“Found this adult Crested Jay (Platylophus galericulatus on the island of Pulau Bintan in a cage. The owner told me that it came from Sumatra. What was interesting is that it can be found in Peninsula Malaysia, according to C. Robson [A field guide to the birds of South-east Asia. New Holland, London.], in broadleaved evergreen forest up to 1,220 meters. If this is so I have yet to see a recent report on it’s sighting.
“The other interesting thing about this bird is it’s vocalisation. When ‘stimulated’ it would burst out into a vigorous, as C. Robson says in his book, ‘a very rapid, grating metallic rattle.’”
K C Tsang
Pulau Bintan, Indonesia
29th October 2010
3 responses
This bird looked rather brownish, I suspect it might be the “coronatus” that is endemic to Borneo and Sumatra, so it could probably came from there. In West Malaysia, the race is blacker.
P. g. coronatus is found in both in Sumatra as well as in southern Borneo. It does not at all look like the north Bornean sub-form, P. g. lemprieri, which is much more reddish-brown.
This bird ” Bejampong as an Omen Bird” in Iban’s culture has been given spiritual powers ???, for good and bad for example:
” It is taboo for a longhouse to be entered by a Bejampong bird. If it happens, it predicts that the settlement will soon catch on fire and burn. A manang should be called as soon as possible to neutralize this omen.”
Read more about this interesting bird at:
http://gnmawar.wordpress.com/the-house-of-sengalang-burong-page-1/the-people-of-tansang-kenyalang/bejampong/