Chasing Nature's Light at Sungai Merbok Mangrove Forest Reserve

Its been almost a year since I last visited the Sungai Merbok Mangrove Forest Reserve. The last time I was there, I found a common kingfisher and was able to get close ups of a pair of green-billed malkohas. My recollection was that the park has interesting but limited variety of birds, so what will I find this time around?

The reserve is located towards the north end of Sungai Petani, just before a bridge that crosses the Merbok river to get to a town called Semeling. The reserve opens at 9am and I arrived right on time, an attendant opened the gates just as I reached the entrance.

The previous times I've been here yielded some close up of the more common birds such as the collared kingfisher or the green-billed malkoha, so I was not expecting much for this visit. As expected, I did not see any unusual birds, a little egret greeted me, so did a common sandpiper that was wading in the mudflats exposed by the low tide. 

As I walked towards the end of the walkway, I heard the calls of a sunbird, I thought to myself "cool!", probably an olive-backed sunbird here, and I have not seen them here before (heard, maybe). I searched for the sunbird and it looked almost all black to the eye, strange! But then it hit me, this is a mangrove forest, and sunbirds that live in the mangroves are copper-throated sunbirds! (I've always wanted to see and photograph one). Unfortunately, I did not have the call of the copper-throated sunbird (more on call playing later), so I played the only sunbird recording I had, that of the ruby-cheeked sunbird. Sure enough, the copper-throated sunbird came out, followed by what I initially thought was the female copper-throated sunbird but no...... what followed was actually both a surprise and not a surprise, a ruby-cheeked sunbird!!!

So it is not often that one gets to take a photo of a copper-throated sunbird perched next to a ruby-cheeked sunbird, but I did... and blew the opportunity! I wish I had the confidence and sense to stop down the aperture for a wider depth of field to get both birds in good focus, live and learn!

After the initial excitement wore off, I was happy to check off two sunbirds that I really wanted to see from my E-bird list. It is indeed amazing to find these birds just a 10 minute drive from where I live in Malaysia. I rounded off the morning with views and photos of a pair of collared kingfishers perched on a tree.

Epilogue and a lesson:

The story doesn't end here exactly, I returned to the reserve the following day and I could not find the ruby-cheeked sunbirds. However I did find a juvenile copper-throated sunbird which is a very good sign that the birds are living and breeding well in the area. 

I returned again after another day and this time I found the ruby-cheeked sunbird(s), two of them! I found them by playing their call and located them behind the site's auditorium. Now this was where things got a little harrowing. The sunbirds, in response to my call, came out and flew around me. One actually kept flying towards the auditorium window and that's where it dawned on me that my persistent call playing was making the birds search around for the source of the calls. It may have noticed its reflection in the window and tried to look closer. Fortunately I turned off the call and the bird stopped, perhaps avoiding an incident where the bird flies into the window and getting killed. This is a very strong lesson learned for me that I should really use call playing carefully and sparingly (if possible not at all).

For more information on the Sungai Merbok Mangrove Forest Reserve, please visit: https://blog.tourism.gov.my/merrily-merbok-river/