Lineated Barbet Up Close

© Chuah TC 2017 - Buy this picture

Finally I have managed to capture a decent picture of a Lineated Barbet. This is something that I have been trying to do for quite a long time now. Even better this time, an up close shot. The picture above is a cropped out from a larger 4608 x 3456 sized image (which is available for sale at Dreamstime). I actually took four shots, handheld, and this picture was the best of the lot. Because of my excitement two pictures came out blurry. The bird flew away almost immediately after the fourth shot was taken when it noticed what I was doing. A distance of 15 feet between us is a bit too close for comfort for this bird I suppose.

I am quite sure I have never seen this bird before while growing up in my neighbourhood. Or perhaps I was just not observant enough while I was younger. Anyhow, as far as I could recall, I only became aware of this bird some 3 or 4 years ago. My first impression then was "what a rather ought looking bird with some rather interesting looking plumage around its head and neck". In fact, at one time I had even assumed that it belonged to the Kingfisher family of birds (which it is not, by the way) because of its rather large beak.

Note the rictal bristles, i.e. the 'whiskers' around the base of its beak. This is the second bird that I know of that have them. Brown Shrike is the other one.

Pied Triller Settling Down In My Neighbourhood

Pied Triller - I can't recall ever seeing previously. But something changed beginning mid-July 2017. A pair, a female and a male, was first spotted. Later on, the only the female bird was seen. I could easily tell because of the different plumage between the male and the female of this bird species.

Two months later, things have gone the other way round now. The male bird is regularly spotted, and the female hardly.

With such regular sightings, I guess Pied Trillers must have made my neighbourhood their new home.

Black-naped Oriole And Its Mango

Yummy! Mango! Mango! It will make one's world go upside-down.

Actually, I have been trying to photograph this rather common bird in my neighbourhood, a Black-nape Oriole, ever since I came to own a digital camera. But it has been elusive. A rather shy bird and it will scoot once it caught sight of me. Or perhaps it's because my looks does not look appealing.