TBG Attractions

I spent a part of the morning just walking around the botanical garden carrying equipements back and forth.

This is one of the Muller's Barbets that we were recording today. The below is the female adult, as identified by its whitish lower beak.

Muller's Barbet (Megalaima nuchalis)

From now on, one of my main tasks will be sorting and compiling literatures and writing my paper report; hence, my work will be taking place inside the office. Nevertheless, when I have the time and opportunity to go out to the botanical garden, I tried to enjoy every moment.

The beautiful male Black-naped Blue Monarch (Hypothymis azurea) standing on its nest with two new nestlings. This nest is becoming photographers' favorite subject to shot in the garden.

I still get arranged to observe barbets for three hours when we are short-handed, such as today. While watching for the parent barbets to come back and feed their nestlings (which was infrequent), a female Oriental Magpie Robin came just a few meters away from me.

Female Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis)

As some of you may already know, the botanical garden is also quite abundant in the stray cats inhabiting this area. They are also quite a favorite attraction among common tourists because no one can deny their cuteness and beauty.

Mama cat and baby kitten

Taking a nice nap...

While heading back to the office, we came across a Malay Night Heron standing on a grass field (and later scared onto a tree by a cat).

Malay Night Heron (Gorsachius melanolophus)

Not much seems to have progressed during the weekend.
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Seeing the beautiful Oriental Magpie Robin and Little Egret

Yesterday, I had dinner with a co-worker/friend and by the time I got home it was already midnight. So sorry for the late post.

Yesterday's work was more or less the same as the past few days: observing and trying to catch barbets. We spent almost the entire day trying to catch the other barbet, but it was unsuccessful. Observing the other barbet pair was fairly simple as they are in the incubation stage so the parents stayed inside the cavity for an extended amount of time and poked their heads out every ten minutes or so. The cavity allows only one parent inside at one time, so the two alternate every hour or so.

Above is the male bird. He can be identified by the two spots on the upper left side of his face (one dark spot just in front of its eyes and one spot on his beak). The bottom is the female and she does not have the spots.

While observing the barbets, a beautiful male Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) flew just a few meters away from me! Definitely a worthy moment to remember.

Even though it's named a "robin", it belongs in the Family Muscicapidae (not the thrush family Turdidae).

While trying to catch the other barbets. A Little Egret flew onto the tree where the barbet nest is in.

Little Egret preening.

Maginificent looking bird.

Little Egret taking off!

This is the latest stage of the caterpillar and the parasitic eggs.

Today I will be staying home and trying to get started on my research paper. So I doubt I will have anything interesting to post about today. Laters.
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Blue sky in Taipei

Lately, the Water Lily Pond in the botanical garden had been surrounded by many photographers as the flowers are in the blossoming stage.

The weather forcast for today was suppose to be rainy (same as yesterday), but drizzle came in short phases and soon the sky was cleared!

View from the 12th floor of our building. The tallest building in the background is the famous Taipei 101.


Beautiful blue sky with Royal Palms.

In the afternoon, I watched the barbets all by myself. After I finished, I came back to the office to work on translating the written barbet research paper (from last year) that is to be submitted to Taiwan Journal of Forest Science. It is pretty exciting to be helping with a potentially published paper. Afterwards, I discussed my research ideas with my supervisor for my actual internship that starts in two weeks.

While in the garden, my co-worker showed me a nest cavity of Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) that he just found. Even though it is a pretty bird, they are quite disliked as they are an alien species that competes for nest cavities with barbets and other native cavity nesters.

Two White-rumped Shama fledglings.

As I was about to leave work, I went to the rooftop and sky-watched. I don't think I stopped and really enjoyed the sky in a while. But of course, it is quite rare to see a cleared sky in Taipei.

Sky-watching and Taipei 101 watching.
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