Articles from April 2010



White-throated Fantail

I took the picture of this White-throated Fantail in Mt Kinabalu so I suppose it should be Rhipidura a. kinabalu but I really have a problem with the white throat.  By all accounts it should have a white throat and chin but all the birds of this species that I have seen seem to have black chin.  Perhap my vision is blurred by the constant motion of the bird but have a second look at the picture.

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Back to the cinnamon trees again, this time it is the Orange-bellied Flowerpecker Dicaeum trigonostigma flying in, snatching a single cinnamon fruit, and out again as fast as you can say Hi!  This is one of my favourite garden birds and I am sure of many proud gardeners around the Greater Sundas.  Its call is loud and its colours even louder!

Eyebrowed Thrush

Two weeks now and the fruiting at the cinnamon trees at Poring is still attracting loads of birds.  This visiting Eyebrowed Thrush Turdus obscurus displays the same hurried feeding as the locals.  Okay he is forgiven, given that he has to make a long flight up north anytime now and is going to need bags of energy.

Feeding Frenzy

Just last month, the cinnamon trees at Poring Hot Springs in Kinabalu Park attracted a non-stop parade of birds.  No wonder, these birds can’t resist the ripe fruits of these trees.  I had a taste of the fruits and immediately decided they won’t feature in my diet.  But the constant frenzy that is the feeding birds would have you think that those would be the last fruits that the birds are going to feed on.  Either that or there is a chemical in there which made the birds hyper.  There were bulbuls (counted 7 species), flowerpeckers, Asian Fairy Bluebirds, barbets, and even migrants like the Eye-browed Thrush and Blue and White Flycatcher.

A secret (maybe not), feeding trees like those at Poring make the work of a bird guide so easy.

Buff-vented Bulbul

Grey-bellied Bulbul

Streaked Bulbul

Scaly-breasted Bulbul