Thick-billed Green Pigeon (Treron curvirostra)

The Thick-billed Green Pigeon (Treron curvirostra) is a common bird of Borneo's lowland rainforest and can be found up to an elevation of 1500m above sea level. This species has a wide distribution in around South East Asia stretching all the way to Hong Kong, Bangladesh and also to India. According to the IUCN Red List this species is evaluated as Least Concerned due to thier large range and population.

This species comes from the family of Columbidae, a big family of Pigeons and Doves. They are all mainly frugivorous birds and eat a wide variety of fruits, berries and also seeds. According to Smythies - The Birds of Borneo (1999), two subfamilies are represented in Borneo - The primarily arboreal and frugivorous Treroninae family represented by the green pigeons, fruit doves and imperial pigeons and the remainder in the predominantly terrestrial seed eating family Columbinae.

Sexes of this species differ greatly in where the back, mantle and upper inner wing coverts are maroon in the male but dark green in the female. Both though have a grey crown and a distinctive heavy bill with a red base.

This Thick-billed Green Pigeon "couple" photo is taken in the Sepilok Forest Reserve.

All photos taken with a Nikon D 300 + 70-300mm VR at ISO 400 f5.6

The Long Tail Parrots of Borneo

The well-known parrot family is poorly represented in the island of Borneo with only 4 species found. Those found are the Long Tail Parakeet (Psittacula longicauda longicauda), the Blue-rumped Parrot (Psittitus cyanurus), the Blue-crown Hanging Parrot (Loriculus galgulus), and the Blue-naped Parrot (Tanygnathus lucionensis). In comparison to the other parrot family species such as the Cockatoos, Lori's parrot or the Fig-parrots which are found mainly further east in the New Guinea and Australian region, most of the parrots in Borneo are predominantly green in colour and lack the outstanding bright and rainbow like colours of the other species. Nevertherless these species has to be appreciated in order to conserved it as they are endangered mainly because of its demand as a bird pet.

This Long Tail Parakeet photo was taken in the village of Sukau, Lower Kinabatangan feeding on a ripe flower bud of the Simpoh laki (Dillenia excelsa).

All photos taken with a Nikon D300 + 70 - 300mm VR, ISO 400 at f 5.6.

Maroon Langur (Presbytis rubicunda)

World Cup fever is over and a big big Congratulations to Spain on thier great achievement this year. Looks like its gonna be another 5 years to wait before the next World Cup comes around the corner. The past 1 month of exciting football with a lot of surprising upsets ~ albeit the late nights and early morning start just to see it has really made me needing "extra time" to recuperate. I guess thats the same with all football fans as well. Hopefully you will all stay awake at work and fare better than this sleepy Maroon Langur napping in the afternoon.

5 minutes later...

Maroon Langur or also better known as the Red leaf Monkey. This is a Bornean Endemic primate. Photo taken in Gomantong Caves with a Nikon D80 + 70-300mm VR.