On 23rd March 2007 Pamela Lim experienced a private “raptor watch” of mainly Oriental Honey- buzzards (Pernis ptilorhyncus) and Black Bazas (Aviceda leuphotes) right outside her bedroom window (left). In the three years she stayed in her present apartment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, she had never seen such spectacular display. She has uploaded a video of the encounter HERE.

“Something great happened this morning during my quiet time at my bedroom window… I thought I saw a swarm of bees… I almost leapt out of my bedroom window in excitement when I realised those bees were actually raptors…!

“I witnessed a total of four groups/flocks before I dashed away to church and with each flock, they circled eye level and moved from right to left and up the hot air column until they looked really like bees before they soared off…

“…swirling round and round…”

The Oriental Honey-buzzards, together with lesser numbers of Black Baza, Chinese Goshawk (Accipiter soloensis), Greyfaced Buzzard (Butastur indicus) and Japanese Sparrowhawk (Accipiter gularis) regularly move south from Siberia from late August, and Japan from mid-September to escape the cold winter there.

Each spring, these birds do a return migration, flying from Sumatra north-east across the Straits of Malacca to the west coast of Malaysia. They presumably return to Japan, western China and southern Siberia to breed.

Tanjung Tuan in Port Dickson is the site in Malaysia to view these returning raptors, as this is the shortest distance over the sea from Pulau Rapat in north-western Sumatra where the birds come from.

The migratory flocks that Pamela witnessed must have been among these returning birds. An earlier study showed that more than 70% of the raptors were Oriental Honey-buzzards, arriving first, from below eye-level to a maximum height of 30 metres. They were seen in flapping flight over the sea, to eventually take advantage of the rising hot air to gain altitude. Black Bazas and Chinese Goshawks arrived in gliding flight in flocks at a height of about 30 metres.

Reference:
DeCandido, R., Allen, D. & Bildstein, K.L. (2006). Spring migration of Oriental Honey-buzzards Pernis ptilorhyncus and other raptors at Tanjung Tuan, Malaysia, 2000–2001. Forktail 22:156-160.

The Banded Broadbill (Eurylaimus javanicus) is a colourful bird that was once a rare resident in Singapore. It has not been recorded in Singapore since the 1920s. However, it can still be found across the causeway.

Irfan Choo is sharing with us his images of the Banded Broadbill collecting nesting materials of leaves and fern stems that he documented in Malacca, Malaysia . The bird above is seen among a growth of epiphytic dragon’s scales fern (Pyrrosia piloselloides) growing in the fork of an old tree.

The male, with a distinct blackish breast band (below left) has a mass of the fern’s dead stems in its bill together with what looks like pieces of dead leaves. The female, lacking this breast band (below right) is collecting fresh leaves for the nest they are building.

The untidy, pear-shaped nest with a distinct tail is suspended from a side branch of a large tree, often close to the main trunk. The entrance, completely covered by a long, slanting porch, is at the upper half of the nest.

Nest materials include twigs, bamboo and other leaves, grass and fern stems and roots. The outside of the nest is decorated with bryophytes, lichens and cobwebs while the inside is lined with leaves.

Images courtesy of Irfan Choo - www.irfanchoo.com

The efficient functioning of feathers is crucial to birds. How else can they effectively fly from predators, catch preys, keep warm, etc. To maintain feathers in tip top conditions, birds regularly preen them and keep them waterproof. Regular bathing in water or dust helps remove dirt accumulated on the surface of the feathers. Some birds sunbathe while others make use of ants to help remove ectoparasites, commonly known as anting.

In nesting chicks, the parent birds regularly preen them. This may continue even after fledging. But how does a rescued Little Heron (Butorides striatus) chick maintain its feathers? It doesn’t. Not until very much later. Once the juvenal feathers were fully formed, only then did the chick began to preen. With a long and flexible neck, the bill managed to reach almost every parts of the body, everywhere except the head. Here, the toes came into play (above).

The middle and longest toe of herons has a comb-like structure at the side of the claw. This pectinate claw is a preening tool. Such a claw is also seen in Barn Owl (Tyto alba), nightjars and bitterns. The comb-like edge develops in the chick only when the feathers are fully formed. The middle toe of the left leg (above left, arrowed) shows the pectinate toe in close-up on the inner surface (above middle). The image on the above right shows the structure on the toe of the right leg.

Herons also have powder-downs, a special type of feathers found around the breast area, rump and sometimes on the back and thighs. In the case of the chick, only two patches around the breast area were present (left). These downs grow continuously and disintegrate to form powder, used in preening, expecially when there is grease on the feathers. The bird is said to pick up the down in its bill, passes it to the serrated claw of the middle toe to apply it to the feathers being preened.

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.

Ong Kiem Sian is a birder-photographer extraordinary (above). For the past 17 or so years, while most birders were only interested in seeing and listing birds, she was seriously studying them. And while most bird photographers (and there were not many then) were taking portrait shots of birds, she was documenting their nesting habits.

Her infinite patience in the forest is legend to those who know her. She can sit quietly for hours, waiting for the birds to return to the nest, to get her perfect shot. And this was at a time well before the advent of digital phpotography, when she could not afford the luxury of taking hundreds of shots at one sitting. Nor could she manage ten or more shots per second at the press of the shutter button.

Through the years she has accumulated a substantial collection of photographs and video clips of numerous species of nesting birds. I suppose, being an excellent photographer, she had the ability to permanently document the drama that unfolded before her eyes. This is an advantage that photographers and videographers have over the typical birders who look at birds through a pair of binoculars.

Sian has been photographing birds more than a decade before the current craze of bird photography, made popular by the availability of digital cameras. Unlike most photographers who either bury their images in hard disks to sometimes share with a few close friends, or post in web-based forums, Sian has been publishing her observations in Nature Watch, magazine of the Nature Society (Singapore). By doing so, she did make an effort to share her observations with other birders and nature lovers.

With editorial assistance from Morten Strange, a well-known bird photographer and author, Sian has now compiled her years of meticulous documentation into a book, A Passion for Birds (left). For a price of S$48.15 including GST, anyone can have a glimpse of Sian’s passion for birds - and at the same time benefit from the information she accumulated.

This book, published by Draco Publishing & Distribution Pte. Ltd., showcases 262 species of birds from 50 families, and comes with a bonus 36 minutes DVD. It is available at the Botanic Gardens Shop from 15th Dec.

Top image courtesy of Ong Kiem Sian, bottom image by Morten Strange.

We associate kingfishers with fish, although these birds feed on a wide range of foods.

In fishing, the bird sits on a perch overlooking an open expanse of water and patiently waits for a suitable fish to appear. The bird then dives directly into the water, plunging in to catch the fish. Sometimes it hovers over the water before plunge-diving into it.

The fish is caught in its bill, sometimes the upper mandible pierces into it. The fish is then brought back to the perch to be eaten. If the fish is large, it needs to be subdued by bashing its head on the branch before it is swallowed head first.

Lee Tiah Khee shares with us his spectacular images of the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) making a direct dive into the water (above), plunging in to catch the fish to immediately emerge from the water with the fish in its bill (below). Note that the fish is clamped sideways in the bill.

The bird then flies upwards (below left) to return to its perch (below right) where it carefully manipulates its catch so that the head is directed towards its oral cavity for swallowing.

A spectacular display indeed.

Images by Lee Tiah Khee.