Barbet watching with the Taiwan Public Television Service (PTS)

Today was a tiring day as my co-worker and I spent the entire day showing the television team where we do our observations and trying to help them getting the shots they want for their documentary. And for the most part of the day, we were just waiting for the barbets to cooperate nicely. Sadly, a predicted half-day work turned out to be a full day work (and possibly more in the future).
In addition to assisting the TV team, we also wanted to check on the progress of each nest site (three in total). For Muller's Barbets, it takes about 14 to 15 days for the eggs to hatch, and another three weeks for the fledglings to leave the nest. Checking each nest involves extending a pole with a light source and a pinpoint camera attached at the end into the nest. Of course, the guarding parents did not like this at all, and they pecked and attacked the pole with full forces! For the three nests, we saw three eggs in one, two fledglings in another, and three fleglings in another. Maybe I will ask my co-worker for the photos to post on here.

A little accident happened as we were checking on the nest with three eggs. After checking, the guarding female left the nest, and the replacing male spent almost 15 minutes or so outside the nest and not going in. This worried us a lot, as we were afraid the pair might abandon the nest. But, we all sighed a big relief when the male finally went in. Hooray!

The guarding female...

The waiting male. In the end, we asked the photographers to leave and give the birds some space and they gladly obliged. And the male finally went in.

Birds in the Botanical Garden are quite used to humans. This beautiful Malayan Night Heron (Gorsachius melanolophus) was just a few feet away from me looking for a meal.

In the third nest, the eggs here were the quickest out of the entire TBG to hatch. Here is one of the adults watching closely as we inched closer to its nest and babies.

See the leg bands? I'll have to confirm with my co-worker the sex of this individual.

It even attacked our point-cam pole!


Beautiful Water Lily in TBG.
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