On 6th March 2008, the rescued Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) chick was under care for a total of 14 days. It has been eating regularly, in fact every two to three hours except at night when it was placed in an enclosed cardboard box that was kept indoors.

The wing feathers were fully developed and the chick was exercising its wings regularly. But it was not ready to fly. It was even not confident of jumping down from the piece of wood I placed on top of the box when left by itself.

On this fateful evening, it had just finished its bath in a basin filled with a few centimetres of water. After the bath that took only a few minutes, I placed it on the ground where it did a little fluffing to rid excess water and then preened a little.

It was not experienced enough to totally dry itself by shaking its body and fluffing its feathers, so I placed it back on its perch at the top of the box (above). There I left it, with the box just outside my main door so that I could keep an eye on it.

I went indoors for a while when suddenly I heard a sharp screech, followed by silence. Suspecting something might have happened to the bird, I rushed outside and found it gone.

Searching the garden, I came across my neighbour’s cat at the back. At its feet was the dead myna chick (left).

Apparently the cat must have walked into my garden and spotted to myna. It must have crept slowly towards it before suddenly pouncing on the poor chick. The attack must have been sudden, otherwise the chick would have made a series of cries and jumped off its perch. This it did a day earlier when a pair of adult noisy Javan Mynas strayed too near to where it was perching. The chick then jumped down and hid among the flower pots.

A sad ending to a sad story of a birdling apparently pushed out of its nest by its sibling. Or did it accidentally fall from the nest?

Myron Tay was at Changi recently when he noticed a couple of Brahminy Kites (Haliastur indus) flying above (above left). On zooming in with his camers, he noticed one of the kites had a prey firmly clutched in its talons. What interested Myron was that the bird was taking bites off the prey from time to time (above right).

The food of the Brahminy Kite includes fish, crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles, birds, small mammals and even insects. According to Ferguson-Lees & Christie (2001), small preys may be eaten on the wing. Wells (1999) thinks that eating while in flight helps to reduce losses to other birds.

Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus caeruleus) has also been reported to eat on the wing

Image of Brahminy Kite (top left) by John Arifin.

References:
1. Ferguson-Lees, J. & Christie, D. A. (2001). Raptors of the world. London: Christopher Helm.
2. Wells, D.R. (1999). The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsular. Vol. I, Non-passerines. Academic Press, London.

Drongo nests are fragile-looking structures built around a fork of a branch of a tree. It is a shallow cup made up of plant materials that can include pliable stems that include grass and creepers, fibres, tendrils, leaf skeletons

Wells (2007) has reported on the nests of a few species. The nest of one Ashy Drongo (Dicrurus leucophaeus) was camouflaged on the outside with lichens and bryophytes and felted with cobwebs.

Greater Racquet-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradisus) is common in the forested areas of Singapore. The nest is built high up in the thin branches of a tall tree (above). According to Wells, it is “a cradle slung through the rim from terminal twigs or prongs of a horizontal fork towards the outer end of a branch, quite often in an area bare of leaves…” Cobwebs are used to bind the nest to the branch. It is described as a fairly open lattice, the contents of which can be seen from below. The nest cop measures 7.7-9.0 cm across by 3.8-5.1 cm deep.

The Lesser Racquet-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus remifer) is a montane species seen at Fraser’s Hill in Peninsular Malaysia. The nest is more or less similar to that of the Greater Racquet-tailed and Wells describes it as “lined with fine fibre and felted and further secured externally with cobwebs” (above). It measures 7 cm across by 4 cm deep.

A full clutch consists of two to three eggs. Up to three chicks may fledge. During the breeding period these birds are fierce and aggressive.

Images from the book “A Passion for Birds” courtesy of Ong Kiem Sian.

Reference:
Wells, D.R. (2007). The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsular. Vol. II, Passerines. Christopher Helm, London.

Koh Jia Hwei had an exciting encounter with a large raptor in a highrise housing area in Jurong West in March 2008:

“I was walking out to the bus stop (about 10am) from my flat in Jurong West when suddenly a bird with a large wing span (at least one metre in total) swooped past me. I saw a magnificent brown eagle perched up the tree, in the rain.

“I was so excited that I ran back home three blocks away, got my camera, ran back, and took… [a] photo… (from ground level).

“I then climbed up the carpark… and took [another] photo (left). I noticed a large swarm of flies (bees?), or some other sort of insect, flying around the eagle. You can see the insects in the photo.

“It sat for about fifteen minutes, and then flew off. I didn’t dare to get too close as I didn’t want to frighten it. In the… photo, though, I must have been just several metres away from it (hiding behind a pillar!).”

I sent an image to our bird specialist, R Subaraj who commented: “From the photo, it is difficult to be certain but it looks very much like an Oriental Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhyncus), with the small pigeon-like head. It is moulting too and looks pretty messy.

“This bird looks like it may be raiding a honey bee nest and that has dispersed the bees that are around it. The Common Honey Bee nests in urban and parkland areas but have nests that are small enough so as not to draw attraction from the paranoid public.

“These bees are important pollinators but today’s public is so wrapped with fear that any stinging insect nests in public use areas are destroyed immediately when detected… even within our parks and reserves! As our wild areas continue to shrink and humans continue to spread into the remaining nature pockets, this is becoming a very serious situation.”

It is exciting to know of the possible presence of the Oriental Honey Buzzard amidst our highrise apartment buildings. The excellent work of planting trees around the urban areas by our National Parks Board and its predecessor agencies must take top credit for this.

Check out another encounter with the Oriental Honey Buzzard at the Japanese Garden in Jurong.

Today (3rd March), the rescued Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) chick has been under care for 11 days (see 1, 2). The feathers are more than a bit dirty, stained with food flicked from the bill and my failure to always place food properly into the gape. Inside the box where it was kept, it apparently did not continue to preen itself. So I placed it on a dish of water hoping it would take a bath (below).

This was suggested by Jeremy Lee, who wrote earlier: “…I have kept a total of more than 6 mynas in my life. Most of them from chicks. They are very loyal companions and the chicks take on to any caregiver with ease. They will not communicate much with wild mynas and may even imitate other birds’ calls. They recognise names and are very aware of time and events related to specific time of the day.

“Chicks also have an instinctive reaction to water. Put a fully feathered chick in your wash basin, turn on the water and watch what happens. The birds starts splashing the water as if something possessed it to do so. Even the chick will appear bewildered at its own actions. But once it tries it out, it will always enjoy a good splash. I have even dared one of my birds to dip into a water that is almost deep enough to cover its shoulders. Instinct tells it that it is too deep but it will do it because I am nearby and he knows it is safe from predators. And because of safety it tends to get itself wetter than most wild birds do…”

Well, it took a few tries before the chick started splashing in the shallow dish of water. This it did for less than a minute and walked out of the dish to rinse off the droplets from its feathers.

It is constantly hungry, calling to be fed. It takes a mixture of soft food consisting of porridge, minced pork, bread and fish. I added some cheesy biscuits for calcium.

I also placed it on a low branch of a tree where it managed to perch, albeit a little precariously (left). There it did a little of preening and even tried to pick up ants that came too near its feet. It succeeded in killing a few ants but was unable to pick them up.

The wing feathers were all fully developed, although some parts of the body were still bare. I helped it exercise its wings by putting it on my hand and suddenly lowering it to get it to flap its wings. The bird was fully capable of supporting itself on its legs and moving about on the ground, but not run or do a fast hop.