New acquaintances when they heard that my interest is bird watching. In response, so very often most of them revealed their sentiments that bird watching is a very expensive hobby. I know how that feeling or impression comes about. In short I can tell you and if you look into my web pages, keep an eye on evidences to show that the conclusion of birding being expensive is misconstrued.

I have traveled wide and far, and also so often to seek out opportunities to collect more images of seldom seen birds. With these experiences, I can vouch that what ever the apprehensions that you may have about bird watching are unfounded. The constraints, too many to mention and the difficulties etc, they can all be overcome with a minimal efforts.

You can do bird watching within the comfort of your backyard, your balcony or even from your room. All you needed is clear mind, an interest. Just focus on the area, you are intending to pursue. In this page I have listed some pictures and also attempting to give more insights of birds we will get to see in our garden - the Malaysian environment. Hope that will help you to start recognizing birds around you.

You know this bird! It is a song bird. Very often see on the ground. Kept in cages of many houses. Yes, learn about this bird. That's bird watching.

There are more pictures of this bird on my other page dedicated to Robin. In it, also a brief write-up which you may find interesting .

To most untrained eyes, we get to see Mynas almost every where. Noisy birds, fairly large size that makes them conspicuous when combined with their loud calls. In reality, there is a complicated scene taking place. The fight to be the most common Myna and also the cross breeding quietly happening. Easiest to identify, there is a brown Myna with yellow face mask. This is the Common Myna. But watch out, there is another one, black colored Myna, which is  the Javan Myna. According to record,in our open park areas, there should be seen 4 types of Mynas, Common, Jungle, White-vented & lastly the Javan. For some time now, the Jungle Myna, recognized by the blue tinged at the base of its lower bill had hardly being spotted. It is assumed that the Javan Myna has done some cross breeding with this species.

Without making the topic more complicated, those of you staying in Selangor, just keep a look-out. To see whether there are more Black Mynas [Javan Myna with inconspicuous crest]when compared with the brown colored ones [Common Myna -brown with no crest].

Of course, there is another species which is very often seen as well. The noisiest of the whole lot -the White-vented Mynas. They move around in small family of a pair or 3 birds. Very easy to differentiate them, they are the ones with very prominent crest.

Javan Myna

Common Myna

White-vented Myna

Most important to note is that this species is termed as a Tree-Sparrow as compared to a Plain Sparrow. The name Eurasian Tree Sparrow was given, perhaps to differentiate this bird from the American Tree Sparrow,  Not clear as to how it was introduced to Malaysia or when. The bird is found in Europe, temperate Asia, Himalayas and South-east Asia. This is a lowland bird feeding on seeds of grasses. But here, they soon became so used to be around humans and now have preference for urban dwellings. Today, in Malaysian towns they live of scraps of food and left overs. Moving around and among humans in flocks. In Europe and Australia, this is still very much a rural bird.

Each morning as punctual as the alarm clock, at precisely 6.45 am, this bird would be doing his morning call. It may sounds melodic but most time noisy! The ritual would run for about 10 minutes until he felt that the day's chore is over. At last you can identify this bird and I know that you would say "I know this bird!" Very often seen in your garden. Now you get its name as well.

Bulbuls are very common bird in our garden, open park, forest and mountain. So common that birders have viewed the sightings of this type of bird as one of low importance. But members of this bird belong to a big family of variances. The Yellow-vented Bulbul is one of the 24 species you can find in Malaysia. If you are interested in birding, this group of birds would be pleasant for study. Most members from the group are readily available, but some species so difficult to encounter.

I have a limited collection of these birds. You could see them in this link to the page on Bulbul.

There is yet another noticeable bird that comes to your garden. I am sure that it has left a strong impression. This is fairly large bird with brilliant yellow plumage. It is hardy and a aggressive bird. Unlike Bulbul, you do not get to hear them call. But when the group is loitering around your garden and having fellowship, they would chat very loudly for minutes on end. Such exchanges of their calls could some time last 20 minutes.

Aggressive in a way that they prey on the young of other birds. Very territorial- have seen them driving House Crow away. Usually, they are harmless feeding on your ripe papayas. There are few Orioles in Malaysia, a couple of them yellow while there is also a couple of them in dark red plumage. I too have a page on Oriole.

We do have black colored birds in our garden. In fact, plenty of them. No! these are not the Black Birds as we read in fairy tale books. They are Starlings, deep bronze green in color. You may recall having seen large flock of "black birds". Maybe not in your garden but in the surrounding houses. These birds prefer trees. Seldom comes to the ground for food. When they are feeding, all you hear is a stream of single note whistle. You could hardly see them. For fellowship they would gather on TV aerials and branches of bare trees, some places open. That's the time, they are obvious.

The bird looks dark all the time. But once in bright daylight, the reflection on their body would bring out that iridescent green.

Straight away you could recognize this as the common "Merbuk". A song bird used for singing competition in the Padang.

Indeed they are and I need not say more. Now you understand about bird watching. It is creating awareness of the birds around you. More about this Merbuk can be viewed on my page on Dove.

Pigeon - a common bird that we all know. These are the domestic Pigeons. We will see them, particularly in open compound of temples and squares. Do you know that we in Malaysia has a large varieties of wild Pigeon. One of them do come to visiting our fruiting trees.

No mystery -they have the typical look of a Pigeon and they are also green as the names implies.

In case you need to differentiate it as which type they are. Here are so pictures to assist you.

The birds making lots of high pitch trilled calls in the open skies at your house are swift. Most likely they do not land or perch anywhere nearby. But occasionally, you may see some tiny black birds lining up in a row on your wires.

These are Swallows, to be specific, they are of one kind, Pacific Swallows. There may be another which you will see in the country side, Barn Swallows. But this is more a rural species.

The Sunbird is a regular in Parks and forest edge. We are lucky to have a member of this species who do not mind to be around human. So we have this species as sample of a colorful bird we have in Malaysia. In a way, this little bird can be compared to the renounced Hummingbirds of America.

More of the write up of this bird can be found in my other page on Sunbirds You can also get acquainted with other kind of Sunbirds that you would possibly meet up in future.

male

This crow that we see in large numbers comes from the Indian Sub-continent and South-west China. In Malaysia, the crows were brought in from Sri Langka [formerly Ceylon] to help in the rubbish situation in Port Klang. Very soon by 1903, they already have a feral colony. Instead of a grey collar, it has a tinge of brown. Today, they are seen in the whole country. This is the species that clear up waste materials and road kills - in short a scavenger! House Crow has proven themselves to have higher intelligence as compared to other birds. I hope that I will be able to collect information for some Crow tales in future.

We do have our own Crows. the Thick-billed and the Slender-billed. Their feeding habits are slightly different and remained in the forest or Mangrove swamp area.

Hope you enjoy learning about birds around you. I am sure that in no time you will get familiar with these birds. Perhaps seen and knows a few more facts about them that I have not uncovered. You can see from the way as to how I prepare my web pages -bits of information here and there. Sketchy information, but that's the way. One day at a time, consistently we will build something meaningful to ourselves and useful to others.