And there it was, resting on a branch of my durian tree one late morning last month, March 2014. The time was about 10:30 AM. I caught sight of it by accident actually while I was in the house. It was totally unexpected. It just stood there quietly on the branch.
Standing at about 1 feet tall, this bird, a Little Heron, is one of the largest bird that I have ever seen in my garden. As far as I could tell, it was alone as no other bird of this species was spotted.
This is actually my second encounter with a Little Heron. The first was a month before this on February 2014, also in my front garden. Back then, it was perching on the telephone wire above my front gate. I cannot be sure if this is the exact same bird though.
A long legged bird with a long beak would suggest that this is a waterbird. Its natural habitat should either be a mangrove swamp or a wetland. But my house is in the suburbs of Ipoh city. And I have lived in this neighbourhood all my life and this is the first time that I have seen Little Herons in this area. I do wonder if this has something to do with the local drainage system that has, in my opinion, turned into mini jungles at certain sections. The drains were not like this before but only in recent years.
This bird was aware of my presence while I was taking these photographs. Most birds would take flight, especially when they see me pointing a camera at them. Little Herons, though, seems to be unperturbed, even while I was plodding around them, looking for the perfect angle for the perfect shot.
These pictures were taken while I was standing at about 15 feet away from the bird with my compact camera. My camera was set to 16MP with maximum optical zoom at 5x. I think they turned out quite alright, for an amateur photographer like me.
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