Wildlife of S. E. Asia and S. America. A Photo Journal by Francis Burlingham.: 2025-10-12

Introduction

Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to live in Thailand, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Colombia and now Brunei. In my spare time I have had the opportunity to travel fairly widely, camera in hand, in search of wildlife. In these posts I aim to share some of these experiences and show you some of the extraordinary wildlife that can be found in these regions. All of the photographs you see within the posts and pages here are my own unless otherwise stated. Copyright © Francis Burlingham 2015

Wednesday, 15 October 2025

King Cobra and Sunbirds

My garden in Brunei continues to provide me with a wonderful array of wildlife to watch and a few weeks ago I was delighted to come face to face with a 2 meter long king cobra. It was hunting amongst the plants by my fence. Once it new I was watching it calmly looked up at me before heading off through the undergrowth into the neighbours garden. I have only caught a fleeting glimpse of this species in the wild before this, so to have it turn up in my garden and pose for me was an unexpected treat.

Ophiophagus hannah (King Cobra) Bandar Brunei Borneo

I regularly get a steady stream of sunbirds through the garden, attracted by the stands of Heliconias. They are pretty busy and don't tend to sit still for a photo but I managed to get these shots.