We were introduced to forensic birding by Lin Yangchen when he wrote on 30th December 2005:

“Birds are usually identified by sight or sound. It may also be possible to identify them from the tracks, feathers and droppings they leave behind. It is not always possible to pinpoint the species but the genus or family may be established. Looking out for signs is one challenge and interpreting them is another.

“For example, tracks can divulge much information through the presence or absence of claws and webbing, the number and apparent relative lengths of toes, angle between toes II and IV etc. The arrangement of a series of tracks can reveal characteristic gaits and whether the bird was walking, running or hopping. Slightly unfortunate, bird tracks are usually found only on the ground in silt, mud or snow.

“Cracked nuts, half-pecked fruits and pellets might tell us about diets and feeding guilds while the condition of a bird skeleton might tell us how the bird met its demise (cat, bird-eating spider, car accident etc).

“This is a fascinating subject either for research or for fun, as the eggs of the warring crows and koels have demonstrated.

“Since the days when the wild regions of the Malay Peninsula were largely unknown, explorers have taken a keen interest in the evidence left by animals. For example, *Skeat (1908) observed ‘peculiar open spaces several yards square and absolutely devoid of leaves and rubbish’ along a ridge on Gunung Tahan. The footnote reads, ‘they are nothing more than the playing-grounds of the Argus Pheasant’”.

Responding, Benjamin Lee wrote, “Thanks for the enlightening account of avian CSI. And let’s not forget the application of avian forensics in determining species causing aircraft engines to fail during a bird strike. Dr Jon Baldur Sigurdsson, who used to teach ornithology in the former Department of Zoology, National University of Singapore, was a consultant to bird strike cases at Changi Airport. He had to determine what sort of birds were killed by looking at the remains of feathers, bones and bits of skin.

There is an excellent review article here on everything you want to know about aircraft and bird strikes. This article is reproduced from “The Auk”, an American ornithological journal, and was authored by Prof. Navjot Sodhi from the National University of Singapore.”

See also “Tales of a Birding Pilot”.

Wang Luan Keng followed with a workshop on 20th January 2006 when she brought specimens of feathers and wings, eggs, skeleton pieces, whole bird specimens, etc for participants to handle and ask questions. The evening proved to be an exciting introduction to forensic birding with participants showing much interest and asking numerous questions.

Obviously there is a wide-open field out there for birders to look into. Birding is not and should not be confided only to identifying birds and counting them. Birders, when out in the field, should also look out for bird tracks, splats, discarded eggs and shells, make the necessary records and bring them up for discussion later.

Input by Lin Yangchen, Benjamin Lee and Wang Luan Keng. Image by Lin Yangchen.
*Skeat, W. W. 1908. A personal reconnaissance of Gunung Tahan. Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums 3:77-90.

After only three days trying to incubate their eggs, the House Crows (Corvus splendens) gave up on the morning of 28th December 2005. Thereafter, it was open house for the Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopacea)! They were increasingly daring, stealing into the nest throughout the day, but the height of activity was always in the mornings and late afternoons, and one female even stayed in the nest for more than 10 minutes. There were two occasions when the male koel took an interest, hopped into nest, looked around before hopping off again.

Although the crows seem to have abandoned their nest, they are not averse to visiting it every day, and sometimes twice or three times a day - to check on the contents? Once I saw presumably the female pecking, pushing and pulling some of the twigs. It seemed to be tidying the nest or doing some house-keeping! However, on another day one crow actually took away some fine twigs from the nest!

I would know they were visiting because often they would caw but other times I just happened to look up and there they were! The crows would still chase away the female koels if they chance to see them approaching the nest, but I think they are losing interest. They behave as though they have another nest somewhere else. Lately, they sometimes fly overhead by-passing our tree. Female koels still visit the nest, though not as frequently.

And throughout the days I was home, a lone male koel would spend long periods sitting on the lower branch mournfully calling ‘koe-ell koe-ell’ its pitch gradually rising in desperation.

The nest looks a little thread-bare/twig-bare this morning.

If each time a female koel visits and lays an egg, we’d have more then two dozens eggs in nest. But do they necessarily lay eggs at each visit?

This is the end of koel-crow watching, I hope. Maybe I will still watch to see when the nest will drop its load of eggs!

Postscript:
Just after writing the above and when I was sweeping the floor, four crows flew up to branches near the nest. One had some food (?) in its beak, flew into the nest, moved around and came out before another crow went in. This crow cawed and fussed around, unsure whether to sit in or leave. While the other three crows left, this crow hopped to an adjacent branch, sharpened its beak, looked around, spied a female koel hiding in the far end of tree and chased it all the way to Lewis Road.

Who are these four crows? Obviously two couples. Is one pair the owners of the nest?

Contributed by Angie Ng, 14th January 2006; image by YC.

Cats are an absolute no-no in Australia, where essentially they are non-native and imported by thoughtless white settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries, who even more thoughtlessly let them go ‘feral’ in the wild (believe me, these seeming pussy-cats are like wild leopard cats if cornered, hissing masses of aggression!) etc. They have wreaked havoc with small native mammals (mostly nocturnal) and birds. In several eastern states, owners have to have licences for them and must observe a legally enforced ‘curfew’ banning them from wandering outdoors by night on pain of fines and other penalties, within the confines of a defined ‘metro’ urban area - in the countryside, they have been banned completely in several cases - and should be. There have been suggestions that ordinary owners only be allowed to keep cats if they are sterilised and only licensed breeders may actually breed cats.

When I first arrived in Western Australia, my garden came with about 6 dependent stray cats attached! And I had kept a couple of my own, with dogs, in Singapore before. But as I learned more about the Australian ecology, I came to the conclusion that I must harden my heart and get rid of my own cats - I took them one by one to the local Cat Haven, whence they were ‘re-homed’ (a bit of a cop-out, I know, since they were still in the Australian ecology!). The payoff has been abundant birdlife in my garden, where I cultivate native plants to attract the local birds.

It’s an interesting example of how animal welfare concerns often have to be traded off against conservationist concerns.

I wonder if all countries need to consider similar measures for the protection of wildlife? And I wonder how much research has been done on how ‘native’ domestic cats are to SE Asia?

Contributed by Ilsa Sharp, from Perth, Western Australia

Additional input by R. Subaraj: Unlike places like Australia and New Zealand, cats in Singapore are largely confined to more urbanised areas and feral cat populations are almost entirely found in the city and housing estates (see Cat Kill. Apart from the very occasional individuals, one does not come across cats in nature areas. Perhaps our Reticulated Pythons have something to do with that….! Dogs on the other hand are a problem with stray populations in many nature areas including our reserves of Bukit Timah, the Central Catchment and Sungei Buloh. They form packs and hunt our native birds and other wildlife. The first Lesser Mousedeer (highly endangered and a distinct endemic subspecies) I ever encountered in Singapore was one being pursued by three feral dogs within our Central Catchment Nature Reserve!

My Alexandra palms (Archontophoenix alexandrae) are fruiting again. The large bunches of red fruits invariable attract Asian Glossy Starlings (Aplonis panayensis) that are a delight to watch, what with their iridescent dark plumage and bright red eyes. I was pleasantly surprised to observe earlier that these birds swallowed the fruits whole but soon regurgitate the seeds after the pulp had been removed in the gut.

Reviewing my earlier images of koels caught in the act of raiding these fruits, I found that I have evidence that Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopacea) regularly swallow the fruits (see above) but have yet to actually see them regurgitate the seeds.

Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) are similarly attracted to these fruits, but only when the starlings are not around. But these bulbuls apparently have a smaller gape than the above two birds as they are not able to swallow the nearly rounded 10×12 mm fruits. Instead, they peck on the red fruits to remove pieces of the soft outer covering, leaving the fruits with patches exposing the seed surface still attached to the bunch.

Obviously the starling, koel and bulbul are inefficient seed dispersers as far as the Alexandra palm is concerned. Depositing the seeds at the base of the parent palm is not advantageous to the plant at all.

I wonder whether there are any animals that actually disperse these seeds. As an exotic palm introduced from the warmer regions of Eastern Australia, it is very possible that the seed dispersers are absent in Singapore.

Comment by R. Subaraj: It would be interesting to find out if some of our local animals like plantain squirrels, actually help disperse the large seeds of some of our exotic palms.

I am only a sometime-ornithologist and one that looks mainly at dead birds. I don’t know the real reason why mynas appear bald-headed at times. Our local myna expert, Dr Kang Nee, noted this phenomenon of botak (Malay for bald-headed) Common Mynas (Acridotheres tristis) when she studied them in the late 80s and early 90s. She noted that birds that have their crown feathers actually do not have the yellow skin on the head. It’s only when the feathers are gone that the skin turns yellow. Why? Don’t know. Did the feathers drop off because of moult or fighting? Don’t know. She never obtained any observations even though she spent several years studying and radio-tracking them in the wild and breeding them in captivity.

I have also written to the world’s leading sturnid expert, Dr Chris Feare many years ago about botak mynas. He knew about them but couldn’t offer any explanations either.

I think it might not be typical moulting, otherwise all Common Mynas would have the botak head at every moult cycle, which is usually once a year, and you should see a very high percentage of botak birds in the myna population.

Do mynas that are timid and smaller get pecked on the head until they are botak or do birds become more timid after they become botak? I have no answer. I wish I could lay my hands on some of these botak birds so that we may learn something from them.

Contributed by Wang Luan Keng in response to queries about these strange birds