Red Bearded Bee-Eater

13th February 2016, Kemensah, Selangor

Local Name:  Berek-Berek Janggut Merah

Scientific Name: Nyctyornis amictus

Equipment: Nikon 1 V3 + Nikkor AFS-VR 400mm f/2.8 ED-VR

 

 

Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

15th September 2012, Kemensah , Selangor

Local Name: Berek-berek Janggut Merah Scientific Name: Nyctyornis amictus Equipment: Nikon D7000, Nikkor AFS 400mm f2.8ED VR+TC20EIII A large and very colourful Bee-Eater. This bird has a bit more red beard to grow.

Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

14 January 2012, Bukit Tinggi, Pahang

Local name: Berek-berek Janggut Merah Scientific Name: Nyctyornis amictus One of the regulars at Bukit Tinggi, she was out early that day sunning herself to get warmed up.

Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

4th December 2011, Kemensah, Selangor

Still quite young,she has a lot more  red beard  to grow.

Young Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

16th September 2011, Kemensah, Selangor

A confiding young Red-bearded Bee-eater  came down quite low and provided good opprtunities for some detail shots and a video.     Red bearded Bee-eater calling

‘Tok Janggut’: Red-Bearded Bee Eater

26th September 2010, Kemensah, Selangor

One of my favourite birds, they are always a welcomed sight. It has been a few months since the last sighting.

Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

25th July 2010, Kemensah, Selangor.

I stopped for a short while below  a large tree on my way out  of Kemensah  when I heard the unmistakable sound of the Red-bearded Bee-eater. There she was about 30 feet away, under the shade getting some relief from the burning hot sun.

Adult Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

16 August 2009, Kemensah, Selangor

We came across a juvenile Red-Bearded Bee-Eater during one of our  earlier trips to Kemensah so we were always hoping to see the adult bird.  We decided to try a new trail to see what we could find and as we were going up a slope, my son spotted a bird flying in from behind a clump of bamboo, it was this adult  male Red-Bearded Bee-Eater (Nyctyornis amictus). Quite a sizeable bird compared to the non-bearded species.

Notes on Photography: Lately I have been shooting using Manual settings and I find that it yields better results than Aperture or Shutter Priority since I have more control over the shutter speed. I need to achieve at least 1/125s  with my lens ( even with VR on) to get anything useable. This bird was about 50ft away from us.

For these shots I experimented using the max EV of +5 which enabled me to shoot at higher shutter speeds (between 250-400)   f8, iso 400, VR off, on tripod , RAW format, TTL flash with extender. I’ve noticed a tremendous jump in clarity when freezing motion becomes  that much easier even when shooting under the canopy. The Velvet-Fronted Nuthatch ( a constantly moving bird)   onwards had been shot using these settings. Thanks to my brother Rosman for the settings. I find that the setting doesn’t work very well when a Teleconverter is used since you lose too much light (at least 1 f stop with a 1.4x TC). The TC plays havoc with the contrast, colours, noise and  the overall sharpness of the RAW image. Try it and let me know if it works.

Red-Bearded Bee-Eater

19 July 2009, Kemensah, Selangor

Trekking back down the hill we heard the familiar sound of a bee-eater. Looking up we saw the bird but couldn’t make out exactly what it was because of the back light. Took one shot and out popped a blurry image of a Bearded Bee-Eater on the screen. The first few shots were terrible and we were disappointed to see the bird fly away and were left without any decent photo. We decided to wait knowing the behaviour of a bee-eater. We were given a second chance when she came back to the same tree. Phew.. A juvenile Red-Bearded Bee-Eater (Nyctyornis amictus): local name Berek-berek Janggut Merah . She’s almost entirely green and lacks the red colour at the throat.