“Yesterday I noticed a group of four to five House Swifts (Apus affinis) circling in the airspace under an Mass Rapid Transit viaduct at around 0900 hours. The weather was fair. Two of them deviated from the circular trajectory at regular intervals to ascend towards, but not establish contact with, a nest glued under the viaduct adjacent to one of the pillars (left). By 0945 hours they were nowhere to be seen.

“There were two additional nests joined to each other (as reported in the literature to happen frequently) near the next pillar. I noticed that in this instance the nests were underhanging precariously from a (mostly) horizontal surface, not vertical surfaces as often described. This is even more remarkable in consideration of the strong vibrations caused by trains passing every few minutes throughout the day. Indeed, the demographic success of this species can be at least partly attributed to their amenability to nest sites of high levels of human and vehicular traffic. On the ground under the nest cluster I found a pile of ‘guano’ beside which was a dead chick (below).

“I assume that it is A. affinis. The reasons for falling from the nest have been documented in past BESG postings. If the chick is indeed A. affinis, the legs are remarkably disproportionately long for apodids and will presumably develop allometrically into the adult form. At the moment, it superficially resembles the recently reported Acridotheres javanicus chick. This morphological similarity across chicks/embryos of different avian families seems to be one of the hallmarks of Darwinian evolutionary theory.

“Today, the A. affinis did not indulge in the cyclic flight patterns observed yesterday at the same time. Could anyone suggest ethological or ecological rationales for the observed behaviour? Nevertheless, they spent the morning foraging and feeding their progeny, leaving and returning to the nest repeatedly. Unfortunately, I could not see their captures.

“The above shows what appears to be a powered anticlockwise rotation of the bird along its anterioposterior axis a fraction of a second after ejection from the nest, the right wing being ventrally convex and the left wing dorsally so.

“In the above, the parent is about to leave the nest with its head facing out. It made a ‘gostan’ inside the nest after entering. However, the adults in the other nests seem to commence their exit backwards and switch to forward propulsion as gravitation takes over. Space limitation (dependent on nest volume, surviving brood size etc.) probably plays a role in determining the exit direction. Obviously, exiting head first offers better prior assessment of the security situation outside the nest.”

House Swifts are common resident birds.

Aydin Örstan from Maryland, US read the early post on “Where do birds go when they die?” and sent me a link to his series of posts on the same question, “Where do all the dead birds go?”

With Aydin’s permission, I am summarising his series of posts that you can view in full HERE: 1, 2 and 3.

A Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) was picked up on a sidewalk. From the condition of the dead bird, it was obvious that it had died probably not more than an hour or so earlier (left top). He put the body in a box and left the box in a secluded corner of his garden and ensured that the many “body snatchers” around did not get at it.

On day 2, there were flies around the rotting body - blow flies (Family: Calliphoridae) (left, second). They obviously detected the smell of the dead animal and arrived to deposit their eggs on the carcass. There were also plenty of ants crawling all over. There was a distinct smell indicating that decomposition had set in.

On day 3, there were more flies and more ants on and around the bird. There were many loose feathers, small ones, around and the tail feathers had fanned out, signs that the skin and the flesh had broken down (left, third).

On day 4, the smell was overpowering, indicating that decomposition was at its highest. Blow fly maggots were everywhere, on and around the body (left bottom). The carcass had disintegrated, with the skull partially visible (below left). The orange arrow shows the larger maggots and the yellow arrows the maggots at a younger stage.

On day 8, all the flesh and skin had been consumed and only the feathers and bones were left. There were no more maggots around, only a few ants (below right).

As Aydin concludes, “Dead things don’t go to Heaven or Hell. They rot, get eaten and turn into soil… Many organisms have evolved to obtain their nourishment solely from dead animals or plants. In nature, nothing goes to waste and nothing lasts forever.”

Check out today’s message by Aydin HERE on BESG’s website and how he gets “bored from looking at the seemingly endless species lists or just pictures of birds… that I regularly read. In contrast, almost all posts at the BESG blog have something to do with an interesting bird behavior and are accompanied with good, original pictures. I find them quite informative.”

In the Pahang town of Raub in Peninsula Malaysia, Dr. Redzlan Abdul Rahman had a late night and woke up on 1st May 2008 (May Day holiday) to find a party going on in front of his house. The night before was raining and swarms of winged termites gathered around the street lamps, attracted by the light. By morning most of the winged termites were on the ground below, crawling about and with wings discarded. These termites would have attracted numerous birds the evening before. Anyway the feasting continued in the morning, attracting numerous birds that came to partake in this unexpected feast. The image above shows a juvenile Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) feasting on the termites on the ground. The termite near the bill of the sparrow has yet to discard its wings.

These birds include, from top left, clockwise: Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis), Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus), Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis), Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata); and below, left to right: Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) and Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

“I didn’t see the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) joining the foray. And this is the first time that I see Asian Glossy feeding on the ground.

“And a Juvenile Green Crested Lizard (Bronchocela cristatella) was also there (above).

“…Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia) (below left) and White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) (below right) just flew over the street and caught the termites, and than swallowed them at the perch.”

This was a typical termite hatch, a phenomenon when the secondary reproductives of a termite colony are forced out, resulting in a nuptial flight. The event starts with workers making openings in the nest and forcing out the winged individuals. These individuals then take flight in a swarm, attracted by bright lights. Soon, many of these swarming termites land on the ground and discard their wings. Only a small percentage survive to eventually mate and form new colonies.

Reference:
Subaraj, R. (2006). The nuptial flight of termites makes a veritable winged feast. Nature Watch 14(4):10-13. (With additional input by Y C. Wee.)

The recent post on the Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) chick that was predated by a cat brings to mind a common question many people ask: “Where do birds go when they die?” A related question I was recently asked was “Do birds die?” Such questions are understandable (or are they?), considering that with so many birds around, it is not common to come across dead birds.

Banding activities in our Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves have shown that most of the sunbird species live at least five years. Many birds live much longer than this. But not all birds live as long, especially when they are victims of predation. Or when there is a food shortage and they starve.

I suppose when birds are about to die of sickness or old age, they do not move to some exposed areas. Usually they hide in the undergrowth or among the foliage of plants. And when they actually succumb to death, their bodies do not lie around as such for long.

I found a dead Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier ) under some plants recently (left top). As an experiment, I left it on the ground and monitored its condition. Five days later (for some reason or other, the neighbour’s cat did not take it) most of the flesh was gone, leaving only feathers and bones (left middle). Another 12 days later, most of the bones had rotted and the feathers were fast disappearing (left bottom). So, under our hot and wet conditions, the carcase does not last long.

In the urban environment, you may come across the carcasses of dead birds in your garden. These are mostly victims of domestic cats (see 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). These cats have been known to bring their trophies and place them at the feet of their owners. Or they may simply eat the dead birds outright.

Anyway, dead birds do not remain around for long on the ground. Cats and other predators eat them up, the fleshy parts, that is. Within a few hours, if not within a day, the feathers would be ripped off and the flesh eaten, leaving behind the entrails and head. Even these disappear in no time at all, including the feathers and most of the bones. This was seen when the Javan Myna chick I was tending was predated by a cat. I recovered the carcase from the cat and left it in the garden (above left). By the next morning, nothing much was left (above right). Probably another cat ate it up.

These are the reasons why most people do not encounter dead birds in their daily lives. But this does not mean that birds do not die!

“The Short-tailed Babbler (Malacocincla malaccensis) is another one of those sulky, secretive denizens of the deep dark forest, hiding under cover most of the time, flies for short distances, hops around on the forest floor like a little mammal looking for worms, grubs or other insects. The birds calls mainly at dawn and is very sweet to the ears.

“The bird is an uncommon resident, restricted to the understorey of dry forests and to freshwater forests.”

According to Madoc (1956), “This is a queer little bird, with long white legs and practically no tail.” Actually, the legs are usually flesh-coloured or pinkish, sometimes grey (Collars & Robson, 2007).
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References:
1. Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. (2007). Family Timaliidae (Babblers). Pp. 70-291 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chikadees. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.
2. Madoc, G. C. (1956). An introduction to Malayan birds. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. (revised ed.)