Ashley Ng shared an image of a male Red-bearded Bee-Eater (Nyctyornis amictus) with a cicada in its bill trying to attract a potential mate. Bee-eaters do indulge in courtship feeding and this may be a rare image of the ritual. This species does not occur in Singapore but can be seen in Peninsula Malaysia.

As with bee-eaters, it hunts from a high perch keeping close watch on the airspace around. Once an insect is seen, it dashes off to capture it. The bird has been recorded to take carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.), cicadas, beetles, crickets, termites and ants.

As with many insectivorous birds, bee-eaters cast pellets of indigestible insect parts regularly. This is also the case with most carnivore species such as raptors, owls and shrikes.

Input and image by Ashley Ng.

The Oriental Scops-owl (Otus sunia) is a rare winter visitor and passage migrant to Singapore. So when a bird was spotted during the early morning of 12th November 2006, birdwatchers of every genre were out in force to view it.

It all started when R. Subaraj was conducting a bird-tour of the MacRitchie area. While scanning the trees with his binoculars, he was pleasantly surprised to see an Oriental Scops-owl roosting in a tembusu tree (Fagraea fragrans). As most birders have not seen the owl before, he immediately phoned a few close contacts, giving the location. Within a few hours, a few birders and photographers were at the scene. And by afternoon, more came. Why the excitement? According to DR Wells (1999), Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula, “There have been no recent records from well-monitored Singapore island.”

One of the first to arrive at the scene, KC Tsang managed to take a few pictures of the owl. And according to KC, “…I was informed that this bird was sighted, and recorded some four times only in Singapore, and is considered a vagrant by C. Robson.”

Whoever passed on this information to KC is obviously wrong. Subaraj was the first to disagree. He believes that there were more sightings than that. According to him there were at least six other sightings, and he referred me to the cover photograph of the Iora, the so-called Journal of the Nature Society (Singapore) Bird Group. The issue was the inaugural and only issue, published in 1994 (below).

The image of the Oriental Scops-owl that graced the “journal” was taken in Mount Faber by Goo Chuen Hang on 13th November 1994. In an article by Lim Kim Seng entitled “Singapore Bird Report” it was reported that this was the second report for Singapore (p 49).

Apparently this is again incorrect. The Mount Faber sighting was the fourth.

Our sometime field ornithologist, Wang Luan Keng, who is attached to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, NUS, has this to say: “I have a total of 13 past records. Most people missed out the museum specimens, which are important sources of records.”

The 13 previous records of Oriental Scops-owl encounters are:
1. An undated specimen collected in Singapore in the late 19th century by W. Davison (Hume Coll.)
2. A bird collected on 22 Dec 1916, Fort Canning (RMBR collection).
3. One bird collected in Singapore, 16 Nov 1938 (RMBR collection).
4. One bird photographed at Mt Faber, 13 Nov 1994 (Iora 1).
5. One bird seen at Mt Faber, 19 Feb 1995, most probably the same bird spotted on 13 Nov 1994 (SINAV 9).
6. One bird ringed at Sg Buloh Wetland Reserve, Jan 1996.
7. Another bird ringed at Sg Buloh Wetland Reserve in 2000.
8. One bird found dead, 13 Nov 2000 (donated to JBP).
9. One bird salvaged in Singapore in 2001 (donated to JBP).
10. Another salvaged, 26 Feb 2002 (donated to JBP).
11. One bird found dead in 2003 (no other information, donated to JBP).
12. One bird was found unable to fly at Lower Kent Ridge, 14 Nov 2003 (Kelvin Lim, pers comm..).
13. One grey morph seen in MacRitchie, 18h Dec 2005 (C. Moores, in litt.)

In addition, Subaraj reports that a bird was mist-netted by Prof NS Sodhi of NUS when he was undertaking a survey of the nature reserves. Also, one crashed into a home in Changi, cared for by Subaraj to be later ringed and released in Sg Buloh.
As Luan summarises, “You can certainly say that the bird is probably more common than recorded, judging from the museum specimens that everyone excluded. Most people dismiss museum specimens as useless but surely dead birds were once alive and should be counted as records too and not just what the birders can see?

“I don’t know why people are so obsessed with races. Races of birds are not very meaningful at all. If they are distinct enough and their genetic makeup proves so, they should be treated as distinct species. Until then, you can only call them populations. And most of the time you can only tell them apart if you have the bird in the hand.”

Birders seldom sight the Oriental Scops-owl not because it is not there. Birders tend not to be aware of its presence, considering that the bird tend to remain silent during its wintering period here. So birders are not alerted to its presence, as in the case of other owls.

It is to be noted that the previous early arrivals of this owl were 13th November while this time the bird arrived on 12th November, one day earlier.

Important Notes:
Range: Breeds in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, Pacific Russia, Japan, Korea, China, and Indochina; migrates through the Indian subcontinent, S. China to Malay Peninsula, Singapore, N. Sumatra.
Locality: Fort Canning Park, Lower Kranji Reserve, Mount Faber, MacRitchie, Sg Buloh Wetland Reserve.
Habitat: Wooded areas, parks.
Early and late dates: (12)13 Nov - 26 Feb
Materials examined: BM 1 (1 AA), RMBR 3 (3 FF), UWBM 4 (3 FF, 1 MM).

Input by R. Subaraj, Wang Luan Keng, KC Tsang and YC. Images of the owl by KC. And thanks to Subaraj who generously shared his sighting, many birders got to see this rare owl.

James Heng chanced upon an exciting avian event between 12.50-2.00 pm on 30th October 2006. He was going to have his lunch around a transmission tower beside the Woodlands Fire Station when he noticed the presence of a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus).

The bird was on the fifth platform of the larger transmission tower and was having its lunch. It had a black bird in its talons, limp and obviously dead. James narrowed it down to a possible Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis), or even a myna.

The falcon was perched on the railing of the tower, with the prey held tightly in its talons. It was furiously tearing away bits of feathers and skin from the belly of the dead bird. Within minutes it got to the meat and was feeding off bits and pieces.

Then it started to rain. As the rain became heavier, the falcon stopped eating and looked around. James wondered: “…if it was because it needed rest, to let the food digest or to cover the prey’s innards to prevent the cavity from being flooded over by the heavy rain?”

When the rain got lighter the bird resumed feeding on the carcass. This time it was feeding at a leisurely pace.

In about an hour the bird had completed eating the prey, including the innards. The empty shell of the prey was discarded, and got lodged on the railing one floor below.

Satiated, the falcon began to casually preen itself, looking around as it did so. The rain had by then stopped.

James had only a pair of binoculars with him. No camera, so he missed the chance of recording the action. He did not have his scope with him, thus by the end of the hour his neck, shoulders and forearms were aching.

Tired, aching but exhilarated by the event, he realised that although the falcon finished its lunch, he still had not started on his.

“Like us, this bird takes around an hour for his lunch break. I wonder if it does a siesta?” wondered James.

PS: Our bird specialist R. Subaraj has this to say: “Peregrine Falcons are mainly migrants that turn up during the winter months, sometimes wintering at a site. We also get a few records during the non-migratory season and based on colouration and size, these birds are believed to be visitors of the resident race from some place nearby, like Malaysia. These falcons are often found on transmitter towers, including Bukit Batok, Sentosa, Ubin and even Fort Canning. These structures offer a good vantage point, feeding and roosting perch.”

Input by James Heng, images by Chan Yoke Meng.

Most birds that build cup-nests do not reuse them. They rebuild a new nest each year and sometimes recycle the nesting material. One reason for this is that the nest, after one cycle of breeding, often has outlived its usefulness. The dried soft plant materials would have begun to rot. Another reason is that there would be the typical odour left by the birds and their nestlings after the latter have fledged. Such odour can attract predators. A third reason is that old nests often contain a large number of ectoparasites that are potentially harmful to the developing young. Among birds that build large platform nests of twigs that are more lasting, recycling of the nests may be common. These include large nests of ospreys, eagles, storks, hawks and kites (above).

Hole nesters, especially birds that are not able to excavate cavities for themselves, need to reuse nests previously occupied by other species. Sometimes they evict the current occupants in order to make use of the cavities for themselves. The case of the Long-tailed parakeet (Psittacula longicauda) trying to take over the nest cavity of a pair of Dollarbirds (Eurystomus orientalis) is a good example. Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) sometimes build over an old nest or partially completed nest (above). However, Lena Chow reported that the birds in her garden did use the same nest a few times, although she was not sure whether it was the same pair of birds or different pairs. But she observed recycling of nesting material year in and year out. Similarly, sunbirds rarely, if at all, reuse old nests (above). House Crow (Corvus splendens) does not reuse last season’s nest but recycle the nest material if the old nest is nearby (below). Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) on the other hand sometimes repair an old nest as can be seen by the green material weaved over the older brown material.
Input by Lena Chow, YC; images by YC except top by Chan Yoke Meng.

Gloria Seow was holidaying in Japan in October 2006 where she scored 77 lifers even though it was off-season for birds then. But that would be another story. What she e-mailed me was an interesting image of a dried-out field mouse. It was impaled upon a low bush growing in an open grassland bordering a marshy area in Hokkaido (below). According to the Japanese birders who accompanied her, it was possibly the work of a Bull-headed Shrike (Lanius bucephalus).
We have three species of shrikes. Tiger (Lanius tigrinus) and Brown (Lanius cristatus) are winter visitors as well as passage migrants while Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) is a common resident. But according to our bird specialist R. Subaraj, “Long-tailed Shrikes are actually very uncommon residents with some movements that are not fully understood. That is why they tend to be at known sites at only certain times of the year. Additionally, there is sometimes an influx of this species…..migrants?”

Shrikes have the reputation of impaling their preys on sharp thorns. They are thus known as “butcher birds. We have an earlier posting on a Tiger Shrike dismembering a large scarab beetle and another on the bird swallowing a lizard.
R. Subaraj reported seeing the headless corpse of a Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia), impaled on a thorn of a short tree that he suspected was the work of a Long-tailed Shrike. And in Malaysia he once came across the “larder” of a wintering Brown Shrike consisting of impaled insects along a stretch of barb wire.

What we did not have is an image of a vertebrate impaled by a shrike. Now we have, thanks to Gloria, although it is not local but from Hokkaido.

Now here is a challenge to birder-photographers. Look out for a shrike-impaled prey and bring back an image!

Input and images by Gloria Seow.