On 27th February 2006, Philip Tatham wrote: “During the last three months, one, and now a pair of, Red-whiskered Bulbuls (Pycnonotus jocosus) visited our apartment block on Jalan Hang Jebat (off Portsdown Road) and spent hour upon hour, almost every day, pecking at our windows. There are six flats in the block and as far as I can tell, the bulbuls peck at all the windows of all the flats. At first we were very worried the birds were trying to get in so we had to switch off the ceiling fans but it seems the birds were only interested in their reflections and ignored the wide-open windows (unlike the mynas, who nest above the windows and perch on the window frames and windowsill all day long). Is this a territorial thing or a breeding matter? And are the Red-whiskered Bulbuls feral, escapees or lost?”

This posting attracted much attention from readers. Jeremy Lee reported seeing Yellow-vented Bulbuls (P. goiavier) attacking the side view mirror of a car. “Some years back a whole flight of starlings crashed into my window pane” he added. “It was a whole series of bangs that I had initially thought was thunder. When I saw the trail of saliva/blood on the window, I checked the flower pots outside the window and there were about eight birds lying on the ground. Only two were still alive and a bit dazed. The rest probably died on impact. Our windows are quite large and it is not difficult for the bird to mistake the reflected image for the real thing.

“The funny thing is that these birds get ‘tunneled’ when they are distracted. Especially for birds with their eyeballs on the side of the head (as in most non-predatory birds). In aviation terms…we call it CFIT…Controlled Flight Into Terrain. This is a situation when a perfectly flyable aircraft gets flown into the ground because the pilots are disorientated or distracted by some other issues in the cockpit.

“In a place like Shenton Way, the birds are probably out in the open and have a big view of what’s ahead. So they are more able to distinguish the glass from the overall picture of the environment ahead. In an environment where greenery is closely meshed with man-made stuff like large windows, things can be quite different.

“Imagine a bird dashing through familiar territory and is suddenly chased by a raptor or some other silly bird cuts into their path and they take evasive action, and then suddenly lock onto a nearby reflection for a safe flight path, they may just make a mistake that will cost them their lives.”

Patricia Thong wrote: “It is perceivable that birds mistake the reflection of the blue sky on windows and fly straight into them. I have observed Collared Kingfishers (Todiramphus chloris) flying into my neighbours’ windows on bright sunny days. Eventually, my neighbours had to place an “X” on their window using tape to prevent that.

“However, I have also observed an inexplicable behaviour by Collared Kingfishers that dived into the trunk of large trees at the MacRitchie Reservoir Park. Surely there is no confusion with reflection, whether of sky or self here. Has anyone else observed this behaviour or would like to suggest an explanation?”

[R Subaraj has this explanation: "As for the diving kingfishers at MacRitchie that crash into trees, I think that they are hunting for lizards or big bugs on the tree trunks and those that crash get it all wrong or more likely, get blinded by the sun before crashing."]

Angie Ng has this to say: “I have witnessed this fascination by the male Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) with its own reflection on my window panes too. It was just a month before I moved house. The FP kept flying at its reflection and wouldn’t go away. At times it stood at the bottom edge of the glass pane and ‘peered’ into our room; it often stayed for more than an hour each time! When I opened the window to invite it in, it hopped onto the sui mei (Wrightia religiosa) and then away. I did wonder if it knew we were leaving the place.

“My SBFP wasn’t crashing into the glass; it was flying/trying to get through. When it couldn’t, it stood waiting patiently and looking in. It could have been a dozen times trying since it was there when I woke up and still there when I had to leave to run my errands.

“Some years ago, I was entertained by a peacock apparently enjoying itself jumping up and attacking its reflection on a highly polished car. The parked car sustained some serious scratches from its claws; wonder if the driver knew who did it!”

Watch out for Part 2 where others join in the discussion.

Thanks to Philip Tatham for bringing up the subject and to Jeremy Lee, Patricia Thong and Angie Ng for participating in the discussion. Images by YC.

There is nothing like a mempat tree (Cratoxylum formosum) with its crown covered with new reddish pink growth and pale pink flowers to brighten a road. The tree fronting my house was leafless for about a week before it turned into an attractive tree just before Christmas last year. These trees do not shed their leaves together as each has its own schedule. A tree first sheds its leaves and remains leafless for days before the colourful new leaves slowly emerge together with the flowers. I have always admired the tree at this very stage. As the leaves expand in size they turn green and at the same time the flowers develop into fruits.

There are a few semi-parasitic plants growing on its branches. These round-fruited mistletoes (Macrosolen cochinchinensis) are easily seen when the tree is leafless but with the leaves growing back, they can still be discerned if you look hard enough.

The crown of the tree is a hive of activities, the various fauna being attracted by the fruits of the mistletoe plants and the nectar-filled flowers of mempat.

The flowers of mempat as well as those of the mistletoes attract bees, butterflies and of course birds. Various sunbirds find the flowers of irresistible because of the nectar they exude. These include Crimson (Aethopyga siparaja), Olive-backed (Nectarinia jugularis) and Brown-throated (Anthreptes malacensis) Sunbirds. The Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus) visit for the mistletoe fruits, the mempat nectar as well as the flowers.

The tree is also popular with Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) that visit for the insects that are attracted to the flowers. These birds also eat the mempat flowers, probably for the nectar they contain. They are also attracted to the tree because of the mistletoe fruits.

Input and images by YC.

Calvin Lo of Yishun posted a most interesting account in Club Snap that I have got his permission to have it posted in the blog.

“About a week ago, I managed to save a juvenile Long-Tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) from the claws of the cat. Initially, I was worried that it would not survived because it continued to flutter carelessly to the ground quite often even though there were many cats roving the area.

“Fortunately, of late it grew wiser. Joeyao spotted it again and tried to approach it carefully with his camera, but this time it flew away before he got the chance to get near. Well, I was kind of sad that I would not be able to approach it so near any more.

“But yesterday evening, to my pleasant surprise, the little fellow appeared before me again. Instead of behaving skittishly as reported by Joeyao, it actually allowed me to move as close as 3m from it. In fact, for a while I was so near that I had to dismantle my tcon before the camera could focus properly. Managed to take about 10 over shots before it said goodbye to me. Don’t think it was due to evening because the light was still bright enough for it to see me very well.

“So…I’m just puzzled, Do birds recognise people?”

Calvin Lo, 28th February 2006. Image also by Calvin.

Our bird specilist R. Subaraj has this to say: “Pet birds including mynas seem to recognise their owners and many animals in the wild have been documented to recognise specific people. It would therefore be nice to believe that this is indeed the case here too. The moral of the story is….’Be Kind To Animals’ for they may truly appreciate you as a result. Well done Calvin!”

Kwek Siew Jin, a member of the Nature Society (Singapore), had an exciting encounter with a Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) while out walking with a group of friends in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve one day. Below is Siew Jin’s account of the encounter:

“On 6th January 2006, our group of four hikers was on our normal weekly walk, this time going through the former turf club to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

“On reaching Senapang Road at about 11am, I noticed a pair of Greater Racket-tailed Drongos (Dicrurus paradisus) flying around in an agitated manner and heard a loud honking noise coming from the tree tops. Within a short while a big bird that I recognised as a hornbill (but not which one) flew across an open space in the forest, chased by the pair of Drongos. I was thrilled to see such a large and beautiful bird in our forest! I chased and caught up with the birds when the hornbill landed on a tree and began to eat the fruits from the branches.
“Taking photos of the bird from below the tree with the hornbill hopping around plucking fruits was not easy, especially in the low light and without a long lens and tripod. However, it was certainly an experience to see this beautiful bird and to hear its loud honking calls. I only identified it as a Rhinoceros Hornbill when I got home and looked it up in the bird guide book.”

Ong Hui Guan similarly wrote on 19th March 2006: “I read about your project in Nature News. I shot a picture of a Great Hornbill on 18 Dec 05 - the bird flew into Dairy Farm Estate late afternoon. It visited Dairy Farm Estate subsequently with a partner a few weeks later and the two birds also hung around Bukit Timah Hill for a while - not sure if it is still there”

Comment by YC: This species is an escapee that has been sighted on an off in Singapore for some years now. See here for other sightings and here for an account of its possible mate.

Input by Kwek Siew Jin and Ong Hui Guan, image by YC (top) and Siew Jin (bottom).

An excellent video of a male Rhinoceros Hornbill feeding its family sealed inside the nest cavity, filmed in Thailand by our very own Prof. Ng Soon Chye, can be viewed here.

Con Foley was witness to the incident of the Little Heron (Butorides striatus) using pieces of bread visitors fed to ducks to fish at the Singapore Botanic Gardens and added: “A bit of googling reveals that this is a well known, documented and researched behavior, and Little Herons and their cousins in North America and elsewhere exhibit this behavior all around the world. They didn’t just learn it in Singapore, too bad. Actually, using bread is done because it is easily available in the Botanic Gardens, but they will use any small piece of leaf, bug, twig, etc, as bait to catch fish. From what I’ve read, Little Herons are one of the few “tool using” birds that will use a tool to accomplish a task. A bit more googling reveals that it has been reported that Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) also exhibit this behavior, although I haven’t seen it. At the Botanic Gardens my observation is that the juvenille bird would do this, but the adult wouldn’t be bothered. You can tell the birds apart by coloration.”

Hung Bun Tang wrote in on 14th Nov 2005: “It is exciting to know that someone has observed the baiting behaviour of the Little Heron. Thanks Subaraj and Jacqueline for sharing. I did a little search and found an article on “The feeding behaviour of North American herons.” The following paragraph from the article by JA Kushlan should be interesting - it mentions the baiting method of the Green-backed Heron (same as Littlie or Striated Heron, I believe).”

Stand or stalk feeding: In stand and wait a heron stands motionless in water or on land waiting for prey to approach. There are two basic postures. In upright posture the body is held erect, head and neck are fully extended angled away from the body. In crouched posture, the body is held horizontal to the perch or the water, legs are bent, and the head and neck are partially retracted. Upright stand and wait is epitomized by the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) while crouched stand and wait characterizes the Green Heron. Intermediate postures may also be used. Several variations of stand and wait behavior are recognizable. In bill vibrating, a heron in crouched posture stands with bill tip submerged in water and rapidly opens and closes its bill creating a disturbance that attracts prey. This behavior is probably what Buckley and Buckley (1968) called tongue flicking. In baiting, a heron feeding by stand and wait places bait in the water to attract prey to its feeding location. Lovell described the Green Heron as persistently returning bait to a position under its feeding perch. In standing flycatching, a heron using stand and wait behavior catches flying insects. In gleaning, a heron picks prey from objects above the ground or water.

Tang further added: “It should be interesting to record such behaviour of birds on video. I have seen someone using a digital camera with a video mode connected to a spotting-scope. What I have now is a digicam with a teleconvertor attached. Ong Kiem Sian’s setup (spotting-scope + video camera) is also inspiring. I really want to try out this “videoscoping” technique to capture bird behaviour in movie.”

Input by Con Foley and Hung Bun Tang, image by YC.