On 4th June 2007 Johnny Wee sent in images of a Chestnut-bellied Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus sumatranus) sunning itself after the morning downpour along the Nee Soon pipeline. This is what birds normally do after being drenched by the rain. Or after a bath. Once dry, the feathers are carefully preened to keep them in perfect condition. Each feather will be passed through the beak to clean it and set the separate filaments back in place. After all, a well maintained set of feathers can mean life and death to the birds. They need to be agile in flight to catch prey and to escape predators.

In an earlier post on a Chestnut-bellied Malkoha sprawled out in the middle of a forest path in MacRitchie, the bird had its wings stretched and tail feathers fanned out. We were wondering then whether it was actually sunning itself or anting as there was no rain earler.

This recent encounter saw the bird sunning itself on the branch of a tree (above). According to Payne (1997), many cuckoos, including malkohas, need to warm and dry their bodies in the sun once their plumage become wet after the rain. They sit in a high open perch with the wings and tail spread and the back feathers raised to expose the skin to the sun. Once dried, they move on to feed. This behaviour is also seen in coucals.

Reference:
Payne, R.B. (1997). Family Cuculidae (cucoos). Pp.508-607 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 4. Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.

The Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) is an extremely rare resident of the central forest of Singapore, where it is believed that one to two pairs still survive. However, for the last few years the eagle was barely seen at all. Thus the excitement it generated when the bird was recently sighted.

The eagle hunts from a high perch. It sits still until it spots a potential prey among the grass. The toad probably stayed very still, but with the eagle’s sharp senses, it suddenly lunged down to snatch it from the vegetation. The bird then flew back to its favourite perch in the tree to enjoy its meal.

With the toad held tightly between the talons of its right foot, it used its sharp bill to rip off the skin. The first tear drained the toad of its body fluid, barely visible in the images above (arrow). In the video clip made by Melinda, the draining of the toad was more dramatic as the fluid poured out of the body cavity.

Then the rapid but systematic dismembering of the carcass began. The lifeless body was then held firmly against the surface of the branch by the left foot and piece by piece was torn out and eaten. At one stage the main piece slipped out of the foot and the bird had to manage it with its beak until every bits were eaten, leaving only fragemnts of bones.

It completed its meal in less than five minutes. Satisfied, it carefully wiped its bill on the branch it was perching on (below).

According to our bird specialist R. Subaraj: “This adult Crested Serpent Eagle hunts reptiles, birds, small mammals… etc. It is the dominant forest raptor of the lowland forests of Malaysia but can also be found in woodlands, plantations, coastal forest and even mangrove there.

“In Singapore, it is almost extinct as a resident with what is believed to be the last pair at Upper Seletar Reservoir Park for many years now… though it has become very difficult to see it now. It is also a visitor from Malaysia, especially during the post-breeding period and there are records from other parts of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, Bukit Timah, Sungei Buloh, Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin… all believed to be visitors.”

Images by Chan Yoke Meng.

“True to its name, the diet of the Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) (left) consists mainly of snakes… and lizards. My observations of their feeding habit has been that they are not very particular, as in it being freshly killed. Meaning that snakes that had been run over by cars are also acceptable. I have observed this while driving from Sedeli Besar to Tg. Balau in Johor, Malaysia, on the remote coastal road. The bird would be perched high up in a tree patiently watching the road. I have also taken a picture of the bird standing on top of the telephone pole at Sedeli Besar, staring into the horizon and on the road for sign of food.

“At Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah, I have seen the bird slowly walking along the track, looking under the bushes, or along the edges of the garden at the resort proper, inspecting the undergrowth for snakes and lizards.

“But the best encounter comes from Connie Khoo in Bukit Mertajam. While walking alone along the forest patch, she was hit by this loud flapping of wings. She was overcomed as well as stunned by the sight of the raptor carrying a snake of about three feet long. The snake was still alive and was trying to fight back by biting the armour-plated feet of the bird. Once back on its perch the bird started to attack the snake by biting and ripping it apart (above). It was good that Connie was able to regain her composure to capture these valuable scenes for us to enjoy.”

K C Tsang
1st June 2007

Top image by KC, bottom images by Connie Khoo.

Ann Stewart lives in Lacey, WA, USA, near to the Nisqually Wildlife Sanctuary. Recently her residential area was “shaved of its beautiful Doug fir forest, so some animals have moved into the neighborhood. However, owls were here before that, I assume because yards are open ground for spotting mice, cats, etc. (I don’t know that they’ve actually grabbed any cats, though). I don’t know what kind of owls they are.

On 5th June 2007, after reading the post on Mobbing of a Barn Owl, Ann further wrote:

“I didn’t know about mobbing until today.

“Around noon, suddenly out of the southern sky a huge murder of crows (at least 100) came at my house, bent on attacking something in a tall Douglas fir. Although the fir had been stripped of branches lower down, the crown was dense, so I couldn’t see what they were after.

“I’ve heard owls in those trees before, and now that I’ve done some research on the Web, I’m tentatively concluding that this murder was after an owl. We also have hawks, bald eagles, and raccoons. I don’t know whether raccoons can climb that high (I do know that raccoons on the other side of town have taken up killing and eating cats and small dogs, not that that’s relevant to this comment, but maybe all the woodland denizens have gone mad as the builders have rapidly taken away their habitat).

“They circled and attacked one spot in the tree over and over again for about 30 minutes. Then they all flew off (I wasn’t watching - you can’t see the crown of that tree from inside my house and I was afraid to go outside, as were my cats. I heard them fly away (the crows, not my cats). They scared me, and I had assumed that they killed whatever they were after.

“A couple of days ago I found a dead crow at the foot of that tree. Today after all the crows had left, I found another two dead crows. I’m curious whether the murder was trying to kill the owl or tell it to leave their roosting place alone or getting even for the first dead crow. And the two recently departed - could they have been accidentally killed by their manic compadres, or could an owl under attack have managed to kill them? What do you think?”

My answer: “Many songbirds mob owls when they encounter them during the day roosting in a tree. Most of these mobbing birds are no match for the owls, risking their lives doing so. Yet they continue to mob the latter, chasing them away from their roosting sites. Once mobbing starts, other birds usually join in. Most of the time the owls simply leave without putting up a fight. Too many mobbing birds to deal with? Crows, larger and more aggressive than most songbirds, can be a serious challenge to a lone owl, if there are many of them. Their main aim is to chase the owl away.”

On 08 Jun 2007 Ann Stewart replied: “Thanks for answering my questions. I wish I could climb up in that tree to see if there’s an owl nest there & whether the owl left for good or is still there — or would I be courting an eye-gouging? Anyway, the tree is a full grown Doug fir, and the only way I’d be able to get up it is if I had a pair of telephone lineman spikes. I’ve tried to look up in the tree but the branches/needles are too thick up there for me to see anything definitive. If I had the nerve to get up on my house (2-storey), I might be able to see something, but I’m pretty sure that’s suicidal.”

Note: Crows live in a group called a murder. This is a fanciful usage for a group of crows. However, most people, especially ornithologists, may use the more generic term flock or horde.

In the absence of an image of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsega menziesii), I have added one of Nordmann Fir (Abies nordmanniana) just to give an idea of the size.

The Malays call the plant sendudok while the early colonial botanists misleadingly named it Singapore rhododendron or straits rhododendron. The plant is neither a rhododendron nor confined to Singapore. In fact it is found throughout Southeast Asian.

The scientific name is Melastoma malabathricum, the genus is from the Greek words melas, meaning black and stoma or mouth, alluding to the ripe fruits that splits open looking like an open mouth exposing the blackish pulp (left bottom). The specific name means from Malabar, India.

This is a common plant of the wasteland. Its pretty purple flowers with bright yellow stamens attract one’s attention (above top). The fruits are sweetish and the black pulp stains the mouth of children that once sought after them. These fruits are also eaten by monkeys, squirrels and birds that in turn spread the seeds all over the open country.

Carpenter bees can often be seen pollinating the flowers. The bees’ wingbeats cause the anthers of the stamens to vibrate in tandem and this results in the latter discharging their pollen on to the bees. These pollen are then transferred to the stigma of the next flowers the bees visit.

This is an excellent plant to grow to attract birds. It is easy to grow. Just dig out any seedlings that sprout in your garden or anywhere else and either nurse them in pots or directly transplant them to wherever you want top grow them. They grow fast, flowering and fruiting within months. Flowering is continuous, meaning that you get fruits throughout the year. However, the flowers last only a day.

But with flowering comes fruiting. And then the birds they attract. I have yet to compile a list of birds visiting the plant but the most attractive bird that comes a few times a day is the colourful Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) (above). You know it is visiting when you hear its tik-tik-tik calls.

The flowerpecker goes straight to the ripe fruit, takes a beakfull and moves to the nest fruit in the same bush or another bush. Normally shy and moving rapidly from plant to plant, it tends to be less shy and less impatient when going for the fruits.
The plant is a short shrub but if allowed to grow unchecked, it can develop into a small tree. However, proper pruning can easily keep it short and bushy. This is definitely an excellent plant to grow in any garden that wants to attract birds.