“Went for an afternoon/evening walk along the Kuching City Waterfront with my wife. The last time I was here in September 2010 I spotted a Brown-t hroated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) male looking for prey by turning over the Dragon’s Scale Fern (Pyrrosia piloselloides). See earlier post HERE.
“I was keen to see if this behaviour was still present. I somehow had expectations to meet the same bird. I was not disappointed. One tree away from last time an adult male was meticulously turning over the dragon’s scale fern one by one looking for prey (left). Despite the heat of the day it was very serious about it. This time there was a good reason, it had a juvenile to feed.
“Watched this behaviour for 20 minutes (with lots of passerby watching me) with intermittent feeding of juvenile.
“The Subspecies and Distribution in Borneo is not fullycertain (see The Birds of Borneo 4th edition 1999 by Smythies & revised by Davidson and the Internet Bird Collection). Up north in Sabah (northern Borneo) A. m. bornensis is the common subspecies. Down south in Sarawak it is either A. m. malacensis and bornensis or intermediate birds. The differentiation being brightness of colour, so not easy to tell.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Kuching City Waterfront, Sarawak, Malaysia
12th March 2011
