Greater Painted Snipe

30th June 2015

One of rare birds in Sabah, I only see them probably once or twice a year by pure luck at the paddy field. So far no sign of the immature. By the time I took these picture, saw the male sitting next to the female late in the afternoon.

Digiscoped with Swarovski STX 95 + TLS APO + Nikon V1 ~ 30x = 2430mm. All Rights Reserved ©

Sacred Mt Kinabalu from Tuaran district

Female is more prettier than the male

Happy birding!

For birdwatching/bird photography tours, please check my other blog http://birdersofborneo.blogspot.com/

This post is Supported by Sandakan Foto

Greater Painted Snipe (Rostratula benghalensis)

October 2011

Secretive and very shy ! But luck was on my side last October, saw a couple were feeding at one of the paddy field plot just next to the main road. The female did paused for few seconds when she saw my car stopped but it didn't bother her especially when I unwind the window and pointed my scope to her. Opportunity !

There were more than 3 pairs seen at Penampang paddy field with around 500m each that set them apart and this particular pair had a successful nesting with 3 juveniles were photographed by Gary Albert the following month.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

The male above has more role here than the female such as incubating the eggs and taking the immature for feeding (Not in the picture)

 The interesting part is, the female seems to be leading the male while feeding. This is obvious especially when both were crossing on the open spaces at the paddy field like shown on the picture above.

Hope I can get better and cleaner pictures of this beauty next time !

Happy birding ...