Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (Clamator coromandus) breeds in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, S China, Indochina to SW Thailand. It winters south in parts of Asia and Southeast Asia. So we get to see the bird as an uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant from as early as 30th September to as late as 28th April.

On 11th April 2007, Richard Hale had a visitor trying to enter the living room of his apartment at Dairy Farm Road (above). The cuckoo must have seen its reflection on the window pane and tried to engage it, pecking the glass as is common with other birds (1, 2).

As Richard relates his encounter: “Thought you might like to know that this morning about 9 am, my maid told me there was a strange bird on the living room window sill looking into the room. I went outside to see it and it took no notice. A nice Chestnut-winged Cuckoo which waited for me to go and get the video camera, then my still camera and lastly the tripod.

“It was only after twenty minutes that it decided to fly away strongly. During the whole time it appeared to be taking an interest in what was going on, turning its head etc. and did not appear stunned. How it arrived on the window sill I know not but it was a nice surprise. I haven’t seen one for many years.”

Lena Chow’s garden and garage have been favourite nesting areas for Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) since 2004. After each successful nesting, the birds returned the following year without fail. They seem to favour potted plants, especially bomboos and money plants (Epipremnum pinnatum Aureum).

And unlike most birds that normally do not reuse old nests but build a new nest each season, Lena’s bulbuls appear to be environmentally friendly - they practise recycling. She reported that at most times they returned and reused the old nest after some repairs.

Lena added: “In 2004, there were three nesting in the same nest. In 2005, material was transferred from the 2004 nest and a new nest was built in another plant. The 2005 nest was in a money plant creeper which died later in the year, so the nest was thrown away with the plant, and the 2006 nest was started afresh.”

In June 2006 Lena reported that her bulbuls were nesting in her potted artificial grape plant that she placed in her garage. I have seen people using artificial plants for decoration. I have even seen people placing a potted artificial plant together with an artificial nest complete with a nesting bird in their garden. But this is the first time I have heard of a live bird building a nest in an artificial plant.

The June nesting saw only one chick hatching. The other remained unhatched, maybe as Lena quipped, “Perhaps its a case of dud plant, dud egg, haha. I am leaving the unhatched egg in the nest to see what the birds will do with it next year. “

On 9th November 2006 she reported the return of her bulbuls: “…bulbuls have been back to recce my garage a few times this past week, which is typical before their nesting in previous years (though I don’t recall them coming back quite so early previously). So I expect them to come back to nest again next year, typically around February. As they seem very comfortable with my family members, even responding to our calls to them, I suspect they are either the previous pair, or fledglings from the several broods in the past years.”

Lena removed the dud egg from the nest in her artificial plant as she thought the presence of the egg might give the impression that the nest was taken. The bulbuls returned and made use of the same old nest in March 2007. Judging from the behaviour of the birds Lena suspected that the female laid an egg

Unfortunately the nesting was unsuccessful: “Yes unfortunately, this nesting produced another dud egg as with the last nesting. We weren’t in a position to see how many eggs were laid in this nesting because of the position of the nest, and the nesting bird on top of the nest. I will remove this year’s dud egg soon; hopefully the nest will be re-used again…

“Thought I might add that, for this failed nesting, we think that two eggs were laid (as has been for all the previous broods), and that one egg did hatch (the birds’ behaviour changed from one bird brooding to both birds taking turns to come to the nest sometimes bringing food and perching on the side of the nest). The mystery then is what happened to the chick that was being fed, as there was no sign of it when I checked the nest a few days after it was abandoned. I only found one dud egg. The chick would then have been 5-6 days old. I can only guess that the nest was raided and the chick was eaten, by either a crow or a koel (several pairs around my area).”

Images by Meng and Melinda Chan.

I was alerted to the nesting of a pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds (Cinnyris jugularis, formerly Nectarinia jugularis) by KC Tsang in April 2006. The nest was attached to a frond of a palm by a well-trodden path in a popular park. The elongated, flash-shaped nest was attached to the inside face of the frond and the opening was thus facing the palm stem and away from the road.

The nest was just above eye level. Yet, nearly all passersby failed to notice it. The nest looked like a bunch of dead leaves hanging on to the palm frond. I myself failed to notice it whenever I walked passed it in the evenings.

By May 2006 the nesting ended as the nest was empty for days after. Olive-backed Sunbirds usually lay one to three eggs but only one chick fledges. The empty nest deteriorated and on examination it contained one unfertilized egg. So I presume one chick must have fledged.

In March 2007 another nest was built on the same palm but attached to a different frond. Whenever I passed the spot and remembered the presence of the nest, I took a casual look and there was always a beak projecting from the opening (below left). Then in early April I noticed the frond where the nest was attached was drying out and its sheath was about to be detached from the stem. Thinking that nesting was completed, I moved close and suddenly a bird flew out. The nest was still active.

The next evening I made it a point to check on the nest. The frond was gone. An older frond that was about to fall off was also missing. On looking at the ground below, I saw two old fronds lying side by side. One frond had the nest still attached (left, arrow). There were no eggs inside. There was no sign of any eggs lying around nearby either.

Did the old fronds got detached by themselves or were they physically removed? My guess is that they were pulled down and left on the ground as they were lying side by side. It is possible that the maintenance crew did it, removing old and unsightly fronds from the palm. And not knowing(?) that there was an active nest attached.

I have since been told that such things happen all the time. Plants are regularly trimmed, nest and all. Now why can’t these people be made aware of such things – to leave active nests alone when pruning, etc?

Another puzzle is the absence of any eggs inside the nest. Were the eggs removed out of curiosity? And then thrown away?

Obviously the birds made a wrong choice by choosing a frond to build their nest that would not last the entire period of their nesting. Now how would the birds to know of such things?

Input and images by YC.

Like most raptors, Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus caeruleus) loves to put on an aerial display (left). It soars on thermals, sailing along in circles with its long and pointed wings held at a distinct V-angle and the feathers of the short, squared tail flared.

A male of a pair flying together may suddenly dive at the female, who may sideslip and present her talons. Occasionally this may result in talon-grappling and even cartwheeling down for a short distance before they unlock their talons.

The distinctive black shoulder patch, from which it gets its name, shows prominently when viewed from below when it is in flight. The black primaries against the whiteness of the rest of the body and the greyish tipped secondaries make the bird distinctive.

Tail-cocking or tail-wagging is a characteristic behaviour of both sexes. The tail may cock up suddenly but on the downstroke it is distinctly slow. In the presence of intruding kites, such movements can become more excited and faster.

In courtship the male may fly around slowly with stiff exaggerated flaps, commonly known as butterfly-flight.

In the series of images (below, right), two kites were about to confront each other with the lower about to bare its talons. But apparently the other decided not to respond and flew off, pursued by the other. Both birds sailed along with wings flapping in slow but strong strokes.

Suddenly a third kite appeared, flying in to join the fray. This no doubt encouraged the persuing kite to catch up with the persued bird as it flew upwards with talons barring (below top). With one swift action the former managed to grip the talons of the latter. For a split second both kites flew along thus before the leading kite turned around and somehow managed to detach itself (below bottom).

Images by Chan Yoke Meng.

The Black Baza (Aviceda leuphotes) is a relatively common winter visitor. The opportunity to examine it closely came when an injured bird was picked up by Alex Koh and nursed back to health to be subsequently released (left).

This is an easily recognisable black and white raptor with whitish underparts lined with black and chestnut bars. As with most raptors, the underparts are paler than the upperparts, making the bird less conspicuous when viewed from below.

The head is distinctly black, at the back of which are a few long black feathers that make up its erectile crest. The function here is probably simply display. With Jerdon’s Baza (Aviceda jerdoni) the crest feathers are white-tipped. When raised in alarm or in threat display, they are more conspicuous, especially when the feathers are totally black.

The purplish brown to reddish brown eyes are placed on the sides of the head. They are large and round and protected by a bony ridge projecting from the skull above (right). This, together with the nictitating membrane, help protect the eyes when the bird dashes into the vegetation after prey.

Because the eyes are almost immovable in their sockets, the bird must turn its head to obtain binocular vision. To see behind, it must swivel its head on the extremely flexible neck. In fact the bird can turn its head up to 180 degrees (top).

The bill is strongly hooked, the upper mandible lying over the lower. The upper mandible has a double tomial tooth (actually serrations, not true teeth) that may assist in breaking the neck vertebrae of prey (left). The lower mandible has the corresponding notches.

The basal part of the upper mandible is covered with a bare, fleshy, waxy membrane, the blue-grey cere, through which the flattened nostrils open (above).

Black Baza hunts from a perch. It may fly out to snatch a prey, dash to and fro when there is an insect swarm or a flock of roosting passerines and even plunge into dense vegetation. The bird is most active at dusk.

Images by Alex Koh.