Common Coot by Ck Leong

Last month while birding in Nepal, the Common Coot Fulica atra was a common bird in ponds and rivers.  At the Phewa Lake in Porkara, congregations in the hundreds were sighted daily.  This morning at a little swamp south of Kota Kinabalu, I was looking at the same bird.  It was only after a while that it occurred to me that the Common Coot was a rare vagrant in Borneo.  What extraordinary luck!  I had stopped there to take some pictures of the Wandering Whistling Duck, a common species here.  There was only 1 Coot that I saw and it was an immature with the frontal shield yet to be fully developed.

It was two years ago today when my friend and bird photographer Karim Madoya took photos of the first Buff-banded Rail Gallirallus philippensis in Borneo.  Since then this illusive bird has been seen on different occasions by local birders, most recently in the paddy fields of Penampang near Kota Kinabalu.  The birds we saw were typically secretive, appearing only during dawn and dusk.  However luck was with me with this very confiding bird, preening itself after having taken a dip in the nearby pool.  I must say it is a most welcomed addition to the birds of Borneo.

This morning’s trip to the paddy fields of Kota Belud produced a pleasant surprise – a whole party of feeding swamphens, something which I had previously witnessed only in India. We saw about 10 Black-backed Swamphen Porphyrio indicus with at least 1 juvenile from our spot at the side of the road. The birds were constantly on the move, flicking their tails at the same time. Once only known from south Borneo, their spread has been quite remarkable. Not that I am complaining.