Photo Mosque

English: This is a close-up of the Sabah State Mosque minaret in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (Borneo). It is also the home of a massive swift colony. In the photo they can be seen coming out to feed early in the morning. Tucked away in the crevices and corners of the minaret's wall several nests can be seen. I have identified the swifts in the photo as being "Bornean Swiftlets" (Collocalia dodgei). They seem to be a subspecies of the "Cave Swiftlet" (Collocalia linchi). Im by no means a bird expert, so I may be wrong. Feel free to change this information if you consider it to be inaccurate. I have used the body shape/colour as seen in this photo to identify the birds (I didnt get a very good look at them while I was there. They where far and moved quite fast!). And as you can see, not much detail can be seen there, so it hard to tell with any certainty. I also considered the location and the type of nest to reach my conclusion. I did have a closer look at one of the nests (unfortunately didn't photograph it) and as I can recall, it seem to be the type made of twigs held together buy hardened saliva. Some of the other swift species in the area make nests out of pure saliva (that are edible). Those are the nest form which the Chinese make "Bird Nest Soup".

Français : Vue rapprochée du minaret de la mosquée de l'état de Sabah, à Kota Kinabalu, sur l'île de Bornéo en Malaisie. Le minaret sert de refuge à une colonie d'oiseaux, apparemment des Salanganes de Bornéo, une sous-espèce de Salangane des cavernes.