Part 1 - In Search of the BB

Word of mouth by some of my fellow birder friends of the reappearance of the BB (our acronym for the rare Bornean Bristlehead) in our favourite birding backyard motivated me to wake up early last sunday and rushed to our patch to go in search of it. Frankly speaking, my last personal sighting of the BB was somewhere around the second week of January this year and I haven’t seen the BB since then. A combination of not being there on the right time and moment plus my own busy work schedule prevented me from having the opportunity to observed them again since January. So, hearing the good news of the BB reappearing back again at our birding backyard made me smile in delight as at last I will now have a chance to take a reasonably decent photo of this bird.

A nearby fruiting fig tree (where a small band of 6 BB was last seen) became my main look out point as I waited patiently for the appearance of the BB. But as luck was to go that day, I wasn’t that lucky. There were no signs of the BB at all. Tough luck. Fortunately, my day was brighten up by the presence of another “BB” who kept accompanying me throughout the day and that is the.. Brown Barbet (Calorhamphus fuliginosus).

A total of 9 species of barbet occur here in Borneo including some highly sought after endemics such as the Golden Naped Barbet (Megalaima pulcherrima) and also the Mountain Barbet (Megalaima monticola) which can be found mainly on higher elevation areas ie Mount Kinabalu and the Crocker Range. Unlike most of the other barbet species which are uniformly green in colour with patches of either red, yellow or blue on the crown, the brown barbet (as you might have already guess from its name) is quite dull brownish with a distinctive orange brown throat. The Brown Barbets call is also different from the other barbet species as it makes only a wheezy like kind of whistle compared to other barbet species which makes several repetitive boop and trook repertoire high up on the canopy. Here are some photos of the brown barbet feeding. Enjoy.. :P            

           The Brown Barbet feeding on a fig fruit...

   Tossing it up a bit...

Going down slowly...

Almost there...

       OOPS.. Looks like its too BIG...

But alas.. Emmm.. Yummy!

Part 1 - In Search of the BB (To be Continued)

All Photos taken in Sepilok Forest Reserve on the 6th of September 2009 using a Nikon D300 + 70-300mm VR Lens.