Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

The Wildlife Diaries newsletter is the best way to keep up to date with Tim Laman’s latest work and travels, and to learn about photography and natural history as well. Read through his recent posts here or sign up to receive the posts via email using the form on the right.

birds

Back to Borneo!

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Hello Friends,

Greetings from the rain forest of Borneo!  I’m writing this on my iPhone while sitting under a fruiting fig tree where the orangutan mom and juvenile we have been following have been feeding for the past couple hours, unfortunately their position is high and obstructed. Thus I have some down time here to catch you up on my latest news. 

This is my first trip back to Gunung Palung National Park since before the pandemic and it’s good to be back.  Just this morning gibbons, macaques, and orangutans have all been feeding at this tree as well as at least a dozen species of birds, including the colorful barbets, several species of which are just now calling incessantly above. 

I’m here with my wife Cheryl Knott who directs the Gunung Palung Orangutan Project and her team of students and assistants. My 18 year old daughter Jessica is working with Cheryl on her project, and my 22 year old son Russell is assisting me with filming orangutans for another major production.  It’s great to be here with the whole family and all our Indonesian colleagues working to spread the word about the amazing biodiversity that is protected in this sanctuary. 

Rhinoceros Hornbills In The Canopy
This image of rhinoceros hornbills high in the canopy of the lowland rainforest in Gunung Palung is one of my all time favorites that I made from a blind high in the canopy near a fruiting fig tree.  I love capturing shots of the rain forest wildlife in the broader landscape and the mist hovering in the canopy on this early morning created the perfect atmosphere for the image.

I’ll be spending at least three months in the field here this year also working on a major National Geographic magazine feature about Gunung Palung’s amazingly intact flora and fauna that represents the full diversity of lowland rainforest species in Borneo. 

So please stay tuned and I’ll keep sending periodic updates. It’s not easy to upload new photos from here as I have no internet connection and just enough signal to send this note out by WhatsApp to my assistant back in the US. So she will add some images from my GP archives to this newsletter and I’ll look forward to sharing new images when I can. 

Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) in the canopy of a fruiting strangler fig tree (Ficus dubia), surrounded by ripening figs.
Bornean White-bearded Gibbon (Hylobates albibarbis) in the canopy of a strangler fig (Ficus dubia) searching for ripe figs.

Have a good summer everyone, and if you you want to learn more about our conservation work here and don’t already follow us, please check out www.savewildorangutans.com.

Special Recognition from the National Geographic Museum

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Dear Friends,

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened an email from National Geographic  recently, and saw the banner below?  An advertisement for the re-opening of their museum with an exhibit of “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs”, and my image “Birds-of-Paradise Sunrise” was the featured image!  This image is one of my all time favorites from my long efforts pursuing the ultimate bird-of-paradise images, so it’s very satisfying to see it get some special recognition like this.

Featured image

Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise

For those of you who might be interested in collecting large-format limited edition prints, I wanted to remind you that “Bird-of-Paradise Sunrise” is one of the few in my Limited Edition Collection, and you can check it out HERE.  It is also available in smaller sizes as an open edition.  If you ever have any questions about my Limited Editions, don’t hesitate to hit to email us at Studio@TimLaman.com.
I know I have shared the story behind creating this favorite image in a previous Wildlife Diaries, so I won’t share it again here, but if you are interested in the full story, we have a 3 minute video produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that is now also linked via my fine art webpage HERE.
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Celebrating Hornbills this Earth Day 2022

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As I have done every year, I’m offering all my open edition prints on sale for Earth Day this year, and donating 50% of profits to conservation.  

In celebration of the upcoming publication of my new book, BIRD PLANET, I have selected the conservation group Rangkong Indonesia (Indonesia Hornbill Conservation Society) to support this year.  Hornbills have been a special interest of mine since my first trip to Borneo in 1987, and they feature prominently in BIRD PLANET.  In fact the first chapter starts with my experience of seeing a Rhinoceros Hornbill on my first day in the forest.  And as the charismatic fruit eating birds of the forest, they are super important seed dispersers and also ambassadors for rainforest conservation.

Rangkong Indonesia is the type of group I like to support because they work directly with indigenous communities in Borneo to protect forest habitat of the most critically endangered Helmeted Hornbill, as well as several other species.   You can learn more about their work at rangkong.org.

Here are a few Hornbill shots that made the cut from my 25 years of hornbill photography for my BIRD PLANET book.  They are all available in my print store and are on sale (but so are all my other prints, if Hornbills aren’t your thing!).

A young rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) tosses up a fig from a strangler fig tree (Ficus dubia) before swallowing it. A young Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) tosses a fig from a strangler fig tree (Ficus dubia) before swallowing it. Lowland rain forest of Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia.
Rhinoceros hornbills (Buceros rhinoceros) perched high in canopy with lowland rainforest behind.  Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo, Indonesia.
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Announcing my new book: BIRD PLANET

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I’m excited to announce that I have just completed checking the proofs, and can now share that my new book “BIRD PLANET” will be published by Abrams in October, 2022.  As most of you know by now, bird photography has been a special passion of mine for a long time.  I have now pulled together my best bird images from my extensive assignments and travels around the world over the last 25 years into one volume celebrating the beauty and wonder of birds, and their importance as ambassadors for conservation of wild places. 

Below is a little teaser – an example of an image from the book that has never been published before, and the story behind it.  Hope you enjoy it.  And further down is a link to pre-order a special signed edition of the book that I’m offering to subscribers first, which is bundled with a 12-inch print. 

An adult roseate spoonbill preens in front of a group of lighter pink juvenile birds at the Alafia Bank Bird Sanctuary in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Bird bills come in all shapes and sizes, but the spoonbill’s bill is certainly one of the most unusual, and is used for catching prey by touch as the bird sweeps it back and forth in the water. We didn’t want to approach the birds too closely with our boat at the sanctuary, so I stepped into the water with my big lens on my tripod and started slowly wading towards them. This worked well, and I got close enough for this shot without disturbing the birds, but I was in over my waist in saltwater by the end, and taking a bit of risk with my equipment.
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Backyard Birds in the Snow

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I just wanted to send a brief note to let you know that I’m offering all of my open edition prints for 20% off through Valentine’s Day.  If you or a loved one would enjoy one of my prints, this would be a good time to pick one.

It’s that time of year when the snow flies, and I love seeing what I can capture of my backyard birds when I’m not away traveling.  There is something about the birds in the snow that is simply beautiful, and I enjoy trying to capture unique moments.  We’ve added a few new ones to the gallery – sneak peak below.  

You can browse my full galleries at:  www.timlamanfineart.com

Why do I keep going out and photographing the same birds?  Because sometimes you just catch something unexpected, like this little Black-capped Chickadee, all fluffed up into a ball against the cold, hopping between perches.  That’s the great thing about nature photography.  There is no such thing as the perfect shot, so you are never done.  Nature can always surprise you, and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

“Chickadee in Mid-Hop”  is now available for purchase in my fine art store, and will definitely put a smile on your face.

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How We Filmed the Great Argus Pheasant

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The Great Argus pheasant is one of the most spectacular, but also most elusive birds in Borneo.  I have been doing fieldwork in the rainforest of Gunung Palung for over thirty years, and have spent a sum total of over five years of my life in the forest there.  Yet I have only seen a Great Argus with my own eyes once.  Nonetheless, I had a dream of capturing images of this bird performing its courtship display.  

Why did I think it was even possible to photograph such a rare and elusive bird?  The reason is that male Argus choose a small clearing in the forest, and clear some of the leave to make a display arena.  With enough searching in areas where we heard Argus calling, we were able to locate a number of these courts.  We then monitored them with trail cameras to see which ones were active.  Finally, using modern digital cameras in waterproof housings connected to infra-red triggers (which we call “camera traps”), we “staked out” these courts and hoped to capture footage of displaying males.

As it turned out, Argus male frequent their courts much less regularly than we expected, but never the less, as you can see in the images below, we were ultimately successful!  Read on below to learn more about the efforts it took over two years to capture footage for the full behavioral sequence in the recent BBC series “The Mating Game”.  As narrator David Attenborough says in his interview about the film on the BBC website (HERE), “I’m sure it’s the first time its been filmed in the wild”. 

Argus Male Displays to a Female

This is the moment I most wanted to capture – a male Argus Pheasant displaying to a female!  At first glance, this display may remind you of a peacock.  But look closely.  A peacock’s display is made up of its tail fan alone.  The Argus on the other hand, is spreading its wing feathers, covered in amazing eye-spots, to create this mesmerizing presentation.  The male’s head is hidden, tucked behind one of his wings, but he can still watch the female through a tiny gap in the fold of his wing.  His long central tail feathers, cut off at the top of this shot, also are being shaken and are visible to the female above the fan.
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