Tag: birds

A nice pair of bright red boots!
 (on a Silvery Kingfisher)

Check out the bright "red boots" on this small, good-looking endemic: the Silvery Kingfisher. This kingfisher was videoed one rainy day in the forests of PICOP, Surigao del Sur, lowland Mindanao. The Silvery Kingfisher is a 3-toed kingfisher that can be found only in the islands of Mindanao and its satellites, Bohol, Leyte and Samar. It perches on rocks and on low-lying branches along the banks of forest streams and small rivers hunting for small fish and crustaceans. This rainy season, don't you think it will be nice to keep your feet dry with a nice pair of red boots? Happy Birding! Silvery Kingfisher, Alcedo argentata January 2011, PICOP Forest, Surigao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines

Dung-on-a-twig: Mistletoe and Birds
[Part 3]

This is the last installment for our series on mistletoes and birds. This Fire-breasted Flowerepecker from Mt. Kitanglad demonstrates the same behavior exhibited by this Pygmy Flowerpecker from Mt. Makiling and and this Buzzing Flowerpecker from Mt. Polis. On the first and second segments of the video, the bird poops out the very sticky substance containing mistletoe seeds then wipes it off a branch. This is how mistlestoes are propagated and just shows the importance of birds in regenerating our forests. This Fire-breasted Flowerpecker is a high-elevation, uncommon, resident bird that ranges from the Himalayas to Southern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, Dicaeum ignipectus September 2010 & January 2011, Mt. Kitanglad, Bukidnon, Philippines

Rare Migrant to Luzon:
Ashy Drongo ssp leucogenis

Here is a video of an Ashy Drongo that Nicky videoscoped from Makiling a few months back. This is the subspecies leucogenis, a rare migrant to the Philippines, with just one other report a few years back in the local bird club's records. Incidentally, the previous sighting was also from the lowland forests of Mt. Makiling, Laguna. The other race leucophaeus shown below the video ranges only in Palawan where it is a common bird, often found in exposed perches. What big difference in terms of plumage! Possible split? 🙂 Ashy Drongo, Dicrurus leucophaeus leucogenis Mt. Makiling, Laguna, Luzon, Philippines Ashy Drongo, Dicrurus leucophaeus leucophaeus Coron, Busuanga Island, Palawan, Philippines

Ashy Drongo

A Cinnamon Ibon building a nest!

Check out this video clip of a Cinnamon Ibon clearing out a nest hole during one of our sorties in Mt. Kitanglad Cinnamon Ibons are high-elevation Mindanao endemics residing in submontane and montane forests above 1000 meters. They are usually seen in mixed feeding flock with Mountain and Black-Masked White-eyes, Black and Cinnamon Fantails, Sulfur-billed Nuthatches, Elegant Tits and other montane flocking birds. The excellent (and one and only) guidebook "A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines" by Robert Kennedy lists this bird as common yet the nests and eggs of this Mindanao endemic have not been described. This video clip maybe the first documentation of the nest of the Cinnamon Ibon. This video clip was captured in using a Swarovski 80mm HD scope with the new 25-50x eyepiece mated with a Canon Powershot S95. Check out our Swarovski Digiscoping Section for more superb stills and videos of Philippine birds.