Yong Ding Li has been looking at birds since he was 12 years old. Now that he is reading life sciences at the National University of Singapore, his knowledge of birds is definitely beyond the plumage. Yes, he started off as a typical twitcher, listing the species he saw and compiling list after list of the different locations he visited - in Singapore as well as in Southeast Asia. To date, he has ticked off 1,217 species, but his recent trip to Sri Lanka has boosted the number to 1,280.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a twitcher. After all, most birdwatchers start off as twitchers. Except Ding Li went beyond twitching and is now observing birds, not just looking at them.

His exposure to academia during the last few years has deepened his appreciation of the avian world. And his knowledge is definitely not confined to guide books only but also to ornithological texts and journals articles. His recent writings reflect this and I refer in particular to his paper on “Bird Species New to Science from Southeast Asia - The Last Ten Years.” I am sure Ding Li will be happy to send you his manuscript if you e-mail him at zoothera@yahoo.com. Check out his website to view his bird writings and drawings - yes, he is also an artist, although he prefers to be known as an illustrator.

Indeed, Ding Li has proven to be a rare birder who is fast becoming an ornithologist in the real sense of the word. That is him above, on the left, with the Himalayan Griffon (Gyps himalayensis) that appeared in Changi on 23rd January 2006. He is currently attached to the Conservation Ecology Laboratory of the Department of Biological Sciences, NUS. He is reading for his Honours degree under the supervision of Prof Navjot S Sodhi, the internationally renowned ornithologist and conservation biologist. Ding Li’s academic interest is avian fauna.

Singapore has only a short history of birdwatching. Introduced during the colonial era, the active birdwatchers were then mainly members of the Malayan Nature Society (Singapore Branch) that later morphed into the Nature Society (Singapore). The society then had a loose following of birdwatchers and it was only in 1984 that a formal Bird Group was constituted. The core leaders then were Clive Briffett, Christopher Hails and Sandra Sabapathy. Of these, only Chris was an ornithologist, being recruited by the government to attract birds back to the urban environment.

This newly formed Bird Group initiated activities like annual bird race, water bird census and bird count to attract members. The committee also started the Singapore Avifauna to record bird sightings and updated the checklist of birds. It is heartening to note that all these activities have been faithfully carried out every single year until today.

When Chris left for WWF a few years later, the birding community was led by recreational birders. And stress was naturally on recreational birding, with birdwatchers just looking at birds.

This may at last be changing. Ding Li is now editor of Avifauna, a privately circulated newsletter put out by the Bird Group of the Nature Society (Singapore). Hopefully, this is his introduction to further involvement in the leadership of the Bird Group. Should this happen, there is an excellent chance that the local birdwatching scene would experience new, challenging and innovative activities.

The image of Ding Li is taken from the NUS’s Conservation Ecology Lab website while that of him with the Himalayan Griffon is by Wang Luan Keng.

The Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) has been breeding in Pulau Ubin since the later part of 1980s, although it was first sighted in the early 1970s. Since then the bird has been found in a number of locations on the main island, presumed to be escapees, released birds or even arriving naturally from nearby Johor, Malaysia. But Pulau Ubin is still the best place to view the Red Junglefowl, as Margie Hall’s 11th December 2007 account below testifies:

“Had a lovely view today (Monday 10th) of Red Junglefowl coming out from the coastal forest onto the rocky beach at Chek Jawa, around 5.00 pm. Rain had finally stopped and we were walking along the boardwalk and saw one mixed group of Junglefowl come out and then scuttle behind rocks. A bit further up we saw four males all together in a large patch of green seaweed. At first glance I thought they were foraging, but when I got my bins on them I realised the two in the middle were facing each other, with the feathers around their necks raised up and curved forwards, making a big “ruffle”. There was a little bit of backwards and forwards between them and then the one facing the forest drove the other one back into it. We didn’t see those two any more - the other two carried on standing around whilst we went past. Each of them had been standing behind one of the fighting birds, just like a “second” in a duel.

“Another special sighting was two otters lolloping all along the sandbar in the distance, before going into the sea. But we had barely gone down the ladder onto the sand when torrential rain arrived again and we had to beat a retreat. Still, the junglefowl and the otters made it worthwhile. Especially when, given all the early afternoon rain, it had seemed mad even to carry on with the planned trip. Thanks to the NParks guides and volunteer guide who turned out on such a wet day too.”

Input by Margie Hall, images by YC.

Reference
Wang. L.K. & Hails, C. J. (2007) An annotated checklist of birds of Singapore. Raffles Bull. Zool. Suppl. 15:1-179.

ON 20th December 2007 Tan Gim Cheong sent in an exciting image of a Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) in the act of casting a large pellet.

“Managed to catch this Common Kingfisher casting a pellet, even sent debris flying to the upper left! The pellet is large relative to the size of the bird, for example the Spotted Wood Owl’s pellet is a much smaller percentage of its body size.”

Yes, most birds that eat animal prey cast the indigestible parts like bones, fur, etc after compaction in the gizzard in the form of pellets. Birds that eat insect similarly cast pellets of the exoskeleton, as seen in bee-eaters. Those that eat hairy caterpillars cast pellets of the hairs.

Local birders have always known that raptors and owls regularly cast pellets. Only of late have birders become aware that other birds also cast pellets.

This blog highlighted pellet casting as far back as March 2006 and Jianzhong Liu was kind enough to submit an image of a Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) doing just that.

Subsequent to this, other bird photographers also managed to catch various species in the act of pellet casting – Blue-tailed Bee-eater (below right), Ruddy Kingfisher (Halcyon coromanda) (below left) and Spotted Wood Owl (Strix seloputo).

It is heartening to know that birders and bird photographers are keeping an eye on bird behaviour when out in the field. After all, birding will always be more enjoyable if we also pay attention to bird behaviour.

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Input an image of Common Kingfisher by Tan Gim Cheong; images of Ruddy Kingfisher and Blue-tailed Kingfisher by Chan Yoke Meng.

There is a bodh-tree (Ficus religiosa) at the entrance of the Chinese Garden in Jurong and it is figging. And a figging tree invariably attracts flocks of birds – not just birds of a feather but of different feathers. In other words, there would always be a mix of species that come for the feast. The noise these birds generate is enough to attract hordes of birders and photographers.

And it was so with this particular fig tree on the day after Christmas this year. KC Tsang was there and sent in the image above of the Asian Paradise-flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) perching next to the Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala). KC also filed this report:

“The fig tree near the entrance of the Chinese Garden is fully laden with fruits, not all are ripe, but this has been a great attraction for many kinds of birds, from fruit eating ones to insectivorous birds. The types of birds observed visiting the tree are, fruit eaters: Asian Glossy Starlings (Aplonis panayensis), Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopacea), Coppersmith Barbets, Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier), mynas, and Pink-necked Green Pigeons (Treron vernans).

“The insectivorous birds comprise Asian Paradise-flycatchers, Mugimaki Flycatchers (Ficedula mugimaki), Asian Brown Flycatchers (Muscicapa dauurica), Dark-sided Flycatchers (Muscicapa sibirica) and Arctic Warblers (Phylloscopus borealis).

“The Asian Glossy Starlings would come in waves, taking over the whole tree, but they are observed to be not aggressive to other birds, while the Asian Koels would intimidate other birds and the Asian Paradise Flycatcher would chase the Mugimaki around the tree.

“Coppersmith Barbets are seen to be left alone to do their own things, like eating the fruits quietly.

“All these activities were observed on 26/12/2007, and it will last only as long as there are fruits to be had on the tree, which I believe will last for only a few more days.”

If there are any birders or photographers who are still not aware of this figging tree, hurry to the Chinese Garden before the feast is over.

Input and image by KC Tsang.

The offshore island of Pulau Ubin is a haven for a small flock of Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) that is a major attraction for Singaporeans as well as tourists. These large white-and-black birds with a prominent casque never fail to excite visitors. In fact, many locals are still unaware of the existence of these birds, although a few do occur on the main island (1, 2, 3). The image on the left shows a bird feasting on the ripe fruit of the papaya (Carica papaya) in Ubin.

There is a large billboard in Ubin that shows a map of the island with a prominent image of the hornbill in the centre.

The map is for the information of visitors but hornbills are also attracted to it – not for the information but because of the large image of a hornbill.

According to Ali Ibrahim, a National Parks Board officer based there, the billboard had to be replaced recently as it was damaged. The culprit? The Oriental Pied Hornbill!

The bird or birds (we are not sure whether one or more birds were involved) regularly confronted the image, pecking at it, so much so that the board was damaged and had to be replaced.

A new billboard has now been installed, no doubt hornbill-proof (above).

We are aware that birds regularly confront the side mirrors of cars as well as windows because they perceive their images to be rival birds (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). We even have an image of an Oriental Pied Hornbill admiring its reflection, taken by Allan Teo. However, this is a first local report of a bird confronting a picture.

Input by Ali Ibrahim, images by Angie Ng except hornbill-reflection by Allan Teo.