Sime Forest 29Oct06

From KH

Con and I went to Sime Forest in the morning hoping to see more of the rare birds. Short-tailed babblers were seen and heard on several occasions. A hooded pitta perched at eye-level was the sighting of the day. Dingli and James saw a jungle flycatcher, but Con and I did not. Soon we ran into Bing Wen, Mick and Horst, but decided to keep our groups small and separate.

At Jelutong Tower, more birders were sighted - Sree (and family), Hang Chong, Ashley and friend, a photographer Jimmy (not Jimmy Chew). Also present was an emerald dove. At the boardwalk, James spotted the black-backed kingfisher at the same spot it was found by Bing Wen 2 weeks ago. However, the bird was not co-operative in showing up to our cluster of 8-9 birders on the boardwalk. Packing up to move on to Chinese Garden for the ruddy kingfisher, all agreed that there was not much activity in the forest. Maybe it was the overcast. Maybe there were just too many people, joggers and birders alike.

While walking back to the Venus Drive carpark, we sighted another birder, Dr Ho. Following our tip off, Danny also showed up at Chinese Garden, but the ruddy was nowhere to be seen. However, around 4 pm, the bird was back again, but we had left at 1 pm...

During the evening, Danny and JS went looking for the BBKF and found it! Here is JS's story:

From JS

This evening, my father and I went to Sime forest. Finally, we have seen the bird that we have been looking for after spending several weekends at Sime - a beautiful black-backed kingfisher! This lifer was enough to make this otherwise boring and quiet birding trip a fruitful one.

This report maybe a little long-winded but do understand my anxiety of seeing my first rare KF.

The black-backed kingfisher was seen along the broadwalk, the section after the first clearing and before opening to the SICC golf course. My father was the first to see the bird. Unlike Bing Wen's sightings, my father saw the bird when it made a dive into a small puddle to catch its prey. Only when it perched with food in its mouth that my father realised that he was staring at a tiny beautiful rare black-backed kingfisher. Sadly, a jogger alerted the shy bird with two words,"excuse me." Unexpected, the bird made another dive before going into hiding in the thick thickets. As a result, there was no photos of the bird.

Lagging behind, my father phoned me about the sighting of the kingfisher. Immediately, I rushed to the particular spot, only to stare at the dead-quiet thickets. The time was 6.30 pm! There was still some glimpse of light, hope. We stayed on and I was rewarded with a terrific open view of the bird, no obstructing branches or leaves, just a bird on a thin bare trunk. Also, there is a story that comes with the kingfisher.

At 6.30 pm, I arrived at the spot and sat down, staring at the puddles, wishing that a KF would just plunged into it. A brown chested jungle flycatcher came and cheer me up a little. Suddenly, a bird flew across the broadwalk, yelling as it fly. No idea what the bird was. Next moment, a crow-billed drongo flew across my back in the thickets. Luckily, my eyes saw it. The drongo unexpectedly became the key to seeing the KF. Like the GRT drongo, the crow-billed drongo was no diff, created a din when it arrived. A brown shrike was disturbed from his sleep and a flycatcher? Held up my bino and saw a small pinked headed bird with a black head patch, red bill, black wing with blue patches and a dirty pale belly - the black-backed kingfisher! Sigh! The bird arose from his roost to chase away the annoying drongo to my delight, entertaining me with a David-Goliath battle. The drongo flew off but returned minutes later. I supposed the KF had flown away. Like earlier sighting, we couldn't take any photos.

Highlights of the trip
- 1 first winter male Siberian Blue Robin
- 1 Black-backed Kingfisher
- 1 Crow-billed Drongo
- 1 Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher