My Ride and Bird Life: June 2015

For some people, farewell party need to be held at their house, office, or even other fancier venue. For us farewell party better to be held at one of our birding spot. So, we met Emilie a few years back on an organized birding tour to Muara Angke Nature Reserve, and Pulau Rambut. After that, we went birding together on our tailor-made tour. Last week, I received a message from her saying "She will leave Indonesia soon", so I tried to find in my busy work schedule to go birding with her one last time. After we found the date, we chose Ragunan Zoo to be our "farewell party" venue because located not too far from her place and also closer to my work place compared to the other birding spots.

Me (far left side), my brother (far right side), and Emilie's Family (middle).

Female Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon.

Male Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon.

The Common Myna showing its nictitating membrane.

We started to bird at around 07.00AM together with my brother Khaleb. In the beginning, we were welcomed by a group of Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon. It was a lifer for her, so both of us were happy because it's easily overlooked as a Pink-necked Green Pigeon that is more common. Then, we saw two Common Mynas and also the Grosbeak Starling which is an escapee. One of the Myna had a limping foot.

One of the Common Myna with a liming foot.

The normal Common Myna.

The lonely Grosbeak Starling.

Our super common Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

When we went deeper to the zoo, we got some more species like the Blue-eared Kingfisher, Coppersmith Barbet, Javan Pond Heron, Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, White-breasted Waterhen, Black-crowned Night Heron, and also a group of Scaly-breasted Munia. One of the Munia looks green because it's been painted by the bird seller to attract the kids. There was also a sad moment when we saw one of the Black-crowned Night Heron who died after having been caught by a kite's string.

Javan Pond Heron in breeding plumage.

Juveniles Black-crowned Night Heron.

Unlucky Night Heron. :'(

Hard working Coppersmith Barbet.

Male Blue-eared Kingfisher.

Preening Scaly-breasted Munia.

Scaly-breasted "Green" Munia.

We roamed around the zoo for around 3 hours yielding more than 20 species in total including 2 Big Year Ticks for me (the Coppersmith Barbet, and the Black-crowned Night Heron), and also the key species including the Blue-eared Kingfisher, Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon, Red-breasted Parakeet, and the Olive-backed Tailorbird. Outside bird we got two different reptiles (several young monitor Asian Water Monitor Lizards, and the Olive Dasia that also known as Olive Tree Skink), and one rodent species (the Plantain Squirrel). We finished our trip by having a coffee at the pastries shop near her place because our friend's shop was closed.