Bali Lockdown Birding - Garden List Hits 50!

There's been another shift in the winds recently in Bali along with several severe thunderstorms and I've had a few garden ticks in the last couple of weeks too (I'm in Ubud) - such as Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Pacific Swift, White-breasted Woodswallow, White-throated Needletail, Common Myna, and Javan Myna. 

Today, after a huge storm that lasted most of the night and all morning I got two ticks in two minutes once it stopped - firstly a flock of three Wood Sandpipers, followed by a single Grey Heron, happy days! 

Grey Heron actually took my garden list to 50 species! I've been here almost 7 months now. 

1. Olive-backed Sunbird
2. Yellow-vented Bulbul
3. Javan Pond Heron
4. Cave Swiftlet
5. Plaintive Cuckoo
6. Collared Kingfisher
7. Eastern Cattle Egret
8. Edible-nest Swiftlet
9. Zebra Dove
10. Spotted Dove
11. Javan Munia
12. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
13. Javan Kingfisher
14. Large-billed Crow
15. Striated Swallow
16. Chinese Sparrowhawk
17. Scaly-breasted Munia
18. Pacific Swallow
19. Intermediate Egret
20. Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon
21. Pied Bush Chat
22. Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
23. Black-naped Fruit Dove
24. Black-crowned Night Heron
25. Savanna Nightjar
26. Olive-backed Tailorbird
27. Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)
28. White-headed Munia
29. Rusty-breasted Whistler
30. Asian Glossy Starling
31. Pink-necked Green Pigeon
32. Little Spiderhunter
33. Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker
34. House Swift
35. Common Iora
36. Java Sparrow
37. Sunda Scops Owl
38. Barn Swallow
39. Short-tailed Starling
40. Little Egret
41. White-throated Needletail
42. Brown-backed Needletail
43. Zitting Cisticola
44. Javan Myna
45. Blue-tailed Bee-eater
46. White-breasted Woodswallow
47. Pacific Swift
48. Common Myna
49. Wood Sandpiper
50. Grey Heron

Here are a few photos of some of the birds from the garden, my camera has been packed away for the most part so I've missed some very good photo ops.. such as the only time I've seen the Java Sparrow perched... about 10ft away from me at eye-level - DOH! Happy with the ones below though...

Javan Kingfisher

Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon

Pied Bush Chat

Scaly-breasted Munia

(Eastern) Spotted Dove

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Zebra Dove

Lockdown Birding in Bali - LOCKDOWN LIFER!!!

Amazing week on lockdown in Ubud, Bali when I got an unexpected LIFER! I was sat at my desk working on a range of new and exciting tours when all of a sudden I noticed a shape on the next door villas roof, this wasn't the usual Javan Munia or Eurasian Tree Sparrow, this was bigger, more colourful... I leaned back so I could see round the blind and almost fell off my chair when I realised I was watching a stunning JAVA SPARROW! Too quickly it dropped out of view into a garden and as I tried to get in a position to photograph it two birds were flushed by a motorbike and flew off high calling. Hopefully they will be back, but pretty amazing to get this very cool tick!

Also this week I finally (after 62 days) got a photo opportunity for the Javan Kingfisher. Each morning they are very vocal flying back and forth over this part of Ubud, often quite high and sometimes doing a bit of a display flight which has been cool to watch but frustrating in terms of trying to get a photo. Well, yesterday one finally landed close by. After a bit of work I was able to get myself into a position to take the following photo on my neighbours roof. What a stunning bird.

Javan Kingfisher

I've had a couple of 'new' lockdown ticks this week such as Barn Swallow, and the Java Sparrow, but also pretty high up there was Sunda Scops Owl that appeared outside the villa in the rain one evening while I was waiting for my pizza delivery! Not new but always nice to hear/see Savanna Nightjar and Black-crowned Night Herons going over at night too.

At 37 species now I think for my lockdown list!

Lockdown Birding in Bali - Camera Out and New Birds

Got a few new lockdown birds the last couple of days since my last blog update, and I even (finally) unpacked my camera to take some photos of some of the common birds I'm seeing, as and when time permits.

Here's a couple of pics of the gorgeous Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon, a common sight but most often sat in the tops of dark trees, was nice to finally get one at more-or-less eye-level out in the open! Beautiful bird.

Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon

Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon

A few new birds have included Plain Prinia, Common Emerald Dove, House Swift, and Common Iora.

Lockdown Birding in Bali - An update!

I've had a few new birds during the last week of my lockdown here in Ubud, Bali including Rusty-breasted Whistler, Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker, Little Spiderhunter, Pink-necked Green Pigeon, Olive-backed Tailorbird, White-headed Munia, and Feral Pigeon! These have take me up to 32 species! Not bad from my little patch of urban land. 

1. Javan Kingfisher
2. Spotted Dove
3. Zebra Dove
4. Plaintive Cuckoo
5. Yellow-vented Bulbul
6. Javan Munia
7. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
8. Cave Swiftlet
9. Intermediate Egret
10. Eastern Cattle Egret
11. Javan Pond Heron
12. Pacific Swallow
13. Grey-cheeked Green Pigeon
14. Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
15. Olive-backed Sunbird
16. Pied Bush Chat
17. White-nest Swiftlet
18. Striated Swallow
19. Scaly-breasted Munia
20. Chinese Sparrowhawk
21. Large-billed Crow
22. Collared Kingfisher
23. Black-naped Fruit Dove
24. Black-crowned Night Heron
25. Savanna Nightjar
26. Rock Dove (Feral Pigeon)
27. White-headed Munia
28. Olive-backed Tailorbird
29. Pink-necked Green Pigeon
30. Little Spiderhunter
31. Rusty-breasted Whistler
32. Scarlet-headed Flowerpecker 

Lockdown Birding in Bali - Nocturnal Birding...

A couple of bonus birds this evening added two species to my lockdown birding list in Ubud, Bali. These were:

24. Black-crowned Night Heron
25. Savanna Nightjar

First time I think I've recorded the Black-crowned Night-Heron in Bali, maybe. The Savanna Nightjar was less of a surprise as I have had them from several restaurants in the town, but these were the first ones from the actual villa.

Today was the #BirdTheFeckAtHome BIG (Sun) DAY with the Eastern Hemisphere competing against the Western Hemisphere in a lockdown bird race of sorts. I was able to add the following 5 species to the Eastern Hemisphere list from my spot in Ubud.

1. Javan Kingfisher
2. Javan Munia
3. Javan Pond Heron
4. Cave Swiftlet
5. Black-crowned Night Heron

All good fun! 

Lockdown Birding in Bali - NEW SPECIES UPDATE

Had a big bonus today when a Black-naped Fruit Dove flew over the garden into the nearby fruiting tree, that is lockdown number...

23. Black-naped Fruit Dove.

I finally also got round to checking out the #BirdTheFeckAtHome Facebook group and added this species and one other (Striated Swallow) to their cumulative bird list from all of the people reporting sightings from their places of lockdown around the world...

Amazingly my record of Black-naped Fruit Dove was the 2,270th species logged on the site!