| 7th August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| A pair of Rufous Woodpecker were foraging on the lower branches of a Jack-fruit tree. Both male and female look almost similar except for the red cheek patch on the male. The male |
| The female
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| 7th August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| It’s breeding season for the Baya Weavers. This male with a yellow crown is busy weaving his nest – no architect, no blueprints needed to build such an intricate hanging structure, it’s all imprinted in the genes. |
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| 7th August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| She’s still not in shape to fly but it was interesting to see that the chick was already trying out the new wings- a few quick flaps followed by a period of rest. ( Previous post of the chick) |
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| 7th August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| The sky was overcast and it looked like rain was coming. Although the lighting was poor, I was determined to make my way to the nest to see how the chick was doing. ( Previous post of the chick) My heart dropped when I looked through the camera and saw this,’where’s the chick’? Later I spotted some movements at the belly of the male adult bird. What a relief when I saw the chick as soon as the parent bird flew from the nest. She looked so different from a week ago as more feathers grew. She had outgrown the nest which had been left unmaintained by the parent birds.
Mom came back to continue shielding the chick from the elements. |
| 1st August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| When I first saw her I said to myself ‘ This warbler sure has a long tail’ but the tail looked like that of a Prinia. After a bit of research I now know that she’s a juvenile female Yellow-Bellied Prinia. ( the adult bird for comparison)
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| 1st August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| The chick had grown considerably in size over the last 8 days and quite active, moving around on the nest. Although I didn’t see the parent birds feeding the chick when I was there , I knew they must be feeding her as required. I noticed that the parents had started leaving the chick unattended for longer periods (about 20 minutes ), preening themselves on a nearby tree. ( previous post on the chick)
No longer blind, she had begun moving her wings.
Notes: Tried using an old manual 2X Nikkor Teleconverter on the 300mm f4 lens to see if I could get better details of the chick. It is not a setup that I would normally consider since you lose 2 f stops with the 2X TC but knowing the subjects would be under bright sunshine I thought I’d give it a go. All settings and focusing had to be done manually. Getting a fast enough shutter speed to freeze motion was still a struggle. |
| 1st August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor |
| His call could be heard loud and clear just as I finished parking the jeep beside the trail. I immediately went searching for the source of the sound and saw him on a nearby tree. He called non-stop for almost 20 minutes even when I was taking his photos. The previous sighting of this species was almost exactly a year ago, and it was a female.
Poor fella had lost a few of his tail feathers. Not to worry, he’ll get it back soon.
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