Today is Blog Action Day. All bloggers have been encouraged to set aside this day to write something on a specific theme: Environment.

BESG is celebrating Blog Action Day with a montage showcasing some of the birds that can be seen in a typical urban area – a downtown mini park, the planted areas around a cluster of high-rise apartment blocks, your very own private little garden or the garden around your condominium.

Singapore’s urban areas are alive with birds and wildlife. Numerous species of birds have made such areas their homes, filling the air with their melodious calls and brightening the greenery with their colourful plumage.

The presence of birds in urban Singapore does not just happen. It is the direct result of more than five decades of continuous tree planting along roads, followed by landscaping the spaces between trees and most open areas.

In fact, we are a virtual Garden City, fast becoming a City within a Garden.

Now how many species can you identify from the above montage?

Images courtesy of Johnny Wee, Chan Yoke Meng, KC Tsang and YC.

On 5th September, KC Tsang reported: “I was at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR) this late morning, not very productive as most of the dried ponds were empty of waders, maybe as a result of the tide being low and the birds had gone somewhere else to look for food. There were five Painted Storks, one Milky, one Large-tail Nightjar, usual tailorbirds, one Pied Fantail…

“No Common Kingfisher, no Asiatic Dowitcher…

“…found this one solitary Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) still in breeding plumage, right to the back of the SBWR complex, and by that time, the sun was right overhead, but never mind, the picture should be good for ID purposes (left).

“Now, according to David Bakewell from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this bird has been banded before in Singapore.

“So just wondering how many times has he been flying back to Singapore.

“And from where?”

According to David Li, Waterbird Conservation Officer with Wetlands International, he communicated with James Gan of SBWR and the latter confirmed that this bird was banded at the reserve in December 2006.

David further added: “With your finding, it seems that shorebirds tend to use the same wintering ground if habitat remains unchanged.”

Ashley Ng of the e-group Pigeon-Hole explained: “…the purpose of bird banding is to keep track of their migration path, both timings and routes for their behaviour study.

“…Green top and white bottom is the color for birds ringed in Singapore.”

According to the latest issue of SBWR’s publication, Wetlands (Vol. 14:1, April 2007), a Ruddy Turnstone was banded in 2001 and another in 23006. The earlier banded bird was not recovered but that banded in 2006 returned in September 2007, thanks to SK’s documentation. Obviously no information on where this particular bird came from is available.

For the records, SBWR has so far ringed 1,156 birds from 108 species since it started the exercise in 1990. In 2006 a total of 658 birds from 66 species were ringed.

Images by KC.

On the morning of 5th August 2007, Chan Yoke Meng succeeded in recording a series of images of a pair of Black-shouldered Kites (Elanus caeruleus) in the act of copulation. The female bird was perching at the top of a vertical dead stem of a tree when the male flew in from behind (above). Wings fully stretched, tail feathers fanned and talons at the ready, he landed on her back (below).

The moment he grasped her back with his talons, she crouched low with wings extending downwards below the tail. He had to maintain his balance by flapping his wings (below).

In a flash he made cloacal contact. It is during this “cloacal kiss” that sperm are transferred from the male’s cloaca into the cloaca of the female. The act was over in less than two seconds (below).

The cloacal contact caused the male to release his grip on her and he slipped down slightly before projecting himself upwards. All these movements caused the female to stabilise herself with wings outstretched (below).

With a final flap of his wings, the male flew off with wings fully stretched and feet hanging down, to finally glide away from the female.

According to the literature, copulation normally takes place at or around the nest site. And copulation can occur up to ten or more times a day for a few days. Prior to copulation, there would be aerial displays and courtship feeding, but these were not observed on that morning.

Subsequently, the pair continued with their nest building activities. Unfortunately there was a murder of crows around. And as with all House Crows (Corvus splendens), they harassed the pair of kites, so much so that the pair may have abandoned their nest building efforts.

Did the kites fly off to look for another nesting site? Away from the aggressive crows and where there is more privacy? Your guess is as good as mine.

Input and images by Chan Yoke Meng.

In an earlier post, Angie Ng described in detail how a male Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) deposited a string of sticky seeds on her sui mei (Wrightia religiosa) plant thus:

“After comfortably positioning itself transversely across the branch, it turned its head… then it awkwardly stretched apart its legs, lowered its little body for a second or two and with a swagger, it moved a few steps to the left. With that quick swaggering action it wiped off a string of six gluey mistletoe seeds onto the branch of my sui mei.”

Now, Chan Yoke Meng has documented another behaviour by a female Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker excreting Macrosolen cochinchinensis seeds. These mistletoe seeds were excreted one at a time. Each seed was enclosed within a tough gummy substance that remained unchanged after passing through the bird’s alimentary canal. The seeds were excreted in a string - any one seed attached to the one before and the one after by this gummy substance.

The bird had no difficulty expelling the seeds from the its vent, that is, its posterior opening. The problem was to get rid of the seeds after they emerged. With all the gummy substances around, the seeds remained stuck to the bird. In Angie’s case, the bird rubbed its posterior end on the branch it was perching on.

Meng’s observations show the birds actively removing the sticky seeds with the help of its bill and feet (of course, not using both feet at the same time, ha ha). The action was rapid and he missed documenting the most interesting scenes. However, he managed to record the bird entangled with strands of gum stuck to its bill and feet (see panel above). Two seeds that the bird managed to remove remain stuck to the branch behind it. Note the translucent globs of gum still attached to the seeds.

Earlier posts on mistletoes include accounts on the plants, naturalist’s account, observations of a sometime bird watcher, and pollination by Hanging Parrot.

Haniman Boniran wrote on 24th September 2007:

“…I would like to share with you my encounter with a Changeable Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus) today. I’m sorry its going to be all text and no pictures as it was totally unexpected*.

“About 2.5 months ago my dad brought home a Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans) to nurse it after an attack by some marauding crows. This bird, after spending sometime with us, won my dad’s heart but I’m not in favor of it staying too long. Its a juvenile bird by the way (above image shows an adult male bird).

“So today, I felt that it was time to set it free. I took it to Mandai Road where I have seen plenty of other PNG pigoens. Selected a spot facing the forest and I set it free. The bird took its flight and less then ten seconds it landed on a branch of a tree.

“In a split second a black morph Changable Hawk Eagle (right) swooped down and took the poor bird away in its talons right in front of me! It flew to a near by tree and feasted on it.

“I was speechless. I meant well for the PNG pigeon but I guess Nature has other plans for it. It was an **NG moment for me. Can’t say the same for the pigeon though.

“The ups and downs of birding… Sigh!”

**NG: National Geographic

*Images by Chan Yoke Meng (pigeon) and Johnny Wee (eagle).