A lovely Tiong pair

A pair of Hill Myna at rest, play and fun
Location : Licuala Hill, Zone I

 Between 5.30 pm - 6.00 pm, the pair of Hill Myna bird ( 'Tiong' - Malay) would regularly return to their nesting home.  They must have gone far to look for food but would normally return home before night falls. Today, even though they rested on the second favourite perch which is not their nesting tree, I still could get a good view of them as they played and whistled loudly against the evening light.  From my experience they would normally fly in to their nest between 6.30  pm - 7.00 pm.  at an adjacent tree.

Location: Licuala Hill, Zone I

The nesting tree for the Hill Myna birds at a nearby location
Location : Licuala Hill

Black birds are back

Philippine Glossy Starling - Aplonis panayensis
Adults are a glossy black'  Juvenile ones are whitish (seen at bottom right)
Location : Zone C, perching on Balem tree

Juvenile has whitish body, streaked back
and bright  red iris.

 The black birds are back.  For the last two days they have been flocking to the park.  There are many fruiting tall jungle trees at the moment that attract them for their fruits.  You can hear their noisy calls in the air because being social starlings they congregate in large numbers.  Often these black birds are called 'Philippine Glossy Starling' though it seems fashionable to call them Asian Glossy Starling now because interest in birding and photography from Bengal to Vietnam and south to Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia have recorded that they are residents to these many countries. 

A juvenile with something to swallow...

A foraging flock of sparrows

A small group of 'ciak'  resting on the Pong-Pong tree branch

  A few months ago, I could only notice a pair or two of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow visiting the park.  But recently I come to the realisation that they are now making a daily presence in large numbers.  This bode well for the park.  'Pipit' is a Malay word that is applied to a large number of birds species like the Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava) called locally as Pipit Kuning, Richard's Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae) called locally as Pipit Tanah. Then they are the Pipit Uban, pipit rawa, Pipit Perang and Pipit Pinang.  The Eurasian Tree Sparrow is very much alike the pipits but locally are referred to as 'Ciak'. Thus the Euarian Tree Sparrow is called in Malay as ' Ciak Urasia'. 

 The Tree Sparrow is typically a town or urban bird that  have greatly adapted themselves to human habitation because they obtain food easily from the places men congregate like coffee shops, libraries, parks and residential houses and flats. They are social birds that fly in big numbers.  They tend to be easily domesticated and tame birds.   Today I saw a flock of about 20-30 birds.  They rested on nearby trees and oil palm fronds before darting towards ground to scavenge insects, ants and grass seeds on ground zero.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Ciaks foraging on open ground for all types of insects, ants and grass seeds.
Location : Zone C

The colourful blue throated-bee eaters

 It is the early birds that catches the bees. The Bee-eaters came in a large flock early this morning (around 7.30 am) and were gladly diving and snatching the bees in mid-air.  I think today of all days the swarm of bees must have been blown by the wind to this area and being chased by the bee-eaters.  It was a beautiful show of loud chatter and aerobatic movements to watch the birds preying on the bees with their long and slender body and rigid wings striking at the bees and then rushing to a dead tree above me to perch.  On perching they quickly batter the bees on to the branches giving them a knock-out blow before swallowing them.

Bee-eater in unison battering the bees on to the branches

 The bee-eaters are a social bird and their large turnout this morning made me excited to see the male and female of the species.  However, I noticed that the sexes of this blue-throated bee-eater are almost alike or nearly so  since they were hardly no appreciative differences in their plumage.

Blue throat and green breast and also a bluish tail...

This is how to snatch a bee....

Bee-eaters belong to the Meropidae family