Orange-headed Thrush in FRIM

3rd February 2010


FRIM or the Forest Research Institute has a sprawling compound that encompasses kilometers of forest edge. Undeniably scenes that's befitting the most attractive destination for bird watching. That point is true! Many species of quality birds were recorded. Unfortunately the hills and jungle that surround the land are of monoculture or that of badly disturbed forest. While the desired bird diversity can still be counted upon but most species in low population numbers, and the few remaining birds are well scattered. Chances of meeting up with them rare. As hope of seeing birds is always there, we cannot write of this destination but kept it high on our favored list.

Migratory activities is high in January, and among the birds on the watch list - the Orange-headed Thrush. For years now, on following through the tip-off of their whereabouts, the hunt turned up blanks, not until this year. In 2010, the bird in Bukit Tinggi stayed visible for days, perhaps with better retention method adopted by the photographers, I can say that by now almost all enthusiasts in the country had pictures of this bird.

This Orange-headed over the years was seen in quite a few spots around Kuala Lumpur. As mentioned earlier, the first reported sighting was in Bukit Tinggi and now Gilbert confirmed having met up with another bird in FRIM.

Since FRIM is near my house, the 3 of us set out to confirm the habit of this bird.


As predicted, the Thrush stayed in its last seen confine of foraging. Was not disturbed by our presence.

We took the shots from afar. Then we tested its resistance to our presence by approaching the bird. It flew off but to reappear on a mid-storey branch very close to where we stood.

Our understanding of the bird reinforced.

Beside the Thrush, the sighting of other birds in FRIM was so accidental, bird life was really low. We had to be contended with images of the most common bird of the compound.
 
 
 
 

Just to reconfirm that the place could not be that unproductive, we headed for the "Finfoot" pond, where we were assured of resident like Stork-billed, Straw-headed of even the Common Kingfisher .
 
 
Checking out this hot spot, there was nothing out of the ordinary but White-breasted Kingfisher, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and Scaly-breasted Munia. Overhead the Yellow-faced did not want us to miss his presence.