“The Pallas’s Grasshopper-warbler or Rusty-rumped Warbler (Locustella certhiola) is the second of the three reed warblers and behaves more like a mouse/rat than a bird. As one colleague stated, the local name for the bird is ‘Burung Tikus’ which means ‘mouse bird’.
“It occupied a very small area of around 9-10 meters of a muddy ditch where Xanthosoma sagittifolium (a wild form of Caladium) grows. It can be spotted at the same site on every visit but rapidly goes undercover or moves to the reed bed and subsequent sightings for the day are limited to vegetation movements. It seldom makes calls but I managed a recording.
“One image (contrast lightened) to show the bird. Most images were limited/blur.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
15th March 2013
Location: Tambun Interior, Perak, Malaysia
Habitat: Fish farming, ex-mining pools, limestone hills nearby