Lam Chun See lives in a house popular with nesting birds. In late June 2007 a pair of Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) visited his place and decided to set up home in his balcony. After a few days of hard work, before their home was even completed, the pair mysteriously left, leaving a mess of leaves, twigs, moss and other stuff on his balcony floor. As he wrote in his blog, “I don’t know what caused them to abandon their project. I don’t think it was lack of resources. Maybe they didn’t like my hardworking maid disrupting their project every morning when she cleaned the balcony. Or they were upset with my intrusion into their privacy when I mounted my camera on a tripod just a few feet from their nuptial bed. In any case, my family was quite disappointed at this rejection.”

“Before long, another pair of birds came looking for a home. This time it was a female sunbird. And she started building her nest on the very same bromeliad plant that the bulbuls did (above).

“Again, after the nest was completed, the sunbirds also left without moving in to their new home (left).”

It is possible that the bulbul’s nest was raided by some bird or other. The clue is the mess of nest materials lying on the ground. As for the sunbird’s nest, it has to be another raid, this time not destroying the nest. Or can it be that the bird was building a trial nest?

Anyone with other possibilities?

On 16th July 2007, Chun See wrote:
“I was mistaken when I said that the sunbirds (Yes, there are two of them. The other one has blue colour) have deserted their nest. They do come and stay in the nest occasionally, but it is very difficult to photograph them because the entrance to the nest is very small. Unlike the usual bowl-shaped nest, this one has just a tiny hole. Also, the entrance is facing away from our house, and because the balcony is narrow, there is no way to go around to photograph them without disturbing the bird(s).”

Birds that nest in the open are generally dull looking as they need to blend in with the surroundings, least they become easy prey to predators. The female especially are thus brown and streaky in appearance. On the other hand those that nest in cavities can afford to be colourful, especially the females. They would thus be relatively safe when they are nesting.

This was what I read. So I went about looking for examples.

The Little Tern (Sterna albifrons) (left top) and the Malaysian Plover (Charadrius peronii) (left bottom) are coastal birds whose nests are mere shallow scrapes. Their only defence is the dull white-brown plumage that provide excellent camouflage in the beach habitat.

The Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) is another bird that nests on a shallow scrape, not along the beach but among scrub vegetation (right). It is just as exposed to predators but again its camouflage is excellent and one is generally aware if its presence only when the bird suddenly flies off the ground in a flutter of wings when approached. But then it always plays the broken wing game if there are eggs or chicks in the nest to distract the intruder.

Similarly, the Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus) (below left) and the White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) (below right), whose nests are exposed, have plain plumages.

Hole nesters are less conspicuous when incubating or brooding. They would not attract predators with their colourful plumages when nesting.

The Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) nests in cavities (left top). So does the Red-crowned Barbet (Megalaima rafflesii) (left bottom). The males as well as the females of both these birds are colourful, although some may say that the barbet is the more colourful of the two.

The Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) is also a cavity nester. The bird can be considered colourful. But not the Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis, a blackish hole-nesting bird. Or the Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) or even the Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus). Of course in nature there would always be exceptions to the rule.

In birds that are sexually dimorphic, where the males more colourful than the females, most are non-cavity nesters. Or are they? The colourful males, besides taking the attention away from the duller and more cryptic females, need the colours to compete with other males for the attention of females. Good examples are Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) (below left) and Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis ) (below right). The nests of both are hanging, enclosed structures, rather than open nests like in bulbuls. Not so the Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans), whose nest is a plain platform of twigs. The male is slightly more colourful than the female but both are not as colourful as the barbets, kingfisher and other cavity nesters.

Large and aggressive birds can afford to be showy, even when nesting in the open. They can look after themselves. But again, the aggressive crows do not have a colourful plumage…

Images by Chan Yoke Meng (Large-tailed Nightjar, Red-crowned Barbet), Dr Jonathan Cheah Weng Kwong (Little Tern), Philip Tang (Malaysian Plover), KC Tsang (Oriental White-eye), YC (Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Olive-backed Sunbird, White-breasted Waterhen, Collared Kingfisher).

In February and March 2006 I found many seeds scattered along my driveway (left top). The ones I recognised were palm seeds - MacArthur (Ptychosperma macarthurii) and Alexandra (Archontophoenix alexandrae). The seeds were clean and devoid of their outer fleshy covering. This made me suspect that they must have been regurgitated by the birds perching along the fronds of my ceram palms (Rhopaloblaste ceramica).

To help identify the seeds, I germinated them in a pot and followed the development of the seedlings. So far I have only recognised one type of seed, the wild cinnamon or kayu manis (Cinnamomum iners) (above bottom). The seedlings are easy to identify as the leaves are each with three longitudinal veins (below). On crushing the leaf a faint aroma can be detected.

This is a native tree commonly found in open country and disturbed forests. This is also a popular wayside tree. The regular flushes of new leaves appear first as reddish pink, turning cream, then light yellow, and finally green (below left). The young leaves provide refreshing colours to the greenery of the urban forest. The succulent berries that turn blue on ripening have a single seed (below right). This is truly a bird tree. They flock to it when it is in fruits.

Most of the birds that gather regularly on my ceram palms are Pink-necked Green Pigeons (Treron vernans). There are also the occasional Javan Mynas (Acridotheres javanicus) and Asian Glossy Starlings (Aplonis panayensis). My guess is that these seeds were left by the pigeons, although I had yet to have any proof. Or maybe the starlings were also responsible?