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.

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.

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).

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 (right). However, this is a first local report of a bird confronting a picture.

Image of billboard by Angie Ng, hornbill-reflection by Allan Teo.

KC Tsang and Johnny Wee were at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on the morning of 15th November 2007 when they were rewarded with the sighting of an uncommon raptor at 1130 hours.

“Had a long walk with Johnny Wee this morning, and found this fellow perching up a bare branch …

Would greatly appreciate if some one can confirm the ID of this bird. The closes I can get is Chinese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter soloensis), but the eye and bill colour is wrong…”

The side shot by KC makes it less easy to identify the bird, if only the frontal is visible…

The distinct yellow-orange cere seen in the image indicates that the bird is an adult – in the juvenile it is yellow-grey to yellow.

This small accipiter is an uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor that has been regularly sighted at various locations during October–November and March. It breeds in Northern China, Korea and Taiwan. During the northern winter, it migrates south to reach Singapore, Indonesia and West New Guinea. The bird makes the return flight during March-mid May.

Ferguson-Lees & Christie (2001) reports that it migrates along two separate routes. The main route is from the Korean Peninsula south along Nansei-shoto through Taiwan and the Philippines to Sulawesi and Moluccas. The other route is from southeast China through the mainland Southeast Asia to Sumatra, Java and Bali.

Image by KC Tsang.

Reference:
Ferguson-Lees, J. & Christie, D. A. (2001). Raptors of the world. London: Christopher Helm.

When I fed the Little Heron ( Butorides striatus ) chick fish in a glass bottle, it tried desperately to peck at the fish from the outside. Obviously it could not know that it was looking at the fish from outside the glass. It kept on pecking at the glass side and getting frustrated with each try.

I managed to urge it to the perch whereby it could look down into the fish inside the bottle. It then picked at the fish one by one from above. However, as soon as a fish was caught, all the rest swam to the bottom. And the bird was not willing to submerge its head into the water to reach them. It was only willing to go as far as the base of its bill and no further.

I then placed the bottle of fish outside the cage and the bird encountered the same problem as it was standing on the cage bottom.

A perch inside the cage was provided in the form of a water-filled plastic container. It immediately perched on the edge of the container and looked into the fish contained in the bottle outside. It surveyed the bottle containing the fish for a while before making its next move (left).

It took some time to decide what to do but eventually it solved the problem. It poked its head between the wires of the cage and dipped its head into the water to get at the fish.

Looking at one of the images, I was surprised to learn that it dipped its head totally into the water to get at the fish swimming at the bottom.

This further proves that the Little Heron is an intelligent bird. An earlier post shows it’s “fishing” trick, using bread tossed into the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Symphony Lake by visitors to do its very own fishing.