In February 2007 when Meng and Melinda Chan were at Changi looking for the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) (1, 2, 3), they chanced upon a small group of Red-breasted Parakeets (Psittacula alexandri) perching on a branch of a large angsana (Pterocarpus indicus) tree.

There were four birds in all, three males of the nominate P. a. alexandri and a single female of questionable subspecies. Two of the males were on one side of the female while the other male was on the other side.

The female parakeet moved sideways towards the nearest of the two males and made body contact. At this the male immediately mounted and copulated with her (top). The two other males in the meantime moved closer to the copulating pair. The moment the copulation ended and the male dismounted, one of the other males flew as if to take his turn with the female. Somehow he did not succeed and he landed on a branch above. The female in the meantime slided over to the earlier male who was then perching by her side and he again mounted her. This time he made about 10 cloacal contacts, each time his tail crossing hers on alternate sides (left).

The male on the branch above had in the meantime rejoined the others.

Once the pair finished copulating and the male dismounted, she slided slowly towards another male but for some reason or other he moved further away. There was another series of mating with the same male before a male Oriental Pied Hornbill suddenly appeared and frightened off the parakeets (below).

Images by Chan Yoke Meng.

While Laurie, the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pyconotus goiavier) romanced his lady bird with a repertoire of showmanship dancing; Johnny, the randy Coppersmith Barbet’s (Megalaima haemacephala) gambit of a third and free bonk that paid off; what has his bigger cousin, the Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata) got to show readers, the varied fascinating courtships and barbets’ behaviour of this avian species?

A well lived-in, modern, Malay village in Northern Peninsula Malaysia is where another unique behaviour was observed.

Within a pocket of inland open-plan, individual kampong-styled houses are cultivated palms and orchards. They thrive side by side, scattering their trees and dividing houses of verandas displaying a variety of outdoor, evergreen potted plants and tropical flowers.

While stumps of old coconut palms were left to rot, those remained standing became condominiums to various species of birds. Old excavated cavities in the trunks bear witnesses to the many generations of barbets and woodpeckers that came and went. When cavities left idle, they became confinement hotels to some birds that do not excavate holes but turned them into low-cost, high-rise, top class squatters.

As shown in the image on the left, one stump in particular caught my attention - one that looks like a giant wind instrument - the recorder. This is the ancestral home of the ubiquitous, Lineated Barbet.

In the open country of semi-deciduous forests of North Malaysian Peninsula, the chances of hearing the echoed calls of the Lineated Barbet ‘Kuk-kroik! Kuk-kroik!’ (second note a fourth higher) is good. Often, a seemingly mate sits unseen, not too far away, would reply in unison - thus giving away the site of his/her perch.

There are 72 worldwide species of mostly green coloured barbets with distinctive head patterns - with the exception of the Brown Barbet (Calorhamphus fuliginosus) whose plumage is virtually all brown. The approximate 29cm Lineated Barbet of imperial jade coloured body-plumage, straw-coloured head and streaked dark-brown upper breast, blend exceedingly well into their living environment. They are difficult to see when remained quietly perched in tree canopies. Such natural camouflage makes Lineated Barbets one of the best and challenging birds to observe and to photograph in the wild.

The heavy bodied and big headed Lineated Barbet is seen to be an intelligent vigilante with precision tactical decoy.

The series of images above show the following sequence of events. Prior to entering excavated nesting hole, the female vigilantly checked for predatory onlookers. Fronting the nesting cavity, she clung the sides of dead trunk with her zygodactylous toes.

The female Lineated Barbet looked right, looked left, rotated her neck to look behind, and with an expression of glee would she thought safe to proceed further.

She delightfully peeped into her new condominium. ‘‘Heloo….Anyone home…?”

Her large dark buttoned eyes, surrounded by a wide, prominent orbital skin, sparkled with approval and satisfaction. Her opened huge, pinkish bill equated to a broad smile of happiness, like a new bride or mistress just been given keys to a new penthouse at West End (right top).

At this stage of writing, I am unable to tell if the excavation of the nesting site was done solely by the male as a gift to the female to inspect for approval or built by both partners. I had witnessed excavation works but unable to tell the sexes apart. They all looked the same.

I chanced upon an opportunity to witness their tactical decoy towards the end of their previous breeding season in June last year. One parent had just finished chick feeding. I then got out of my vehicle. A bird on sentry duty spotted me with my scope. Perched within view of the nest that is no less than 20 feet tall, the sentry raised the alarm calls. ‘Kuk-kroik! Kuk-kroik!’ The parent made for a dash flight away from the nest.

Portia, the parent landed on a living coconut trunk (left top). The chick was nesting in a cavity of dead tree trunk nearb (left bottom). In open view Portia proceeded to pretend drumming the trunk to distract my attention away from the nesting site. Every now and then she would turn around, looked towards my direction to ensure I was watching her performance. She refused to fly off even when I closed in on her. What excellent team work, I thought.

I guess the favourite and pleasurable observation of all avid birders and readers has to be courtship behaviour. Be it courtship dancing or feeding.

By no means has the male Lineated Barbet a long tail with dazzling plumage to dance and display like the Great Argus (Argusiamus argus) pheasant. Neither does the pair exhibit any kind of finesse in courtship feeding behaviour where their ‘table manners’ are left much to be admired.

Two Lineated Barbets were serenading to each other from a shady tree (above). With my scope, I scanned the source of their characteristic song, ‘Ku-tub! Ku-tub’ repeated one verse per second continuously. Eventually, I located Martha. The female barbet was perching on an opened branch.

Monty, the frugivorous male was playing ‘Hide and Seek’ behind a thick branch. He was partially seen by me, but soon got found by Martha. He appeared meekly with a fruity gift for Martha. In that split second, the quick witted Martha, snatched the gift off his beak, did a runner, leaving Monty totally in dismay!

It happened so quickly, the camera and I had no opportunity to pick up that moment. One image however, showed Monty’s dismay as if to say,, ‘Gosh! You don’t waste time do you, woman?’ (right).

As for Martha, the quick witted Barbet, she turned her back on Monty while savouring the gift all to herself.

‘A pleasure to have served you Mam…’ Exit Monty in a dash.

The final analysis. “Is Monty, the male Lineated Barbet being smart or daft?”

SUBMITTED BY DAISY O’NEILL (Avian Writer), PENANG, MALAYSIA.

It was raining almost every evening, depriving Eileen and myself our usual walk in the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG). Then one evening sometime last week, the sky cleared. We had our walk but along the way we were distracted by the arrival of a flock of noisy parakeets. They came for the ripening oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) fruits.

The Long-tailed Parakeets (Psittacula longicauda) that arrived noisly landed on the palms. Greedily, they feasted on the ripe fruits. Being messy and wasteful eaters, they littered the ground below with half eaten fruits.

The birds would first wrench a ripe fruit from a bunch with the help of their powerful beak. Standing on one foot, the fruit would then be passed on to the other foot. Grasping the fruit in this foot, the flesh of the oil-rich fibrous outer layer would then be torn off by the powerful beak and eaten (left).

It was rather amusing to watch the antics of these parakeets, as they moved sideways along the frond stems, snatching the fruits and eating them. At times they flew from frond to frond, looking for different bunches with the choicest ripe fruits. The Long-tailed Parakeets were easy to recognise, with their colourful plumage and prominently long tail-streamer. But they were always noisy.

A pair of Rose-ringed Parakeets (Psittacula krameri) arrived later but invariably they flew off whenever the Long-tailed appeared to feed on the same bunch of fruits. These were just as attractive, easily recognised by their distinctive black and pink collar (right).

Just then we noticed a smaller, mainly green bird, moving over another fruiting bunch, hanging upside down to get at the choicest, otherwise inaccessible, ripe fruit (top). Like the parakeets, this cute little Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot (Loriculus galgulus) ended up perching on one foot to transfer the fruit from beak to the other foot before eating the oily outer layer. It was a joy to be able to spot this rare parrot.

Input by YC who wishes to thank Chan Yoke Meng for taking the above images.

On 8th February 2007 the female Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) found the cavity in the Shorea gibbosa tree suitable and entered it. Then she began the slow process of sealing herself inside. We thought that she was then ready to settle down and lay her eggs. But that was not to be. For the next 13 days up to 21st February, the male was still bring her lumps of mud together with grass stems (left) for her to fortify herself inside the cavity.

It has been reported that she would mix the mud with her droppings and any uneaten food to construct the barrier. Obviously this was hard work and she needed to be fed. Unlike other species of hornbills, the female Oriental Pied does not leave the nest during this period.

Thus the female inside needed to be fed. In between bringing mud (above), the male brought figs and other seasonal fruits (below). From samples found below the tree and from photographs, Angie Ng managed to identify the figs to be either Ficus stricta or F. kerkhoveni and the orange-looking fruits to be Bhesa robusta.

During the morning observations, the male was seen bringing fruits at intervals of about 20-30 minutes. He passed the fruits to her after regurgitating them, about five to six times a visit. The seeds on the upper right image are those of Bhesa robusta while the lower right show Bhesa together with figs. [The two smaller pinkish seeds have now been identified by Angie as those of the MacArthur palm (Ptychosperma macarthurii).]

Fruits appear to be the main food at that stage, although there were occasions when insects were brought, including a beetle and a praying mantis.

Besides a snail shell reported earlier, he also brought a shell of a land snail as well as a whole land snail. In this case he cracked open the garden snail and the contents fell into the open bill of the female.

Twice he brought her a lizard, one of which was identified as a Changeable Lizard (left). This last piece of morsel was brought on 12th February and offered to the female. She refused both lizards, one of which was rather large. The male in one instance flew off to a nearby tree and must have eaten it himself. In the other instance, he flicked the lizard around, tossed it into the air and caught it with his bill. This went on for a fair number of minutes, before he flew off to the tree opposite to consume the lizard as previously.

One of the lizards was caught from just above the nest. He was looking down at the female when he suddenly leapt up to a parakeet’s nest one branch above and caught it.

Input by KC Tsang, Meng and Melinda Chan and Angie Ng. Images by Chan Yoke Meng except fruits/seeds by Angie and hornbill with lizard by KC.

Birders are always fascinated as well as impressed by the acrobatic aerial displays they witness when observing raptors, especially the White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) (left). They always wonder exactly what the birds are up to. Are they fighting? Are they indulging in a particular form of courtship ritual? Or are they at play? The answer can be any one of these three.

The series of dramatic images below of a pair of juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagles captured by Chan Yoke Meng in 2005 probably show the birds at play. But we have no way to be sure. Another series of images by Lee Tiah Khee taken at Kranji recently also show a pair of juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagles in aerial display, again probably at play (bottom). In both cases the eagles are in the process of locking talons.

Play and courtship displays involve a pair of birds, sometimes flying to great heights in circles over the nesting areas. The male sometimes dives at the female who may sideslip or turn over to present her talons. At times this ends up in the pair grappling talons and cartwheeling down to earth, only breaking off at the last moment before they hit the ground.

The birds may also get involved in high-speed chases, sometimes again ending in locking talons, to then roll together in fantastic aerial displays.

While such displays may be closely associated with courtship, the actual mating does not occur in the air but on a nest or in a tree.

And not every cartwheel display is courtship behavior. Cartwheeling is also often associated with aggression and defense of territory. Sometimes the bird may grab at a competitor’s talons or even lock talons and plummet to earth in an effort to intimidate the other party.

Input by YC, images of first panel by Chan Yoke Meng, the second panel and the top image by Lee Tiah Khee through the good office of Ashley Ng.