Philippine Magpie-Robin (Copsychus mindanensis) by alabang, on Flickr

The Philippine Magpie-Robin (Copsychus mindanensis) is a species of bird in the Muscicapidae family. It is endemic to the Philippines. It previously was considered a subspecies of the Oriental Magpie-Robin.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Magpie-Robin

Location: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mesa_Ecopark

Settings: 1/100 ƒ/5.6 ISO 1250 700mm

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Story behind the photo:

I almost did not bother taking a photo of this Philippine Magpie-Robin (Copsychus mindanensis) thinking this was just another Philippine Pied Fantail (Rhipidura nigritorquis) that is extremely difficult to photograph because it rarely, if ever, stays still. I was also disinterested in picturing the Fantail here because I can easily do it from the comfort of my backyard.

What peaked my interest was its behaviour of staying rather stationary in the trees and it not spreading its tail into a fan. Another thing that caught my eye was the white and black feathers being of a slightly different pattern. Anyways, for those curious this is another lifer for me and what is more an endemic bird that can only be found in the Philippines.

For those who would want to take a photo of dark feathered birds you generally need to overexpose by 2-stops to get the bards to show up but you have to be mindful of balancing it out to consider the white feathers as well.