainly looks like one!

Grahame

 

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andyb39

Well-known member

• Apr 26, 2018

• #13

Yes, ooops, but remember we were working from a suboptimal image. We saw the second image and noted a smallish uniformly bluish-grey bird with quite a fine bill, and thought there was only one option. What I should have done before posting was to blow up and adjust the photo a little, as attached. When I did, you could just about make out the dark face and throat and dark flight feathers.

 

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opisska

rabid twitcher

• Apr 26, 2018

• #14

Yeah sorry 'bout that, working from suboptimal images is all we want from you people And I must say that the job that you do in that is absolutely mind-blowing.

To summarize, Malaysia was the most productive birding trip in terms of lifers we have ever done with 128 lifers, narrowly beating Peru by 5 species. In terms of all species seen it's third at 186 behind USA (199) and Peru (203) but both of those got double the time. In all cases, these (for us) staggering numbers were possible only because the kind folks on this forum helped us ID every single bird-looking smudge we got on any image!