“My wife and I were leading/conducting a silent spiritual retreat for a group at a friend’s home. This home is out of the way and is uniquely built on a slope, preserving the primary forest that surrounds it and is designed for quite retreats (visits only by personal invitation). As they own a piece of land surrounding the home, they have managed to preserve a bit of the forest (increasing destruction around them). The bird volume was amazing but, due to the task at hand, I had to limit myself to watching early in the mornings when the light was low.
“One of the afternoons I was listening to a retreatant’s issues and an adult male Little Bronze Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx minutillus peninsularis) hopped up to a branch less than 3 meters away (we were sitting on the veranda in an upper storey). I had my camera by my side and asked permission to stop for a few minutes to grab some images – the group here knows my passion for birds 😉
“The bird was looking for caterpillars in the tree and caught 3 in the space of 2 minutes. It behaved a little like a flycatcher in that it would fly out to grab a caterpillar it spotted and then return to the same branch to branch-swipe it before devouring it. After a few images I let the bird continue and focused on the task at hand.
“Note that in literature (DR Wells 1999) it has been reported up to 250 meters. This location was 460 metres ASL.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
460 metres ASL, Bukit Tinggi area, Pahang, Malaysia
Habitat: A retreat house nestled in sub-montane primary jungle
19th March 2012
