Gone Birding...

Frankly speaking, I'm not exactly a birder, so it does sound rather strange (even to myself) to hear me saying that I've gone birding. So guess the following photos are really more like by-products of my various recent nature trips :P

But then again, birds can look really nice on photos sometimes, so I certainly don't mind becoming a "birder" once in a while.


The intermediate egret (Egretta intermedia) is a medium size egret - bigger than a little egret, but smaller than a great egret. It feeds on fishes, crustaceans or insects. A common winter visitor to Singapore, it usually hunts and roosts with other egret species.


Here's a shot of the intermediate egret in flight.


There was a small flock of pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica). I often see these swallows near the coastal areas of Singapore.


"Hey, watch where you are landing!"

Just thought it was rather cute to see the various little terns (Sternula albifrons) trying to compete for various spots on the metal railing. Not sure why, but they seemed to feel that the spot already occupied by another bird was better. Anyway, these are resident birds in Singapore. They feed by plunge-diving for fish.


This is probably a white-winged tern (Chlidonias leucopterus). Somewhat larger than the little tern, this bird does not dive for fish. It usually flies slowly over the water to pick up prey on the surface or catches insects in flight.


Here's another look at the white-winged tern settled down on a pole. It is not a resident bird, but a winter visitor.


This is probably an immature white-winged tern.


This is probably a whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybridus), also a winter visitor.


The rufous woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus, previously Celeus brachyurus) supposedly builds its nests within the nests of ants of the species Crematogaster.


Different species of waders wading in shallow water.


Yet another mixture of different species of waders.


The white-breasted waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) is commonly found in many parts of Singapore near water bodies. It usually feeds by probing for small fish or other little animals in mud or shallow water, though they sometimes forage for insects on the ground or among bushes too.


The stork-billed kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis, formerly Halcyon capensis) is a tree kingfisher which usually perches on tree branches while screening for prey, which ranges from fish, frogs, crustaceans, rodents to young birds.


Found this common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) resting on this grass patch in the middle of Sungei Buloh Besar.


This is a common redshank (Tringa totanus).

Thanks to LK for the waders' ID! :)

Have You Seen a Purple Chicken?

Standing by the edge of a huge freshwater body full of freshwater plants, I felt like I was waiting for the Loch Ness Monster to appear.

The water was a little too shallow for a sizable monster though, and this was certainly no lake in Scotland. The anticipation, however, was just as strong.

This was the second time I was here trying spotting this elusive purple bird. Will I finally see it?

And just then, I heard LK saying, "It's there, I can see its head."

I quickly got the binoculars from her, and indeed, on and off, a purple-coloured head was sticking out among the water plants. It was really far away though, and my camera can't really get a good shot of it.

Perhaps if I do some Photoshop effects, I could possibly really pass it off as the Loch Ness Monster? I have indeed been to Loch Ness a few years ago anyway. Wahahahahaha...



So officially, I have seen the purple swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio)!

A miserable shot I got, but still, I was satisfied. I could not even see it on my camera's LCD screen as it was so far and tiny! It was a miracle that I actually managed to get a photo of it when its head popped above the thick layer of water bananas by pure estimation.

Now, when was the last time you see something for the first time?

:P

Blue-winged Pitta at Bishan

I was busy going through the draft of one of our latest publications on Wednesday night, when I received this comment on my blog on the Mangrove Pitta:

Hello, I am from singapore, but apparently I think a mangrove pitta flew into my house in Bishan! It looks almost exactly liek the one in your pictures; i found ur page from googling mangrove pitta. I dont know what to do with it ! its now in a basket with a blanket. It makes a LOUD sound , goes, KAAAK KAAAK, but it has a brilliant blue colour. i thought it was a kingfisher. Should I just let it out onto the road area???!?!?!?!?! i stay along a terrace road , and actually, I hope u do read this on time, so you could offer some advice.. it doesnt seem to be able to fly that steadily yet. WHAT DO I DO WITH IT??

Mangrove pitta in Bishan??!!??!! He later also posted a note on my chat box. Hmm... Could it be a blue-winged pitta instead? I quickly responded to him.

Hi! Thanks for leaving a note here! It could be a blue wing pitta which looks very similar except for a more distinct black band on its head, but can't say for sure unless you can send me a good photo. The mangrove pitta is usually found in the mangroves, but the blue wing pitta is a migrant and can be found in other wooded areas. If it is healthy, you can just release it in the wooded areas.

Anyway, we eventually exchanged emails and that guy (I shall refer to him as two dollars, or $2 for short from now on) emailed me a photo of the bird. Sure looked like a blue-winged pitta to me.



According to "An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Singapore", the blue-winged pitta (Pitta moluccensis) is an uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant. It breeds in Southern China, Vietnam, Mynanmar, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia. In Singapore, dead or injured birds have been picked up from suburban areas throughout mainland and Jurong Island. It can be spotted in Singapore from October to April.

Managed to chat with $2 (make a guess why I call him $2?) on MSN later, and found out that the blue-winged pitta flew into his house and actually knocked into the windows a few times.

$2 (yah, I didn't want to use his real name for privacy reasons, but why $2?) was thinking of sending it to Jurong Bird Bird. But I was thinking, if the bird appeared healthy, then it might be better to just set it free, but perhaps not at his house but in a park in case it crashed into something again.

The thing is, it was rather late, and $2 (no, he didn't sell the pitta for $2... he's a rather nice person actually, or at least from first impression... haha) was worried that the pitta might get eaten by cats or what ever. So I suggested that he could release it the next morning.

Frankly speaking, I was getting rather excited by this actually - I also wanted to see the blue-winged pitta!!! So I asked him if i can meet him early Thursday morning when he's going to release the bird, and he agreed!

He also asked what we should do if the pitta can't fly tomorrow and ended up hopping around. I told him I can bring it to NUS to nurse it back to health, unless he wanted to do it himself. If the bird didn't survive (touch wood), I can get my colleague (who else but LK) to stuff it with cotton wool and immortalise it. Wahahahahaaa...

We do have a few blue-winged pitta specimens in the museum. I guess many of them were not so lucky when they crashed into glass windows - they ended up with cracked skulls and died...

I later also found out from $2 (no, I didn't have to pay him $2 to see the pitta) that he's studying in NUS! What a coincidence!

Anyway, the next morning, I quickly made my way to Bishan before I went to work. And in a nearby park, I saw $2 (no, I didn't spent $2 on transport to get to Bishan) and his mum. He was holding a big basket with the pitta inside.



The bird was getting very restless then, and I only managed to get one miserable shot. As it was like movinig around a lot, so the photo was a little out-of-focus.

Anyway, $2 (last chance to guess why...) removed the blanket covering the basket, and off it went! Disappeared in a flash among the trees...

Well, what a way to start a morning! Thanks to $2 for contacting me about the blue-wing pitta, allowing me to use your pitta photo, let me see the pitta, and also didn't mind that I called you $2. Haha...

Mangrove Pitta at Sungei Buloh

I was taking a walk in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve yesterday (7 Sep 2008) when I saw a flash of blue landing on the muddy ground among some mangrove trees. Taking a closer look, I realised that it's a pitta!



Showed LK the photo later, and confirmed that it is a mangrove pitta (Pitta megarhyncha). It was just there hopping around, picking up things along the way. Seems like it was feeding on something among the mud.



According to the "An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Singapore", the mangrove pitta is a rare resident in Singapore. It's globally near-threatened due to loss of habitat.



The mangrove pitta looks very similar to the blue-winged pitta, which is an uncommon winter visitor to Singapore. The latter, however, has a shorter beak, and a wider and darker black band on top of its head.

Seeing this rare bird certainly made my day at Sungei Buloh! :)

Oriental Pied Hornbills & Pink-Necked Green Pigeon

Went to Ubin today, and even before we got onto the boat at Changi village, we were quite lucky to see a pair of oriental pied hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris)!

According to "An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Singapore" by Wang, L. K. and Hails, C. J., the oriental pied hornbill was last recorded formally in 1885, and probably have gone extinct in the 1920s in Singapore. After which, it was still sighted several times in the Seletar and Changi areas, but these were presumed to be wildlife trade escapees or free-flyers from the Zoo. The first recorded sighting from Pulau Ubin was in 1994. These birds are likely to have flown over from Johor, and managed to settle down. Breeding was first recorded in 1997 on Pulau Ubin. There were records of breeding in Seletar too.

Anyway, back to the oriental pied hornbills I saw in Changi Village, and here's how the story goes...


Male Hornbill: Ooi, I caught an insect. You want?


Female Hornbill: Of course lah! You bird brain...


Male Hornbill: Ok ok. Give you. (Pardon the low quality pix. Dunno why suddenly lost focus...)


Female Hornbill: Yum yum!


Female Hornbill: Gluurrppp....
Male Hornbill: Alamak... look at the way she eats! The wing of the insect still stuck at the side of the mouth... So disgusting... I better fly off in case others start associating me with her...


Female Hornbill: Ah... satisfying meal... Hey?!?! Where did he go?


Male Hornbill: Here lah! Quickly fly over here to hide. So malu...

Haha... No offends to the hornbill lovers, but thought it was kind of cute to see hornbill courtship in action.


Anyway, even when we were on Ubin, we saw at least 3 other hornbills! Here's one of my favourite shots today...

Apart from oriental pied hornbills, we saw lots of pink-necked green pigeons (Treron vernans) too!


Here's a male pigeon feeding on the figs on a fig tree.


And here's a female with a fig in its beak.

Pink-necked green pigeons are rather common in Singapore, but this is the first time I managed to get a decent shot of them as the ones I've seen previous were just too high up on the branches for my miserable camera with little zoom to get good shots :P

Certainly a happy day for me to have managed to get some decent shots of these beautiful birds.

Looking forward to seeing more great stuff tomorrow :)