“I ended up in Jing-Yi Tou’s backyard (bird watching area) as he called to say there were more than 40 Black Bazas (Aviceda leuphotes). By the time I arrived they had left but we spotted some Black-shouldered Kites (Elanus caeruleus vociferus) that were resident there. In my experience over the past 30-40 years, these kites have gradually diminished in number, possibly due to chemical use in Oil Palm plantations. Used to be very common at Oil Palm estates.
“We were fortunate to watch some nest building … nest building activities, most of which was watched at quite some distance. Tou had to go after a while and I stayed for 1.5 hours. Saw at least five nest building events (above: composite of arrival at nest with nesting material).
“The nest is in an old but sturdy Mango tree (Mangifera indica) in the midst of open scrub land backed some distance away by an Oil Palm plantation. My estimate places it at 8 meters up the tree.
“[Above is] a composite of the nesting pair close to ground – one adult drooped to the ground and then went to the partner. Not sure if anything offered due to distance (did not see in images).”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Bercham Interior, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
30th January 2011