MALAYSIAN WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

Good bird photography requires a number of elements to be in place: 1.      Interesting species 2.      Good directional light 3.      Tidy perches that have a ‘clean’ background 4.      An ability to get the subject within lens range 5.      Good photographic equipment #4 can be achieved by increasing the lens size, using a hide or having cooperative birds. Byram circa early 2012 and before had the entire elements in the list above. The confluence of different elements: the rubbish dump, the effluent ponds, semi-submerged skeletal trees, a mangrove estuary and coastal location conspired to bring a number of species to a small area. On my first visits in my SUV in late 2011 and early 2012 I was overwhelmed by the perched and swimming species that were boosted by Northern migrants enjoying a warmer climate. Blue-tailed Bee-eaters tossed insects in bushes adjacent to the road, Little Grebes chugged around the ponds and ran across the water when frighten

Cavity nesters clearly have some advantages in raising their young underground but there are also a number of challenges they must face to fledge healthy chicks. In one of my favorite photographic locations two species of Bee-eater and one kingfisher species nest in the ground. In this blog I will detail the challenges that one of these species; the Blue-throated Bee-eater has to overcome to propagate their species. Blue-throated Bee-eaters are not endemic to Peninsular Malaysia and several hundred birds arrive in mid-February to a Moto-cross track that occupies several acres of land to raise their chicks. Considerably less numbers of Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters and several pairs of White-throated kingfishers, all cavity nesters, also choose the same site to nest in. There are other similar open areas in the vicinity where different pairs of Kingfisher choose to nest but the Bee-eaters single-mindedly prefer this arena. The Breeding Cycle This has been de