Sultan Tit – feeding and songs/calls

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“I have had more opportunity to spend time with this solitary male Sultan Tit (Melanochlora sultanea flavocristata). This observation was taken against the sun and at first I thought the bird was nest building (above, below). But a closer inspection of images showed that it had found prey – some eggs laid under a leaf in a long brown tubular fashion; possibly of a wasp species. It stripped them off the leaf to take away to eat.

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“Description of songs and calls, translated into words, vary greatly in different references.
The classical call is the one offered here in an edited recording (below)…

“…and sonogram/waveform (below).

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“Wells (2007) describes it best as an ‘intense carrying chi peeo peeo …’ The song starts with a ‘chi’ note and is followed by 1 to 5 (or more?) ‘peeo’ notes. Robson (2002) renders the ‘peeo’ as ‘piu’.

“The more common call given is the of a loud ‘chwek-chwek’ that is usually in two notes. Edited recording in Post 5… (below)…

“…and sonogram/waveform (below).

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Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
15th September 2016

Location: Kledang-Sayong Forest Reserve, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: A ‘damaged’ trail along primary jungle

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