Trip to Taiping (02.01.2021 - Day 1)

I've decided to take a trip back to my kampung in Taiping, Perak, with the main target to photograph the Eurasian hoopoe.  Departed from Kuala Lumpur early morning on 2 January 2021 and arrived in Taiping in the afternoon.  Spent time with my son at Taiping Lake Garden in the evening.

Psittacula longicauda is commonly known as Long-tailed Parakeet or Bayan Nuri in Malay (Abdul Rahman, 1981). This species can be found in forests, swamps and mangrove areas, partly cleared areas and oil palm plantations. It feeds on fruits, seeds, flowers, and leaf buds.
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The Long-tailed Parakeet is a restless bird which is constantly on the move. It climbs around in branches and moves quickly from tree to tree. Although this bird is usually well camouflaged in the green foliage, its continuous screeching is not easily missed. The Long-tailed Parakeet appears with sage green plumage, bluer on the back, its wings have yellow undersides and it has a long narrow tail. The male appears with a red bill and face with black chin while the female has a duller plumage with a dull brownish bill, dull red face, dark green chin and line through its eyes, with no blue on its back. This parakeet species are listed as Vulnerable (VU) in the IUCN Red List due to habitat loss (BirdLife International, 2018).

Name: Long-tailed parakeet
Scientific: Psittacula longicauda
Malay: Bayan Nuri
Family: Psittacidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2018): Vulnerable
Gear: SONY a9II + SEL200600G + SEL14TC. 

The oriental pied hornbill is an Indo-Malayan pied hornbill, a large canopy-dwelling bird belonging to the family Bucerotidae. Two other common names for this species are Sunda pied hornbill and Malaysian pied hornbill.

The species is considered to be among the smallest and most common of the Asian hornbills. It has the largest distribution in the genus and is found in the Indian Subcontinent and throughout Southeast Asia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. The oriental pied hornbill's diet includes fruit, insects, shellfish, small reptiles and, sometimes, small mammals and birds including their eggs. 

Name: Oriental pied hornbill
Scientific: Anthracoceros albirostris
Malay: Enggang Kelingking / Enggang Belulang / Burung Lilin
Family: Bucerotidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2016): Least Concern
Gear: SONY a9 + SEL200600G + SEL14TC.

Alcedo atthis is commonly known as Common Kingfisher. It belongs to family Alcedinidae. This species is the smallest of open country kingfishers that are familiar throughout Europe and Asia. It can be found in water’s edge in open-country swamps, old mining pools, aquaculture ponds, and mangroves.

As for this species, both male and female are almost identical except for an orange colouration with a black tip on the lower part of the female’s bill. The colour of their wings and upperparts is blue-green, while the rump and tail are bright blue. It also has bright orange underparts with a small, white bib underneath their bill, on the throats (Strange & Jeyarajasingam, 1993). The common kingfisher feeds mainly on fish and invertebrates and will fly rapidly, low over the water, and hunt for the fish from riverside perches, occasionally hovering above the water's surface.
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Name: Common kingfisher (male)
Scientific: Alcedo atthis
Malay: Burung Raja Udang / Pekaka Cit-cit Kecil
Family: Alcedinidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2016): Least concern
Gear: SONY a7RIII + SEL200600G + SEL14TC. 

Locally known as Pied Triller or Sewah Kapas in Malay (Asyraf et al., 2015), Lalage nigra is a species of bird widely spread in open wooded areas, mangroves, gardens and parks. This species is fairly common across the Oriental region ranging from the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and Philippines (Strange & Jeyarajasingam, 1993; Phillipps, 2014).

In general, both sexes have white eyebrows, broad white wingbars, greyish rump and white tip on tail. The male Pied Triller can be identified by the black crown, mantle, wings and tail along with white underparts. The female has a similar appearance as male but with brown color replacing all the black parts together with underparts and rump finely marked with narrow brownish bars. This species usually stays high in the foliage either solitarily on in pairs feeding on insects and small caterpillars (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson, 2012).
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Name: Pied triller
Scientific: Psilopogon oorti
Malay: Kuang Kuit / Rembah Dahi Putih / Rembah Kening Putih / Selancang Hitam Putih / Sewah Kapas
Family: Campephagidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2018): Least Concern
Gear: SONY a9II + SEL200600G + SEL14TC. 

Milky Stork is a very large bird, named for its creamy-white plumage. This species can be found throughout Southeast Asia and prefers inhabit mangroves and mudflats where it can feed on crabs and mudskippers. Milky Stork can be easily identified by its red, naked head skin with a downward curving yellowish bill and dull pinkish-red feet (Strange & Jeyarajasingam, 1993). The male is slightly larger than the female and has thinner and longer bill. The adults of this species are pure white in colour with black flight feathers while the juveniles have duller, milky brown head and neck with black flight feathers. This stork has been categorized as Endangered due to habitat loss and degradation, poaching, human disturbance, and pollution (BirdLife International, 2016). This rare and spectacular bird is in need of special conservation measures.
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Name: Milky stork
Scientific: Mycteria cinerea
Malay: Botak Upih / Upih Bakau
Family: Ciconiidae
IUCN Red List (v3.1, 2016): Endangered
Gear: SONY a7RIII + SEL200600G + SEL14TC. 

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