On 23rd June 2006, photographer HP Lim came across a pair of Chestnut-bellied Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus sumatranus), each with a large hairy caterpillar between its beak. The birds were swinging the caterpillars vigorously, obviously to kill them. They next passed the entire length of the caterpillar back and forth between the beak to remove the stomach contents. The image above shows one of the bird with the somewhat flattened caterpillar between its beak.

The video clips that HP Lim managed to capture (1) and (2) show the above in a much more dramatic fashion. In case you are not able to connect properly to the videos, he has given alternate links in (3) and (4).

Caterpillars are a favourite food of many species of birds. The brightly coloured ones can be poisonous while those that are hairy can be tricky to manipulate. An earlier posting gives an account of how birds generally handle these caterpillars.

Another account describes the way a Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) manipulated a large privet hawk moth’s caterpillar - in this case the caterpillar was clean shaven, no hairs!

We wish to thank HP Lim for generously sharing his image and videos and to Meng and Melinda Chan for introducing him to BESGroup’s blog.

The pong pong (Cerbera odollam) is a medium sized tree that was once commonly planted along roads in Singapore. Its popularity then was because there was a plentiful supply of large fruits that collected on the ground below. These were collected and easily germinated to be used as wayside trees. With the maturity of the garden city and availability of a more varied selection of tree species, pong pong became less of a favourite. Its general shape is not all that attractive. Besides, the large, round fruits that litter the ground below became quite of a nuisance. However, there are still many areas where such matured trees can still be seen.

The tree has been called Singapore apple because of the large, round fruits. The green outer covering of the fruit encloses a thin pulp and a thick fibrous stone containing a single seed. This seed is reportedly poisonous, containing the poisonous substances cerebin and odollin. It has been used locally to poison rats.

For a long time now no animals have been observed to eat the fruits, or at least the outer pulp. Being a coastal tree, the fruits are adapted for water dispersal, not animal dispersal.
However, birders have recently observed seeing Tanimbar Corella (Cacatua goffini) feasting on these fruits. Johnny Wee sent an image of this bird eating through the outer part of a green fruit, apparently chewing through the tough fibrous layer covering the seed. The bird is seen perched on a branch with its right leg tightly clutching it while its left leg clutches the green fruit.

At Eng Neo area, certain mornings the pong pong trees will be swarmed with these corellas as they noisily fly from branch to branch and tree to tree, pecking on the fruits. Typically wasteful eaters, these birds end up littering the ground below with the partially eaten fruits.

According to our bird specialist R. Subaraj: “Tanimbar Cockatoo (now known as Tanimbar Corella) was first seen around 1970s when it was misidentified as Little Corella (Cacatua pastinator) from Australia. A visiting Aussie birder in the mid-1980s said it weren’t theirs and that finally lead to the accurate confirmation of the species.”

This is an introduced bird, now getting more common. It has obviously found a feeding niche that no other birds have occupied before. Besides feeding on pong pong fruits, it also goes for green starfruits (Averrhoa carambola) and fruits of sea almond (Terminalia catappa), fruits not popular with other species of birds.

Images by YC except second from top by Johnny Wee and bottom by Chan Yoke Meng.

The emerging Mangrove Pitta (Pitta megarhyncha) of this habitat heralds news of good birding days ahead for Ayer Itam Dalam, Butterworth but… for a very limited time only for bird watchers (left).

The ability to walk the newly constructed boardwalk of chengal wood was a comforting thought, though the overall workmanship is shoddy and the length of the boardwalk severely compromised with ongoing construction of 2 roads cutting through the forest reserve. One veteran birder estimated loss of the forest reserve and original length of boardwalk to be about 80 % to development (below).

The elusive Mangrove Pitta (Pitta megarhyncha) is often talked about but seldom seen and extremely camera shy. This species has to be the signature bird of the habitat closest to me, and I am adamant to see it (below).

I teamed up with a birding pal and made our way snaking through Ayer Itam Village. We missed the correct turn and ended up helping to level the earthed road still under construction instead. By coincidence or divine intervention, our vehicle came to a grinding halt at the entrance of the designated board walk.

At 8 am, we were ready for our ‘C.S.I.’ walk. I took the lead with my 10×42 binoculars and cat walked stealthily along the board walk.

I took to a squatting position and searched the forest floor and within 2 minutes, heard the rustle of dead foliage coming from my left direction. A quick response led me to this elusive bird that was foraging on the ground unaware of our presence.

The Pitta continued leisurely on its walk and disappeared behind the edge of the Nipah grove before any full clear view of the bird could be had.

Observation of the bird in semi concealed position was had for about 5minutes before the Mangrove Pitta took off with nesting material.

A year later, this feathered friend surprised me by flying in and posed 15 feet from my scope producing a trembling, too close a shot of this elusive bird (right).

Was it the same bird seen before or was it her fledgling that grew up?

Submitted by: DAISY O’NEILL (Avian Writer), PENANG, MALAYSIA.

A scheduled Saturday night of owling turned unforgettable for a birding trio. Dressed for the occasion, it was meant to be a night out, putting our new toys-a night vision aid and my ‘third eye’- headlights to a test.

We were just about to call it a night after having seen the owls as hoped. We decided to retrace our steps once more to the known site of the Mangrove Pitta (Pitta megarhyncha) in a hope to chalk up our owling list.

I believe 30th July 06 is to be one and only life time opportunity to bear witness to this account- sighting a juvenile Mangrove Pitta at 12 midnight. It did not occur to us that this species that eludes so many birders in the day time could be possibly seen at night and in deep slumber on a unique, opened perch.

We crept in single file along the short boardwalk into total darkness, under tree canopy of mixed banyan trees and nipah palms (left).

Instinctively, my flashlight went searching for the floor coverings. Subconsciously, I was thinking wishfully and whispering aloud.

“It would be a miracle to see a Pitta at this time of the night!”

One buddy chuckled in disbelief but knew I was not looking for owls but for an elusive hope of sighting a pitta- a chance in a million to ever see one on that night.

That nice, quiet feeling of unexplained euphoria rose to the challenge and continued to hang over me as I led the way in darkness with my searching flashlight.

Suddenly…., I saw a white object hanging in mid-air. Approaching cautiously, there were numerous banyan vines hanging down from tree canopies. Some were twisted while one was dangling across another. The white object appeared to be levitating from this dangling vine in the dark!

‘It’s a pitta! Shh…..” Excitedly, I whispered to one of them who passed the message to buddy photographer cum bodyguard for the night.

We approached just in time to see this white object raised its head that snuggled, in an under-winged position to reveal his identity as the juvenile Mangrove Pitta. This was a fifth week old, juvenile showing its pinkish belly.

We stood on the boardwalk and stared silently at the juvenile in disbelief. We were stunned by the snoozing bird that was just perching on the vine like a trapeze artist. I cautiously waved my flashlight at the bird to observe for any response from the bird.

Bird remained motionless. A total of 20 shots or so were discharged from between the Nikon D200 and D2H. My Coolpix Nikon P4, a toy by comparison delivered 3 blurred underexposed shots. One turned out to be like an apparition Pitta on a ‘trapeze’ (right).

Stalking a pitta in the day time was difficult and sweaty enough. Having a pitta perched and posed in front for as long as the bird wanted to be observed was unimaginable. Photographing one at 12 midnight had to be a miracle. It happened!

There were moments when the juvenile yawned, scratched, opened and shut eyes. At other times, the bird remained quiet.

During those couple of moments when the Pitta yawned and scratched, it showed a crescent nictitating membrane emerging from the inner corner of the eye and this was caught on camera (left).

Yawning action was seen with Pittas’eyes opened. Did the bird not see us? We were less than 10 feet away!

Doesn’t the bird see at night? Was it blinded by our flashlights? These were questions that puzzled us. We decided to put another observation to the test.

From communication with initial hand signals to whispers that got louder and louder, we proceeded to speaking in normal tone and deliberated openly on the subject of ‘nictitating membrane.’

It was hard to believe that our presence and discussion went on until 1am and the bird was still perching on the same vine unperturbed by neither our voice nor our presence.

The conclusion to this juvenile pitta’s behaviour could be, pittas do not see nor hear well in the dark as opposed to extreme acute sight and hearing in the day.

The innocent, 5 week-old juvenile chick had not been exposed to human predatory presence nor acquired survival skills yet. Besides, the tide was high that night and the ground underneath the boardwalk was flooded. No escape for the juvenile but to play, ‘stand and look dead’.

We left thanking the juvenile the way it was first sighted.

For us trio, we each went home with a great feeling that we had struck the national lottery. We took that euphoric feeling to bed.

The juvenile Mangrove Pitta probably thought not, cared not and went back to zzz…

We slept not.

Courtesy documentary image from Michael Ng with thanks.
Submitted by: DAISY O’NEILL (Avian Writer), PENANG, MALAYSIA.

The Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) is an impressive bird, especially the male morph whose long tail can reach more than 27 cm long. As the bird flies it’s long white tail dangles and sways suggestively like a butterfly fluttering about. The bird winters in tropical Asia and is seen in Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia as a passage migrant. Tan Swee Nam had an exciting encounter with a pair of nesting birds in Taman Negara, Malaysia on 7th June 2006 and brought back the two images shown here. He arrived just a few days too late to see the male flycatcher replenish with his long white tail. A Malaysian birder saw the birds feeding the chicks on 29th May, probably hatched about two days earlier. The male still had its long tail when he left in 3rd June.The chicks fledged on 9th June at 11 am, about 13 days after hatching.

This species is usually found in forested areas. Three or four eggs are laid in a neat cup-shaped nest, usually lined with hairs and decorated with mosses and liverworts. The male starts life with rufous plumage that develops white feathers by the second year. By the third year the plumage is completely white, other than the black head. The female resmbles the rufous male, but has a grey throat, smaller crest and lacks the tail streamers.

Thanks Swee Nam for the imput and images.