An early morning birding and a lifer

A pair of Black Magpie

 I started early to do birding today by concentrating on the botanic island areas.  Attracted to the calls of the Black Magpie I moved quietly below the tall trees at Botanic Island Two.  Through the trees and leaves I noticed a small party of four  hanging out noisily and reverberating their loud calls over the neighbourhood.  Today's encounter has been one of the closest I had with these birds and thus was able to get better pictures of the bird especially the characteristic red iris against a dark face.  I next came across what I thought was a malkoha and my experience so far has been the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha. But today I met a different malkoha and a lifer at that.  It has  a bluish green back with a grey throat and breast.  Upon closer observation I noticed it has iris of pale blue surrounded by a red patch around the eyes.  Another interesting detail is the under-tail feathers showing broad white tips.  At Licuala Hill I noticed from a distance one black dot at the tip of a branch and guessed it must be the Borean Falconet.  I moved in closer to the tall tree and took a few random shots for the record.  The Bornean Falconet has been seen perching on this same tree before.  Finally after about two hours of birding at the botanic islands area I decided to go home and on the way met a Little Spiderhunter busily enjoying the nectar from the flowers of the Chinese hat plant.  It has been a successful early birding with a lifer.

Black -bellied Malkoha at Botanic island Two -  a lifer!

Bornean Falconet see at Licuala Hill

Little Spiderhunter at Zone C