White-fronted Tit!!! Photo Gallery by romy ocon at pbase.com

White-fronted Tit!!!

Thanks to an unselfish tip by members of the Philippine Bird Photography e-Group (Tina, Neon and Chito), I finally got one of my dream species - the rare Parus semilarvatus. I was preparing for a sortie to Subic rainforest when I got an SMS from Tina. They were at Subic since the day before and stumbled upon a couple of White-fronted Tits nesting in a dead tree branch. I promptly packed my things and raced post-haste to Subic.

The nest was in a hollow at the underside of a branch, roughly 6 meters from the ground. Each parent bird took turns to hunt for worms and insects and brought these alternately to the nest with presumably hatchlings inside (I couldn't see the hatchlings but I could hear their sound). Interestingly, like the nesting Black-naped Monarchs I've observed a few months back, the parent Tits meticulously cleaned the nest by bringing out the droppings and disposing of these a fair distance from the nest. Sometimes, before a parent went into the nest, it perched first on a nearby branch and made long calls through a bill filled with an insect or worm.

I tried to keep my distance from the nest to minimize disturbance. This meant however that I had to use a very long focal length to fill the frame with the small birds (5-1/4" total length). I wished I brought the Sigmonster to this job, but I tried to pack quickly and just grabbed the 500 f4 IS. I stacked a standard Tamron 1.4x behind a Canon 1.4x TC for an effective 2x on the 500 f4 IS. AF worked on the 20D at 1000 mm f/8, though hunting at times because of the dark plumage of the bird.

I've been looking for this specie at Subic for over two years with no luck. After capturing what are probably among the most detailed photos of it in the wild, I didn't attempt to do any additional birding and just went home to see the photos in my computer....:)

IMG_2700-720x540.jpg White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/9, on tripod]	IMG_2714-720x540.jpg White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/9, on tripod]	IMG_2830-800x600.jpg White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/10, on tripod]	IMG_2749-720x540.jpg White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/10, on tripod]	IMG_2593-720x540.jpg White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/9, on tripod]
IMG_2759-800x600.jpg KEEPING THE HOUSE TIDY. A parent Tit pulls out a dropping from the nest. It makes a glance towards it back first before it disengages its grip and flies away to dump the dropping somewhere. White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/10, on tripod]	IMG_2772-720x540.jpg White-fronted Tit (A Philippine endemic) Scientific name - Parus semilarvatus Habitat - Rare and local in lowland and middle elevation forest and second growth. [20D + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC + Tamron 1.4x TC, 1000 mm, f/10, on tripod]

comment |

romy ocon		04-Dec-2006 03:22
Thanks, Bob and Andrew. These were shot in available light, no flash. Romy

Bob D. Kaufman		04-Dec-2006 03:06
This is amazing, Romy! Very clean for an ISO-800 and sharp at 1/80. Did you use a better beamer?

Andrew Cornick		03-Dec-2006 12:52
Wow! First of all what a fantastic bird to find and after all that time searching! You deserve to put your feet up and adimre these pictures, they are fantastic. Particularly considering the amount of metal stacked on the front of your 20D. BIG V.

romy ocon		03-Dec-2006 12:08
Many thanks, Tina. Without your tip, this specie will remain a dream! Romy

csmallari		03-Dec-2006 12:06
These are truly wonderful photos of the white fronted tit. It's not so bad looking after all. You captured it excellently as usual Romy !!!!

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