Little Spiderhunter

I've been hearing a strange harsh call around my house for weeks now. I know that the call resembles Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) but I never thought it would come around my house because it's a forest bird. Several days ago I unexpectedly witnessed a single Little Spiderhunter feeding in a small Heliconia bush just behind my house. I was quite amazed by how far the bird has gone all the way from the forest. I tried hard to get some photos of it but it was really shy and the best that I've got was just a blurry photo of the bird showing its back. The last photo shows the Heliconia bush behind my house. Isn't it amazing how this little bird found these flowers?

Homemade Photos

I used to get bored when I'm stuck at home during week days, but now I'm quite enjoying it! For some reasons, I feel like there are much more birds in my house than before. I wake up and enjoy seeing different species of birds coming to my house. Some species only pass by, but many are residing within my house area. The abundance of birds became the main reason why I want to stay home.

Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) is an unusual bird to be found in the backyard, but a pair used to visit my house pretty often many years ago. I was so happy to find that a flock of about 4-5 birds are now coming back to my house again. It has a very strange call with an equally strange calling pose as well. The above shots were taken late in the evening and it was already dark, but I'm so happy to get these shots of this precious bird of my house.

There are 2 species of doves that can be found within my house, the Spotted and Zebra Dove. The above Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata) is one of the 4 individuals that usually come to my house. I guess it's a female bird judging from its richer pinkish breast. Male bird seems to have greyer, less rufous plumage.

The focused bird in the large picture is probably a female since it is has more barring on the sides of its breast. I really like watching these Zebra Doves because they are so small and cute. The bird is only about the same size as a quail. It is enjoyable to watch them walking and feeding together in pair. No wonder why it's one of the most popular cage birds in Thailand.

Here's the other dove that can be found around my house, the Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis). It is much more abundant than the previous Zebra Dove, and much less attractive. It is by far the commonest dove in Thailand and also a very popular cage birds because of its deep sweet call. Lots of this bird enjoy feeding in the lawn and empty grounds around my house everyday.
This broken-legged Spotted Dove has been living in and around my house for many years now, probably more than 5 years. It is a female and I'm happy to see that it's still around producing new fledglings every year.

The Black-collared Starling (Sturnus nigricollis) used to be just a visitor to my house. Now a pair is nesting on the same Ditar Bark tree as the Coppersmith Barbet in the previous post. The nest is built on the top of the tree about 10-12 metres from the ground. The parents are very busy finding food to feed their youngs. I always see them perching with a mouthful of earthworms and other bugs. This is actually their second brood. The first has produced 2-3 fledglings which can be seen in this post.

The Coppersmith

Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) is another common bird that can be found easily even within the city area. You might wonder why it is called like that, just listen to its call in the YouTube video here. The call resembles the sound of coppersmith hitting copper. Although being common, the bird always fascinates me with its super colourful appearance. Last week, I noticed a bird coming to the Dita Bark (Alstonia scholaris) tree in front of my house. Two days later, I noticed a small hole on one broken branch. I waited and finally, the same Coppersmith Barbet showed up and flew right to that hole and started to dig. Barbets are like woodpeckers; they dig holes for their nests. I was so happy to see the first Coppersmith Barbet building a nest in my house.

Sept 2: the nest hole was still not very deep

I observed the bird daily since September 2nd. However, the bird only visits the nest during 10am to 1pm and after that it just disappeared. There's always only 1 bird as well, so I came to think that this might not be a successful nest. I talked to several birders about the habit of this bird, and one of them shared a similar story from her house. She said that there was a lone Coppersmith Barbet coming to dig a hole in front of her house as well. Several days after it finished digging the hole, it just disappeared. Why is that? Nobody knows...

The hole was dug deeper day by day and finally finished around yesterday (Sept 9) when it's deep enough for the bird to fit itself into it. Today, I didn't see the bird coming to the hole. Not sure if it's still around or not. Hope it'll find the right female very soon, so it won't have to abandon this nest hole. Below is a very nice video of a Coppersmith Barbet at its nest in the Philippines. The video is very neatly edited. Thanks to jvnoriega for sharing us this great clip of a very cute bird.

Watching Owlet

Last year I got a lot of shots of the Asian Barred Owlet (Glaucidium cuculoides) that had been residing in my house for quite a few years, this year, I couldn't find the same one, but the new individual was found! This new one doesn't have a scar on its left eyebrow and it seems to be in a perfect condition. I guess that the old one was chased away by this new comer or, maybe, dead. The new comer often perches in the longan tree just behind my bedroom during the day, and at night, its loud characteristic call can be heard quite often. Although the bird began to call less often since a couple of weeks ago.

As the bird perched on this branch for almost the whole day, I could sketch and paint it into my sketch book by watching through the view finder of the camera from my bedroom. I even took a crappy video of the bird using my compact digital camera zooming through the VF of my EOS. Wish I can upgrade my camera to have a video function soon...

This is how the work's done! Can you spot the bird?