Family: Capitonidae

Barbets' Feast

Moustached Broadbill (megalaima incognita) @ Khaoyai National Park, Thailand

BESIDES broadbills, hornbills, owls, pittas, sunbirds and kingfishers, the barbets are another favourite bird of mine. 

They are not always easy to spot, being largely greenish, which blend them with the foliage. What fascinates me is their colourful heads of red, blue, yellow and black. The Taiwanese call them 五 色 鸟 or five-coloured bird. Only the Lineated Barbet is less colourful with just green, streaks of brown, yellow and white.

Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala)
@ Bukit Brown, Singapore

There are Asian, African, American and even Toucan-barbets. These birds frequently stay high up in the canopy of trees and one is lucky if this bird is seen perching at a low position.

This blog will focus mainly on the Asian barbet, the Megalaimidae. There are about 26 types, which can be found from Tibet to Southeast Asia. Most of them concentrate around the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia region.

They are usually plumpish, have large heads and thick bills with bristles growing above the top bill. The ones I have come across are rather territorial in nature and often respond to bird calls; they quickly come to check who had dared to intrude into their territory.

The barbets do not sing melodiously but make staccato calls, which make them easy to notice should they be around. They are not only found in forested areas but also in city parks. The attractive Coppersmith Barbet is an example.

Lineated Barbet (Magalaima lineata) @ Bukit Batok Nature Park, Singapore

Like the woodpeckers, they bore into tree trunks to make their nests; they lay between two and four eggs each time.

Their diet consists mainly of fruits and insects. But some have been known to eat small vertebrae such as frogs and lizards.

Black browed Barbet (Megalaima oorti)
@ Wulai, Taiwan

Barbets tend to be solitary birds, according to the bird experts. I have seen small groups of them feasting on the fruits of trees and they seem to coexist well. I noted that in both Taiwan and Singapore.

Fire-tufted Barbet (Psilopogon pyrolopbus) @ Fraser's Hill, Malaysia

I shall be adding new photos as I spot these barbets, so this is a blog in progress.

Colourfully Striking Birds

The Trogon Chronicles

Diard's Trogon, female (Harpactes diardii), Panti, July 2012

The trogon is not just winsome with striking colours of scarlet, blue, brown and a host of other colours, it has a stately pose, too. It's always great to spot one in the open as it can be shy and will fly off in a flash when humans arrive.

The trogons are an old-world bird and their fossil records date back 49 million years (mid-Eocene)!

The word trogon is a Greek work for "nibbling" as the bird gnaws holes in tree trunks to build its nest. They belong to the Trogonidae family; there are 39 species in eight genera.

These photos will hopefully kick-start my collection of trogons.

Scarlet-rumped Trogon, male (Harpactes duvaucelil) @ Panti, July 2012

Red-headed Trogon, female (Harpactes kasumba) @ Fraser's Hill, June '12

Lifer No. 1 @ Panti Bird Sanctuary

Green Broadbill made my day

My first visit to Panti in Johor two months ago ended in failure - I heard the bird calls but saw none. Revisiting it with two fellow birders on Tuesday saw fortune and luck in reverse. The prize catch was a pair of the Green Broadbill (Calyptomena virisdis), said by some to be rather hard to see, and not just because its green feathers camouflage it so effectively.

The protective male

The place we were at was said to be populated by Green Broadbills. We didn't see any for a while. But something green flashed by the corner of my right eye and without thinking I took a photograph of it. It was blurrish but was confirmed to be a female broadbill. We played its call and soon the male appeared. But we play bird calls sparingly as it may stress them. The male bird made very clear its stand to defend their territory. It responded by calling out loudly and fluffing its neck feathers. And that's when we were able to take these very clear, unobstructed photos. 

The female may be less bright but it has this greenish glow

It is a queer looking bird as feathers cover the top part of its beak. And the green feathers were luminously bright, a visual treat indeed it was.

End