The Long-tailed Shrike is not rare in central Perak where many suitable habitats (wasted grassland) were available, but unlike much of its northern range, it was quite reluctant to get close to man-made structures in Malaysia (I had seen them flying in the middle busy Nanjing road at Shanghai! truly urban). Their primary nesting habitat that was once visited by a number of birders from Ipoh is now heavily developed and destructed, although the Long-tailed Shrike still seemed to be found there, but the lost of nearly half of its territory had forced it to spread further away. Early last year, it was the first time where I spot 1 near my house, probably as an isolated case as I did not see it there again for the rest of the year. This year I was quite busy and did very little birding. Today I decided that I must at least take a small walk around my house surrounding and saw this rather bold one over here, occupied the limited stretch of wasted grassland behind the terrace house, just 2 minutes walk from my house. Sadly, this stretch is also rumoured to be ready for housing development. This small stretch had been a promising site for both Yellow and Cinnamon Bitterns in the past. And also good for Rusty-rumped Warblers for a while. Some rarities that shows up here so close to the houses also includes some rare sights of the Barred Buttonquail and uncommon visits of Java Sparrows. A suspected Thick-billed Warbler was also once seen here but due to lack of photographic evidence and far view, it had been rejected by the MNS-BCC. I had a feeling that the Long-tailed Shrike will start to settle down here until development take over and I will loose yet another good birding site near my house.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 13:06:56 +0000
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