The year 2005 is coming to a close and 2006 is looming over the horizon. Let us take a few moments to review what we have done since the formation of the Bird Ecology Study Group.

The Nature Society had its last AGM in May 2005. This was where the idea of a new group was conceived. The group’s blog was created soon after, in July, and launched with a series of postings on the nesting of the Zebra Doves. On 27th September the Executive Committee of the Nature Society (Singapore) formally accepted BESGroup as a new activity group under its umbrella.

So what have we done so far?
1. We have had formal discussions with NUS and NParks on joint activities and formal collaboration.
2. We initiated a series of talks under the broad heading “Why do birds do what they do?” and kicked it off with a number of talks by Luan Keng, Subaraj and myself. In the coming year we hope to continue with more, to expose birders to all aspects of the avian fauna – time and speakers permitting. We hope to explore aspects of bird migration, diet, habitat selection, flight, mating systems, vocalisation, evolution, etc., and share with members whatever knowledge we can glean from the literature and the net.
3. We are planning field trips to emphasise the ecological aspects of birds, not just their ID. In this respect we will be looking into the inter-relationship of birds with plants and other animals.
4. We plan to aggressively publish articles on bird ecology in the print medium, not only in Nature News and Nature Watch, but also in scientific and other journals and magazines that are published overseas.
5. We plan to link up with overseas bird groups and contribute to their activities.
6. We have an active blog (http://besgroup.blogspot.com/). So far there are in excess of 50 postings on subjects as varied as nesting, mobbing, anting and alcoholism in birds. We now have a team of more than ten birders submitting their observations regularly. The readership is increasing exponentially, approaching 4,000 hits after a short period of only five months.
7. We have familiarised birders with the term “anting” and so far four people have reported seeing this phenomenon. We have also made birders aware that not all birds swallow seeds to pass them out at the other end - some regurgitate them after the pulp is removed in the gut. We plan to further seek out unfamiliar and seldom mentioned aspects of bird ecology and bring them out into the open for discussion.
8. We have an active yahoo discussion loop and will be starting a discussion board soon, thanks to Jacqueline Lau. We also hope to have our own web page in the near future.
9. And finally, we are proud to announce that the group is closely associated with the Singapore Hornbill Project that is currently going on in Pulau Ubin and the Jurong Bird Park (details later).

For 2006 we will be offering not only more of the same but other new projects and ideas. After all, BESGroup is a young group of enthusiastic people brimming with new and novel ideas and raring to go.

Have a great 2006. BESGroup plans to do just that!

30th December 2005

Cheong Weng Chun sent me an image of a juvenile Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) with a bunch of young rain tree (Samanea saman) leaflets in its beak. And in his own words, the bird was: “chewing - no, can it chew or perhaps, I should say swallow?”

This started me asking a pertinent question “Do birds eat leave?” Well, some birds do… Anyway, I ended up with some interesting information.

Folivory applies to those birds that eat leaves, either exclusively or partially. Although a successful foraging strategy for numerous species, few birds are exclusively folivorous. Why? Because flight demands an enormous amount of energy and leaves do not provide the necessary energy. The energy content of leaves is only half that of fruits and a quarter that of insects and other arthropods. Also, leaf digestion is slow and requires a large storage space in the gut. Besides, digestion needs to be undertaken by specialized bacteria present in the gut

Those birds that regularly feed on leaves have thus turned to gliding or abandoned flight altogether.

Only about 3% of all birds, from at least 14 families, eat leaves regularly. Most of these birds are terrestrial or aquatic and only 5 families include aboreal members. From these 5 families only 2 species, Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) and Owl Parrot (Strigops habroptilus) obtain most of their energy from leaves. These include new growth of green leaves, buds, flowers and fruits in season, moss and fungi. Hoatzin is a South American bird whose flight is weak and awkward. It clumsily creeps up branches and make only short flights. The other is a flightless bird of New Zealand.

R. Subaraj notes that certain birds offer leaves during courtship, but we have an immature bird here. So does it mean that its behaviour is precocious?

Image by Cheong Weng Chun

A pair of House Crows (Corvus splendens) started building a nest on 19th December 2005 in an angsana tree (Pterocarpus indicus) just outside my apartment window. The day before they were building another nest on the far side of the tree. Unfortunately it disappeared overnight, probably foiled by strong wind during the night. They appeared to have succeeded now, as they were still building it on the second day. I hope the nest remains.

Even as the nest was just only a dozen or so twigs propped across the forked branches, a female Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) had made a quick inspection when the crows were away.

Both crows were equally involved in collecting and arranging the twigs for the nest. With sunbirds and flowerpeckers, the males merely accompany their mates and just hang around, never helping in wool collecting.

Yesterday, the nest looked like an untidy collection of dry twigs, with a few green leaves added. Today it looks more compact and increasingly I have difficulty seeing what they were doing when both happened to be behind that nest. This morning they were still compacting the nest with more twigs. Sometimes they arrived without any twigs but took turns or even together shifting twigs around the nest. Will they be bringing ‘fibrous’ materials tomorrow to line the inner cup?

I wonder where they got their materials from? They don’t seem to just pick up the fallen twigs from under the tree.

These crows appear to be loving birds, always standing close, ‘kissing’ each other and one was seen feeding the other, although I could not see what was passed from one beak into the other’s throat.

The image of nest was taken at 4.45 pm today.

Contributed by Angie Ng, 21st December 2005

Now that anting has been unleashed onto the birding community, more episodes are being reported. This posting gives the third and fourth accounts after Kelvin’s historic observation 17 years ago, followed by Jeremy’s.

R. Subaraj, our bird specialist and nature consultant, relates his experience: “When I was at the National University of Singapore campus in Kent Ridge on November 25th, 2005, I noticed a solitary Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) approaching me not far from the Science Canteen. As it walked toward me, it picked up something from the ground and put it under its wing. I kept observing it carefully and the next time it did the same thing. I suddenly realised that it was a kerengga ant (Oecophylla samargdina) that it was stuffing under the wing.

“Immediately remembering what Kelvin had seen not far from where I was 17 years ago, I continued observing it. The bird was deliberately searching for more krenggas in the grass, along the drain and even in the drain. Each one it caught was quickly stuffed under the wing as well, occasionally with a little dance to follow.

“Another myna, another anting session!”

Margie Hall relates her story: “I recently found my 1989 notebook and can give you two more brief accounts of anting: March 9th, 1989, 2 pm, White-vented Myna picking up red kerengga ants one by one (7 in all) and putting them in underparts and in wing feathers. May 9th, 1989 White-vented Mynas ‘anting’ with red kerengga ants. Note: White-vented Myna probably means Javan Myna - I think I was using the names interchangeably in those days.”

K.F. Yap’s notes that there seems to be a kind of unwritten ‘pecking order’ among the common birds around us when they feed, see also The ubiquitous Javan Myna. Whenever cleaners remove refuse, Javan Mymas (Acridotheres javanicus) , being most bold and aggressive, would be the first to feed, even when people are around. House Crows (Corvus splendens), although they are larger and more aggressive, usually stay back as they are shy of people. The crows would come to feed after the cleaners have moved away, during which time the mynas would also have moved on.

He also observed that whenever his neighbours threw stale bread and rice out of the backyard windows to feed the birds, the pigeons would come first, then the mynas and finally the crows. The crows would then rob the pigeons and mynas of their food, he concluded.

Intrigued by his account, I hung out a bunch of ripe bananas on a low branch in my garden. Interestingly, Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) were the first to arrive. They would perch on the bunch and feed on the ripe bananas. Only when the bananas fell to the ground would the Javan Mynas congregating below move in to feed. There would be tussles between rival pairs of mynas fighting to be the first to feed. Invariably every bird had an opportunity to feed. This is because of their method of feeding – making a quick move towards the fruits and taking a chunk to move away to feed. This allows others to move in.

I am surprised that the bulbuls were left in peace up on the banana bunch as on the ground, the mynas would always chase them away. Is this niche feeding? Are mynas ground feeders? Do they find it difficult to feed perching on the bunch?

According to R. Subaraj, mynas are primarily ground feeders though they will feed on fruits in trees where they can perch comfortably adjacent to the fruit itself.