Philip Tang, an avid nature photographer, spent two years stalking the Malaysian Plover (Charadrius peronii), also known as Malaysian/Malayan Sandplover. He has successfully documented the birds’ breeding behaviour and is sharing his images and observations that will be posted here during the next few days.

“The Malaysian Plover is a smallish coastal bird that is found exclusively on sandy beaches and coastal sand-fill in Singapore. Although designated a rare resident locally, it is not globally threatened but near-threatened. The population worldwide has been estimated to be less than 10,000 birds, this number probably declining with the years. “Plovers are small wading birds that are widely distributed throughout the world. They belong to the Family Charadriidae that comprises three Subfamilies: Charadriinae or plovers (41 spp.), Vanellinae or lapwings (25 spp.) and Pluvianellinae or Magellanic Plover (1 sp.).

“These birds are characterised by their relatively short bill. They feed in pairs on remote sandy beaches, hunting by sight rather than by feel as longer-billed waders like snipe do. They feed on worms, especially polychaetes and other invertebrates like small crustaceans, shrimps, amphipods and isopods. They have a typical run-and-pause technique of hunting, rather than the steady probing of some other wader groups. The birds wait for prey to reveal itself, then run towards it. They then wait quietly for another opportunity. If no more prey is detected, they move on to a new site. “The plumage of brown, grey, black and white provides excellent camouflage for the birds in the uniform sandy shore they congregate. The sexes lack size dimorphism but show plumage differences. The male is easily recognized from the thin black band round its neck while the female has a rufous brown band.

Input and images (top, male; bottom, female) by Philip Tang.

Barbets are hole nesters. They are capable of excavating cavities for their nests from dead and rotting trees. Thus they do not nest in cavities previously used by other birds. These birds are frugivores, feeding mainly on fruits that include figs, oil fruit (Elaeocarpus), Singapore rhododendron (Melastome malabathricum) and mistletoes. They are also opportunistic feeders, able to shift to feeding insects when the opportunity arises. Their young, especially immediately after hatching from the eggs, need a diet of animal protein, necessary for growth and development. But with development these nestlings are fed mainly with fruits.

In a series of observations made recently by Melinda Chan on a nesting pair of Red-crowned Barbets (Megalaima rafflesii), she found that the parents were kept constantly busy bringing food to feed the hungry nestling. Every few minutes a parent would fly to a nearby branch before flying straight to the nest with a variety of fruits and insects. Invariably the nestling would pop its head out, beak agape, to receive the food. Fruits would be brought in twos and threes in the beak of the parent bird.

Those fruits that were properly identified include the oval and bluish Elaeocarpus and the smaller round and reddish salam (Syzygium polyanthum). Animal food included a praying mantis.

Feeding was frequent, averaging ten per hour. These feeds may be at intervals of a few minutes to as long as ten minutes or more. Fruits were regularly brought, occasional some form of animal food or other.

With such frequent feeding, the nest obviously got dirty fast. Once every few feeds the parent bird would enter the nest to do house cleaning. Sometimes cleaning would only be done after a series of feedings. Conspicuous among the wastes were regurgitated fruits of Elaeocapus with the thin fleshy layer and skin intact, probably indigestible to the nestling. The messy portions of the waste consisted of partially digested fruits as well as excreted matters. Barbets are supposed to remove wastes via faecal sacs but in this case wastes were removed by the beakfuls. With the waste in its beak, the bird flew to a nearby branch, shook its head to release the wastes. These collected on the ground below. After wiping its beak clean against the branch six to eight times, it then flew in the opposite direction to collect more fruits.

Input by Melinda Chan and images by Chan Yoke Meng.

“During the breeding season, eggs, chicks and fledlgings are vulnerable to many predators, including man. In many species, parent birds will go to all lengths to protect their brood. The female drongo will pluck off her long racket-like feathers to be less conspicuous when sitting in her nest; cisticolas will land several metres from the nest and run on the ground through thick grass to where the nest is located; many normally mild-mannered species will viciously chase away much larger would-be predators with great gusto.

“Some birds, like certain shorebirds will pretend to have a broken wing to distract the predator from the retreating chick. A couple of years ago, I observed a Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) run towards our vehicle, screaming loudly and feigning a broken wing as her young chick retreated quietly into the long grass adjacent to the dirt track that we were driving along. “On May 5th this year, I had the pleasure of witnessing two more such displays. First, at Serangoon, as Anthony Mercer, Shamla Subaraj and I were in our car driving slowly down a rough road, we stopped to observe a couple of White-breasted Waterhens (Amaurornis phoenicurus) (above and below) ahead of us. Immediately, one waterhen started running towards the car with wings held outstretched and above its head. While appearing in mock surrender, it also appeared to be charging our vehicle. It moved to the right of our vehicle and the reason for its display became apparent. We had inadvertently stopped right next to her small black chick, which was at the edge of a grass tussock. The adult carried a caterpillar and fed the chick upon reaching it, while shepherding it further into the vegetation. Later, we were to see a total of four small black chicks at the spot.
“Later that day, as the three of us drove around the reclamation area at Changi Central, we came across a strangely bold male Malaysian Plover (Charadrius peronii). This vulnerable resident is a sandy shore specialist and is highly localised in its local distribution. The male stood right in front of our car and seemed quite unafraid, providing excellent views. It literally tried to block us from turning our car into another track! Yet, this is a species that is normally fairly shy and would run quickly away from observers who moved too close. It did not dawn on me that it was trying to distract us, by making us focus on him, until the female materialised on the left of the vehicle. It too appeared quite unafraid and my conclusion was that they must have a nest nearby, though we did not look for it as we did not want to further disturb this threatened resident.

“The breeding season is upon us and lots of species are deeply involved in nesting. It would be most interesting to keep an eye out for other protective parents and their interesting methods of distraction.”

Account by R. Subaraj and images by YC.

Terns are smallish birds with a prominent forked tail and sharply pointed wings. They are noisy and gregarious and prefer areas around water bodies, whether coastal, rivers or reservoirs.

They feed mainly on fish and crustaceans, foraging over water to get their food. The bird may suddenly dives into the water to catch fish or hovers above to suddenly plunge down. Sometimes it may fly close to the water to swoop down whenever it spots a prey. Certain species may sit or swim on the water surface to pick up food items from the water surface of just below. Many species also indulge in piracy to get their food, especially when male birds bring fish to the female during courtship feeding.

Terns have also been known to hawk insects on the wing, especially when there is a termite hatch.

The Little Terns (Sterna albifrons) that Meng and Melinda Chan observed last year around the Neo Tiew Road area were mostly interested in foraging for fish in the Kranji Reservoir. The birds were mostly flying above the water surface, hovering around an area once they spot fish, to suddenly dive down and make a catch (see images below). With the fish firmly in its beak, the tern would fly off to land to complete its meal.

Input and images by Meng and Melinda Chan.

Pangkor Island is a scenic island resort off the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia. And that was where Susan Wong was holidaying recently. What impressed her most was the Oriental Pied Hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris). There were hornbills everywhere. On rooftops, perching on high-tension wires and along roads. She even saw one bird with a deformed bill. She thought that they were as common as crows that can be seen in many Malaysian towns. We in urban Singapore consider ourselves fortunate to be able to see a pair of these hornbills flying overhead or even visiting our urban gardens. In Pulau Ubin we can see more, but as common as crows? Unbelievable to most of us! I have therefore managed to persuade her to share her images of these impressive birds from Pangkor Island for this post. According to Susan: “The birds have been behaving this way for the last ten years.” They have been attracted to certain touristy areas where hotels and restaurants are plentiful. The residents feed them with leftover food as a tourist attraction. Because of this the birds have become so tame that it is almost possible to touch them. In fact Susan says that they look ”…more tame than the birds at bird parks and zoos.” In fact they have become as tame as the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). Although there is a patch of lowland rainforest nearby, the hornbills were content to be around people.

Our bird specialist R. Subaraj has this to say: “Based on the timings for flock gatherings at Pangkor, given by Susan, I am of the opinion that while this hornbill is unquestionably common on the island, the larger gatherings are because they roost communally. From dawn onwards, they are together drying and warming up before dispersing to find food while in the evenings they probably start gathering until near dusk, when they go to roost together.”

Input and images by Susan Wong of Malaysia.