There are 23 SE Asian species of typical owls that befit the description of nocturnal birds with rounded heads, large forward-facing eyes circumvented by feathered facial discs. Their plumage mostly brown and cryptically patterned, they hunt by night and roost by day.

While their roosting hide-outs are difficult to find, bird watchers at times when lady luck visits, do accidentally run into them.

Thus, finding a night bird in daylight hours is not only an infrequent encounter, the ability to digiscope them with no flash photography allows the bird to continue sleep without rudely being awakened. Such images are valued and carry good credits. That’s my opinion anyway and for which I am generous to show in image but not to be asked at source.

The Brown Boobook (Ninox scutulata) previously known as Brown Hawk Owl, decided to give me that privilege in one of my birding trips.

I was unable to tell the sex of owls but this 30cm bird suddenly flew in and perched on a low tree canopy. At 10 feet away, the Brown Boobook was head gyrating and sizing me up with its golden-yellow eyes (above).

“Oh.. I don’t know this bird and it is a lifer to me.”

Armed with birding luck which seems remain in eternity with me, the second bird showed up. As though not enough…. the third flew in and perched beside each other.

Soon, I was digiscoping three sleepy maids in a row (above).

Then…. beyond the wildest dreams of any birder who would dare ask for the fourth, this cute ‘Johnny 4’ showed up to make a foursome (right)!

What can I say more but sighting Pittas and Trogons that showed in twos and threes paled in comparison with encounter of this fourth kind.
I remembered being told that some birds sleep with their eyes opened. Now I am able to bring those bird eyes closer to readers to see for themselves if it is true.

The white covering over their eyes are called nictitating membranes. They help to protect the eyes and from drying out while birds sleep. At the same time, by keeping an opening eye or eyes opened, birds remain watchful for predators in their sleep.

To sleep-wink at readers, let me introduce Natasha - the juvenile Spotted Wood Owl (Strix seloputo) as the closing sleeping bird image that looks like a Russian doll (left).

Good night baby!

DAISY O’NEILL, AVIAN WRITER, PENANG, MALAYSIA.

Birders are familiar with the mobbing behaviour of birds, especially when it is directed at raptors and owls (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). However, they are less familiar with birds mobbing non-avian predators.

There are enough reports in the avian literature to show that this is not an uncommon phenomenon. One reason for this lack of awareness can be because the snake being mobbed would most probably be among the vegetation and not easily visible. And birders may mistake the ruckus as mobbing of a raptor. The other reason would be the obvious one, that local birders are unaware that mobbing can extend to predators other than birds.

With the present posting, it is hoped that birders will be more aware of this phenomenon and be more vigilant when in the field.

On October 2006 KC Tsang was observing an Oriental Whip Snake (Ahaetulla prasina) stalking a Crimson Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja). Just when the snake was about to strike, Ping, who is Amy Tsang’s cousin, saved the bird by grabbing it (above right). A close up image of the snale is shown on the left and KC has specifically pointed out that the person handling the Oriental Whip Snake is not Ping, considering the hairy nature of the arm.

Yes, snakes commonly catch birds, their fledglings and their eggs but there have been few, if any, documentation of such activities. And it would be natural for the parent birds to raise an alarm when a snake is about to raid their nest.

But mobbing by a number of species and working together?

Some two years ago, Amy and KC Tsang saw a huge Red-tailed Ratsnake (Gonyosoma oxycephalum) being mobbed by birds in the Central Catchment area (left). (These snakes can grow up to 240 cm in length.) The birds involved in the mobbing included Striped Tit Babblers (Macronous gularis), two Greater Racket-tailed Drongos (Dicrurus paradisus), bulbuls and some others which KC was not able to identify. The forest was just alive with screaming birds, hopping from branch to branch just out of reach of the snake. Squirrels were also there chattering away.

Another incident that KC encountered was with an Oriental Whip Snake, also a fairly big one, gliding from branch to branch that had attracted the attention of the forest birds.

Matheus et al. (1996) reported seeing a snake grabbing the fledging of a pair of adult Golden-hooded Tanagers (Tangara larvata) in Eucador. The alarm calls the parent birds made attracted the attention of other bird species that flew in to mob and dive-attack the snake. Although the snake swallowed the fledgling within 5 minutes, the mobbing continued for half an hour. A total of 14 bird species joined in the mobbing, scolding and attacking the snake.

Input by KC Tsang, images by KC except the hairy arm by ?YC.

Reference:
Matheus, J.C., Wittmann, U., Olaf, J., Leutfeld, M., & Schuchmann, K-L. (1996). Reactions of birds to nestling predation by a snake. Ornithologia Neotropical 7:163-4.

The Little Heron (Butorides striatus) chick, rescued on 2nd November 2007 has grown fast.

It outgrew the cardboard box and is fast outgrowing the larger metal container it was transferred to. I have to cover the top, least it climb out and scamper away. Previously, it just perched along the edge of the container and remained there, not daring to jump down (left).

On 7th November, five days after beinging it home, I got the chick to stand on a weighing scale that was placed about a metre from the ground. The scale showed 150 g whereas it was only 100 g when first rescued, four days before. I left the scene to fetch my camera. When I returned, it had jumped more than a metre down and wandered off the garden. Sneaking through the chain-linked fence, it nearly fell into the drain outside. I managed to catch it without falling into the drain myself and kept it restrained inside the metal container.

The bird was about 20 cm tall when fully stretched.

In the previous appeal for help, Victor Lee consulted Dr Gloria Chay, a vet who has experience in bird rehabiitation, and sent in the following: “Don’t bath birds at this stage as they can loose too much body heat. In fact, if the weather is cool, it may be necessary to use a heat lamp for them at night.

“…Gloria says that you need to supplement with Vitamin E as this is found in the live food they get in the wild. Unless you are able to get live fish for this chick. Otherwise, try using multi vitamins for birds that you can get at pet stores. If you are feeding this chick fish slices only, you will also need to give it calcium supplements once a week or so. If you are using whole fishes, like ikan kuning, etc., then this is not required.”

Originally fed with small pieces of fish fillet without bones (above), I have started feeding it with strips of ikan kuning or yellowstrip scad (Selaroides leptolepis), which is about 10 cm long. Each fish was cut into four longitudinal pieces, with the backbones and head removed. All fins were similarly removed initially but later left in place. When there was a lateral fin still attached, the bird gave out a soft cry when swallowing the piece. But it managed.

At each feeding, twice or three times a day, it took three to four pieces.

When it was bigger (nine days after bringing it home), I left the fish head on but still removed the backbones. The bird had difficulty swallowing pieces until it learnt to swallow it head first.

I am aware that herons can handle bones. It has an efficient digestive system, incapable of digesting only insects’ exoskeletons, birds’ feathers and mammals’ furs. These have to be regurgitated in the form of pellets.

The bird initially passed out only a white liquid, consisting of uric acid. This is the bird’s urine, a product of metabolism. When I started feeding it fish with bones, I found a small white piece of pellet at the bottom of the container. The next day there was another, slighter bigger pellet. Can these be regurgitated pellets, a consequence of eating the pieces of fish with side bones and fins? I did not witness the actual casting of these pellets but the fact that they were clean and dry, not mixed with uric acid, makes this a possibility.

Later, I found bigger lumps of brownish matters, clean of uric acid. Subsequent to this the white uric acid passed out began to include lumps of similar brown matters, probably products of the digestive system. No more clean, white pellets were than found.

The image above shows a collection of white, possibly regurgitated pellets and brown pieces that could be regurgitated (scale: mm).

The bird now weighs 200 g (11th November), double its initial weight. It has been transferred to a larger cage. It now exercises its wings, no doube preparing for the time when it can fly.

Images by YC.

Reference:
Martinez-Vilalta, A. & Motis, A. (1992). [‘Family Ardeidae (Herons)]. Pp. 376-429 in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (eds.) Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 1. Ostrich to ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.

On two separate occasions, Dr Chua Ee Kiam encountered an injured Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve:

“I managed some shots of this Purple Heron on two occasions and I thought that something had pierced its lower jaw until a frontal shot of it opening its mouth revealed that its lower jaw was torn (pierced and torn by a wriggling catfish’s spines?) and a flap of tissue dangled from its lower jaw. This is like a patient having its trachea cut to allow him to breathe.”

Birds that feed on fish like Black Bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis), Stork-billed Kingfisher (Halcyon capensis) and Great-billed Heron (Ardea sumatrana) need to knock off the fish and then position it in such a way that it can be swallowed head first. This will ensure that the spines will not damage the birds’ throat.

In the case of this Purple Heron, it is possible that it was trying to swallow a catfish, as suggested by Ee Kiam. The strong, sometimes serrated dorsal and pectoral spines can tear a bird’s throat as seen here if, not handled correctly.

Kelvin P K Lim of the Raffles Museum of Biodivertsity Research, National University of Singapore has this to say: “I think that heron must’ve been really careless to have been damaged this way. I’ve seen pictures and footage of herons eating large catfish, and it must be a very common food item for them. However, this is the first time I’ve seen a picture of a heron with a torn throat. Catfish spines are really strong and thick and I believe they can cause that kind of damage, but I really cannot confirm if the bird in the picture was hurt by a catfish.”

Input and images by Dr Chua Ee Kiam, additional input by Kelvin P K Lim.

On 15th October 2007, KC Tsang reported: “This morning was at Sungei Bulog Wetland Reserve, and the place was quite busy with lots of waders. When they fly low over you the noise made by the flapping wings was quite impressive.

“So took quite a number of shots, and later downloaded the pictures into my computer. On examining the pictures, I found a number of Common Redshanks (Tringa totanus) with Green over Orange Flags on their right legs, denoting that they were tagged in the North Yellow Sea, China area (above).

“So is there any one out there able to share with us about the migratory routes of these bird. So the birds tagged in Singapore could thus be found in China too?

Ong Tun Pin, a birder interested in shore birds, commented: “If this is indeed green/orange, then it should be from Dandong-Tangshan, China (the northern part of the yellow Sea) - Yalu Jiang…”

Checking with the various overseas groups involved in tagging shorebirds revealed that the flag was actually green over white, which is coded for Singapore. The white has been stained with mud, giving the appearance of orange. What this means is that the birds were tagged in the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. This has further been confirmed by Jamers Gan of the Sungei Buloh Wetlend Rerserve in Singapore. The image below shows the flag clearly, showing green over white.

So the excitement was short-lived, but this brings to the forefront the exciting bird tagging exercise that has been going on in Singapore. Hundreds of birds have been tagged, starting from 2000 and a high percentage subsequently recaptured, proving that they have returned after a short absence. Unfortunately, it is doubtful if any had been captured overseas, so we are not able to have proof of their migratory flight.

The Common Redshank is a common winter visitor and passage migrant. The bird breeds in the Himalayas and Tibet and winters in the Malay Peninsular, Singapore, Sumatra, N Natuna Island, Java and Bawean Island. The species breeds extensively across Europe to East Siberia and winters in tropical Africa, the India subcontinent, Sri Lanka, South China, Myanmar, the Greater Sundas and Bali.

References:
1. Gan, James (2007). Bird ringing in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in 2006. Wetlands 14(1):5-8.
2. Wang, L.K. & Hails, C. J. (2007). An annotated checklist of the birds of Singapore. Raffles Bull. Zool. Suppl. 15:1-179.