Retired Teacher

Like humans, birds enjoy taking a daily bath.  Bathing cleans their feathers and helps remove parasites.  After bathing the bird looks for a sunny perch, to fluff its feathers.  Finally, the bird preens carefully.  Birds have an oil gland at the base of their tail which is used during preening to add a protective coating to the feathers.  Screenshot from a short video Malaysia’s climate is equatorial, that is to say   hot, humid and rainy throughout the year with particularly heavy rainfall during the northeast and southwest monsoons.  In the rainforest there will be small puddles, streams, and pools below waterfalls.  However, in the city there can be a shortage of fresh, clean water.  Hence, a water feature in your garden will prove attractive to most birds.  What makes a good bird bath?  Experts say a good bird bath should mimic  a natural puddle.  It should not be too deep and, like our own swimming pools, there sho...

I might translate this bird’s name from Malay as   ‘scarlet red princess’ with two cautions.   Firstly ‘sepah’ actually refers to the colour of betel juice.   However, I believe betel-juice- red princess fails as translation because it is overly literal.   Scarlet seems more appropriate.   Secondly, ‘puteri’ means princess- whereas it is actually the male which is brightly coloured.    So my translation would become "Scarlet Royal".   Males are a handsome navy blue above with a red stripe from the crown to the tail coverts.   The female is duller, only the rump and upper tail coverts are scarlet.  (See the bottom photo.)  Juveniles appear similar to the female but have an orange bill.  Flowerpeckers are small stout birds, with short necks, legs and tails.   On average, they are a mere 9 cm long, weighing only 7 to 8 grams.   Flowerpeckers appear to be closely related to sunbirds.   As evidence of ...