Dr Redzian Abdul Rahman from Raub, Malaysia, observed and documented the courtship and mating behaviour of the Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) that we are presenting below. Where he lives, there is a small grove of banana and papaya plants by a river and there are “lots of birds, such as Yellow-vented Bulbul, Mynas, Glosy Starling, Black-nape Oriole, etc., a full list of which is given in his blog.
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In the top image, the male flies in to perch near the female. He comes prepared with gifts and indulges in courtship feeding, a common ritual among many species of birds (above). The male in this case has a number of fruits in his gullet but he passes on only one to the female. Sometimes he may have to offer more than one, but not in this case. And at times the female may teasingly pass back the fruit to the male.

After courtship feeding comes copulation. With the next gift still in his bill, he carefully mounts her. With wings fluttering, he then maneuvers his tail so that his cloaca comes into contact with hers, a process that is termed the “cloacal kiss” (above). It is at this stage that sperms are transferred from the cloaca of the male to that of the female.

Immediately after the cloacal kiss, the male dismounts, the fruit still in his bill as the female has yet to eat his gift. Once she eats the fruit, he mounts her again, never offering her another gift (above). In a flash he completes his second cloacal kiss and flies off.

Immediately after the first pair completed their mating, another pair flew in and copulated (above). In this case the male did not even offer the fruit he had at the ready in his bill.

In the above image, note the everted cloacal opening of the female bird on the right, seen immediately after copulation. The male bird on the left still has his fruit in his bill, to be offered, no doubt, to his next partner.

Courtship activities may centre round the potential nesting cavity. The birds may indulge in a lot of singing, either simultaneous singing by the courting pair or duetting between males. Flight displays are common, with the male flying to perch besides the female, often with wings fluttering.

See an earlier account where the male barbet got three “bonks” for the price of two berries HERE.

On the afternoon of 15th February 2008, Dr Leong Tzi Ming was taking a casual stroll along the Telok Kurau Canal near his home when he spotted a heron foraging in the shallow water of the canal.

Tzi Ming is familiar with Little Heron (Butorides striatus), Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), but not this bird. His suspected it to be a Pacific Reef Egret (Egretta sacra).

According to our bird specialist R Subaraj, “This is indeed a dark-phase Pacific Reef Egret. I have seen him flying over East Coast Road by your canal a couple of times over the past month.”

These birds are usually seen singly or in pairs. And most pairs Subaraj saw consisted of a dark and a white morph.

The Pacific Reef Egret is an uncommon resident. Its typical habitats are rocky shores, exposed reef flats and sometimes along sandy shore and low-tide mud around mangroves. But in urbanised Singapore, our concretised canals are becoming feeding grounds for this as well as other herons like Grey, Night and Striated.

Image by Dr Leong Tzi Ming.

On 25th February 2008, KC Tsang circulated the following account:

“It is sad to see this very regal-looking bird end up 
this way in someone’s cage in Bintan, Indonesia. Could it be
 for the better? I found this out from two very
 reliable sources. One was an Indian couple I met at a party, and 
the other, a person who was able to supply these pictures.

The Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayensis), also known as Himalayan Griffon, is now caged in a resort there.

“I was told that it was
 caught while feeding on a pig’s carcass in a pig farm.
 I am just wondering how is it that a pig’s carcass was
 left rotting, and for the vulture to come and feed on
 it.

“As it was so hungry, it was not too concerned with 
humans coming close enough to capture it.
 The time of capture of this beautiful bird, I was told, 
was sometime last year, I would hazard a guess, some
time November, December?



“So if there is some one out there who has more information on this bird, please do let us have it.”

This vulture is resident of Central Asia and the Himalayas. So far, a number of birds have been recorded to migrate as far south as Singapore since 1989. In January 1992 a small flock of nine birds were photographed at roost by J Smith and Morten Strange at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. As recent as 23rd January this year, we have sightings of three birds, two of which were photographed by Lee Tiah Khee flying over Bukit Timah.

Previously known to be sedentary and only migrating altitudinally, these vultures are more and more seen south of its normal range. This may be suggestive of an irruption or a range expansion of the species (Wang & Hails, 2007).

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

Prof Cheong Loong Fah chanced upon our post on Nest Raiding in the Singapore Botanic Gardens and shares his experience about Black-naped Orioles (Oriolus chinensis) (left top) raiding the nest of the Pied Triller (Lalage nigra) (left bottom):

“I once had a pair of Pied Trillers nesting in front of my house. One day, a Black-naped Oriole spotted the nest and tried to raid it. The oriole was chased off by one of the Pied Trillers quite vigorously; the fight was quite fierce and with full body contact between the two birds.

“However, on the next day, the original intruder (I suppose) brought back a gang and these four orioles that then destroyed the nest. The Pied Trillers were powerless to stop this destruction.

“I didn’t manage to see if they were feeding on the eggs; it just seemed wanton destruction to me then. The Pied Triller pair came back to the nesting site the next day and lingered around, but after that never came back.”

Another account of the destructive nature of the Black-naped Oriole… see related posts below.

Images by Susan Wong (Pied Triller) and YC (oriole).

On the evening of 27th December 2007, as I was watering my garden, I inadvertently sprayed water on the leaves of my banana plants (Musa). Suddenly, about a dozen noisy Brown-throated Sunbirds (Anthreptes malacensis) flew into the garden (below: male left, female right).

They landed on the noni tree (Morinda citrifolia) by the driveway as well as on the wet banana leaves. Those that were on the banana leaves took advantage of the droplets to have their bath. They rolled on the leaf to wet their feathers, ruffling them in the process and then preening them.

Soon the leaves dried up and I re-sprayed the plants, together with the taller noni tree. This attracted more birds to take advantage of the droplets. A few moved to the noni leaves. The banana leaves are large and a single leaf can take the weight of the birds (above). On the other hand, noni leaves are oval structures and are unable to support a single bird (below).

When a bird landed on a noni leaf, at the point where it is attached to the branch, it managed to stay on it, as long as the feet are firmly on the leaf. The moment it rolled around to soak up the droplets, the leaf cannot support the bird’s weight. What happened next was that the bird literally rolled off the leaf and had to fly to another to continue its bath.

During this commotion, a pair of Oriental White-eyes (Zosterops palpebrosus) was seen joining in the fun, although they stayed in the background, among the climbers along the fence behind. There was also a pair of Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier), peering from behind, but not joining in.

I had to wet the leaves a few more times to allow the birds to enjoy their bath. The entire activity lasted more than 30 minutes, although towards the end, there were only about two pairs, then only a pair before this last pair also flew off.

This is the first time I witnessed mass bathing. I tried wetting the plants a few days after but could not recreate the exciting spectacle.