Whitehead's Broadbill (Calyptomena whiteheadi).
A vivid green Whitehead's broadbill clings to the moss-draped rim of its woven nest, where two ravenous chicks erupt from the shadows in a chorus of orange-gaped demand. Endemic to the mossy montane forests of Borneo's mountain spine — most famously Mount Kinabalu — this is the largest of the three broadbill species in its genus, a fruit-and-insect specialist that rarely descends below 900 metres.
2024-11-20_KK Park_Sabah_MYS-183
Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis). Hikkaido, Japan.
Neck drawn skyward like a calligrapher's stroke, a red-crowned crane lifts its bill against a pewter Hokkaido sky. The scarlet crown is bare skin, not feather — a patch of papillae that flushes deeper when the bird displays. Revered in Japan as 'tancho' and woven into a thousand years of folded-paper prayers for long life, fewer than 3,000 of these cranes remain, a species that was once thought extinct and now trumpets its duets across the frozen marshes of Kushiro each winter.
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Red Crown crane, Akan Int Crane Center, Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan
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Slaty-backed Gull (Larus schistisagus), Abashiri Lake Hokkaido, Japan
A Slaty-backed Gull hovers in the last light of a winter afternoon — red feet trailing, golden sky glowing. In Japan's frozen north, beauty arrives without announcement."
2025-02-28_Abashiri Lake_Hokkaido_JPN-308
Stellar sea eagle, Hokkaido, Japan
"A Steller's Sea Eagle strikes the golden surface — its silhouette barely distinguishable from the light it hunts within. The world's mightiest eagle, reduced to a shadow. And somehow, more magnificent for it."
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Long tailed tit, locally known as the snow fairy.
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Bonded pair of Ural owl - Hokkaido is one of the best places in the world to observe Ural Owls. The forests around Shiretoko and Notsuke Peninsula are particularly famous for them. They nest in old-growth tree hollows.
2025-02-24_Otowa bridge_Hokkaido_JPN-346
Male Bulwer's Pheasant — one of the most visually dramatic and Borneo-endemic pheasants in the world.
2024-12-25_Trusmadi_Sabah_MYS-149
Great Egret (Ardea alba) — Breeding Plumage
A stunning shot of a Great Egret in full breeding regalia — one of the most elegant birds in the Americas.
2024-04-19_Punta Leona_CRI-289
Fiery-throated Hummingbird -Panterpe insignis, Costa Rica. A dazzling Costa Rican endemic — one of the crown jewels of Central American hummingbirds!
2024-04-17_Suenos Natura_CRI-172
Fiery-throated Hummingbird — Costa Rica. Double the magic — two Fiery-throated hummingbirds dance at a cascade of flame-coloured blooms.
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Brown-hooded Parrot {Pyrilia haematotis} Costa Rica.
A fantastic in-flight shot of one of Costa Rica's most colourful forest parrots!
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King Vulture ( Sarcoramphus papa) Costa Rica.
One of the most spectacular and bizarre-looking birds in the Americas — and unmistakable up close!
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Crested Partridge (Rollulus rouloul). Sabah, Malaysia. A pair of Crested Partridges — the male in front with his fiery crown alongside his emerald green mate behind.
2024-01-28_Trusmardi_Sabah_MYS-42
Pink-necked Green Pigeon — Female ( treron vernans) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A beautifully camouflaged female — blending almost perfectly into the tropical foliage!
2023-11-30_SH Birds_KUL_MYS-8
Malachite Kingfisher (corythornis cristatus). Botswana, Africa
This is a small kningfisher, about 13cm in length. The head tufts standing up like a crown is very unusual.
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Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) Botswana, Africa. Nearly two metres of wingspan unfurled over the reeds. A Grey Heron takes flight against a backdrop that could have been painted to match it. The bird's cool grey tones blend seamlessly into the misted hills behind.
2023-05-27_Pangolin_Kesane_BWA-77
Allen's Gallinule (Porphyrio alleni) Botswana, Africa.
A flash of green and turquoise: an Allen's Gallinule makes a soft landing on a water-lily pond.
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2023-05-17_Khwai_Moremi_BWA-427
Southern Red-billed Hornbill (Tockus rufirostris) Botswana, Africa.
As the last light begins to fade, Southern Red-billed Hornbill snatches a grasshopper from the grass — these long-billed insectivores patrol the savanna floor at first light, until last light when cool air keeps insect prey sluggish and easy to catch.
2023-05-10_Planet Baobab_BWA-313-Edit
Mixed flock -White-winged Terns ( Chlidonias leucopterus) and Curlew Sandpipers - (Calidris ferruginea) Mongolia.
Two migratory waves cross paths over a Mongolian steppe lake — White-winged Terns in crisp breeding plumage skim low above the water, while a tight flock of a Curlew Sandpiper, passes behind. Shallow lakes like this, scattered across Central Asia, are critical fuelling stops on flyways that connect the Arctic to the southern hemisphere.
2022-05-17_Hahira Uul_MNG-133-Edit
White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus} Mongolia.
A young White-winged Tern traces a slow arc above a Mongolian steppe lake — first-year birds like this one wear muted browns and a partial dark cap, a far cry from the striking black-and-white of breeding adults.
"Suspended in soft pastel light, a juvenile White-winged Tern banks low over the water — months and thousands of kilometres separate this bird from the African wetlands where it will spend its first non-breeding season.
2022-05-13_Hahira Uul_MNG-80-Edit-Edit
Blue-tailed Bee-eater ( Merops philippinus) Langhkap, Malaysia. A blue tailed beeeater, brings home a dragonfly. These elegant insectivores can take more than a hundred flying insects a day during the breeding season.
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Little Terns (Sternula albifrons) Kuala Selangor, Malaysia.
A feeding flock of Little Terns works a patch of bait fish at the surface — the world's smallest seabirds, hunting in fast, restless concert.
2021-11-14_K Selangor_MYS-980
Green Broadbill (Calyptomena viridis) Merapor, W Malaysia.
A male green broadbill grips a ripe pink fig nearly as wide as its own head, plumage so saturated it seems to glow against the soft canopy wash. A quiet frugivore of the lowland rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo, it tracks fruiting figs with such precision that flocks can materialise at a tree overnight and vanish by morning. As those forests fall to oil palm and timber, the species has slipped onto the IUCN's Near Threatened list — a small emerald life passing seeds, and futures, from one tree to the next.
2021-11-12_Merapor_MYS_-41-Edit
Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) Pantai Jeram, W Malaysia.
A painted stork dips its yellow bill into a glassy lagoon, pink-washed tertials catching the light like a brushstroke on porcelain. A tactile feeder of South and Southeast Asia's wetlands, it wades with bill ajar, snapping shut the instant a fish brushes its inner edge — a method now thinning with the marshes themselves.
2021-04-20_Pantai Jeram_MYS-81
Common Flameback (Dinopium javanense) Kiara Hills, Kuala Lumpur, W Malaysia.
Wings fanned wide in a freeze-frame of mid-flight, a male common flameback flares its golden back and polka-dotted flight feathers between trees. The crimson crown and black-and-white striped face mark the male, the species' fire-coloured mantle giving the bird its name. A familiar voice in the lowland forests, mangroves and wooded gardens of South and Southeast Asia, the flameback hammers softly at bark in search of ants and grubs, then launches in this sudden, dipping flight.
2021-04-18_Kiara Hills_KUL_MYS-45-Edit
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) breeding plumage, Kelanang, W Malaysia.
Lit against a pool of black water, a little egret folds its neck to preen, the long nuchal plume curling skyward like a single brushstroke of ink. The wispy scapulars trailing down its back — the aigrettes once stripped by the millions to crown European hats — are the marks of breeding season, grown only for a few weeks of courtship.
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Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) Taman Tasek Permaisuri, Kuala Lumpur, W Malaysia.
Framed between blurred fronds of back ground green, a little egret lifts into flight, wings smeared into pale arcs by a long exposure — the diagnostic black legs and yellow feet just visible at the bottom of the frame. Widespread across wetlands of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, the species nests colonially in trees and shrubs near water, often alongside other herons and ibises. Adults reach roughly 60 cm tall and weigh under half a kilogram, hunting fish, amphibians and crustaceans by stalking the shallows and stirring the substrate with one foot to flush prey.
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Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea). Taman Tasek Permaisuri, Kuala Lumpur, W Malaysia.
Adult with juveniles at nest
A purple heron stands sentinel above its nest, two scruffy juveniles beside it with down still tufted around streaked necks. Slimmer than the grey heron, this species favours dense reedbeds across Europe, Africa and southern Asia, where long toes let it pick through floating vegetation in pursuit of fish and frogs. The young remain near the nest for weeks, fed on regurgitated prey until they can hunt the marshes themselves.
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Eastern Cattle Egret (Bubulcus coromandus) breeding plumage. Taman Tasek Permaisuri, Kuala Lumpur, W Malaysia.
An eastern cattle egret perches in a thorn tree, the orange-buff plumes of its breeding dress flushed across crown, neck and mantle, bill and lores briefly glowing red and violet at the peak of courtship. Outside the breeding season this is the familiar all-white egret of pastures and paddies across South and Southeast Asia, following livestock to snap up insects flushed by hooves — a foraging strategy that has helped the species spread further than almost any other heron. The colour is short-lived: within weeks of pairing, the buff fades back to white and the soft-part flush dulls to yellow, leaving only the long ornamental plumes to drift in the wind.
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Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans) — male. Seputeh Heights, Kuala Lumpur, W Malaysia.
A male pink-necked green pigeon takes flight, the pink throat, lavender hood and orange breast band identifying the sex; females are uniformly green. Common across the lowland forests, mangroves and fruiting gardens of Southeast Asia from Myanmar to the Philippines, the species is a frugivore that swallows figs and small berries whole and plays a significant role in seed dispersal across the region's fragmented forests.
2021-01-20_SH birds_KUL_MYS-152-Edit-2
Helmeted Hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil) — male. Fraser's Hill, W Malaysia.
A male helmeted hornbill cuts across the canopy, the trailing pair of central tail streamers nearly doubling its body length and the solid casque on its bill catching the light at the front of the frame. Endemic to the lowland rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo, this is the only hornbill with a solid keratin casque rather than a hollow one — a block of so-called "hornbill ivory" that has driven catastrophic poaching for carving markets, particularly in southern China. Once widespread, the species is now Critically Endangered,
2020-09-17_Fraser's Hill_MYS-35
Buffy Fish Owl (Ketupa ketupu). Kinabatangan river, Sabah, Malaysia.
In the shrinking forests bordering Sabah's Kinabatangan River, a Buffy Fish Owl finds its perch. As palm oil plantations close in on one of Borneo's last great wildlife refuges, creatures like this remain — a reminder of what stands to be lost.
2020-08-05_Kinbatangan_MYS-383
Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) Maliau, Sabah, E Malaysia.
A female Rhinoceros Hornbill cuts through the forest canopy. The state bird of Sarawak and a sacred symbol to Borneo's Dayak people, this magnificent bird is now Vulnerable — its future tied to the fate of the forests it calls home.
2020-07-10_Maliau_MYS-56
juvenile Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) Sekinchan, W Malaysia. A juvenile Little Egret erupts in a storm of down and hunger above the palm groves of Sekinchan, Selangor. Its pale feet — not yet the vivid yellow of adulthood — betray its age. The sky it will one day own feels both very close and very far.
2020-06-05_Sekinchang_MYS-337
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) Sekinchan, W Malaysia.
"Beneath the lacy breeding plumes of its parent, a newly hatched Little Egret chick announces its hunger to the world from a twig nest. It has been alive for mere days — yet already, it is unafraid."
2020-05-30_Sekinchang_MYS-580
Reddish Scops Owl (Otus rufescens) Chongkat, W Malaysia.
A Reddish Scops Owl regards the world sideways from a mossy post — a posture that is equal parts suspicion and curiosity. One of the forest's smallest hunters, it is seldom seen and even more rarely caught this close."
2020-02-20_Chongkat_MYS-260
White-fronted Bee-eaters (Merops bullockoides) Botswana, Africa.
A White-fronted Bee-eater returns to its perch with a freshly caught bee as its partner looks on. Masters of aerial pursuit, these birds beat their prey against branches to remove the sting before swallowing — a skill learned, not instinct."
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Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) Botswana, Africa.
"A Helmeted Guineafowl sprints across the open savanna — legs a blur, eyes wide, dignity firmly left behind. Reluctant fliers, guineafowl trust their legs above all else."
2019-10-03_Chobe_BWA-717-Edit
female Crimson Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja) Sepilok, E Malaysia — and she is perched on a Torch Ginger (Etlingera elatior), one of Southeast Asia's most iconic tropical flowers.
2019-07_04_Sandakan_MYS-88
White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) Hong Kong.
"A White-throated Kingfisher explodes from the surface of a pond, fish secured, wings unfurling against a crown of frozen water. The entire hunt — dive to exit — lasts less than a second. The camera does not blink."
2018-04-23_Tsing Yi Park_HKG-66
King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) Falklands. "A group of King Penguins march the shoreline of the Falkland Islands with characteristic authority — all but one. The dark figure at their centre, a melanistic individual of extraordinary rarity - once in a lifetime sighting, walks unbothered among its kind, different in every way that doesn't matter."
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Black-browed Albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) Falklands.
"A Black-browed Albatross turns its gaze downward on a Falkland Island clifftop — patient, ancient, and utterly indifferent to the wind. It will outlive almost everything watching it."
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Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) China.
"A Common Kingfisher hovers above a Sacred Lotus bloom — fish secured, wings spread like a jewelled fan. In Asia's lotus ponds, the ordinary and the exquisite share the same water."
2017-06-08_Hungho_CHN-389-Edit
James's Flamingos (Phoenicoparrus jamesi) Catai Valley, Bolivia.
"James's Flamingos feed in perfect symmetry on a Bolivian salt lake — pink ghosts reflected in dark water, thousands more dissolving into the horizon behind them. At 4,000 metres, even colour feels muted by the altitude."
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Andean Gulls (Chroicocephalus serranus) Catavi Valley, Bolivia.
"In a valley where almost nothing lives, Andean Gulls write their signatures across the sky — white ink on brown paper, gone before you can read them."
2017-01-27_Catal Valley_BOL-366
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) Lake Nakaru, Kenya.
"A Greater Flamingo makes its least graceful moment count — all crossed legs and desperate wings, trading elegance for airspeed. Even the most beautiful birds have an awkward phase."
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