Laced Woodpecker at Kent Ridge Park
Posted by BESG on 21 May 08, Wednesday
Contributed by Terry Kaan
Terry Kaan had an encounter with a Laced Woodpecker (Picus vittatus) at Kent Ridge Park in the afternoon of 8th May 2008.
“I was walking up the loop road leading from the pond (HortPark side) when I saw a pair of birds scrabbling around on the floor in the undergrowth leaf litter layer. At first I assumed from their behaviour that they were the White-crested Laughingthrushes (Garrulax leucolophus) that are resident in the park. They were about the same size, and like them seemed loathed to fly, hopping around and scrabbling on the ground, and seemed unafraid even when I went closer (no more than 5m or so).
“It was only then that I realized that they were not laughingthrushes. The light was poor, and my birding ID is horribly rusty, and I didn’t have any idea of what they were, so I took a couple of shots of one bird of the pair with my DSLR camera (above). It was only when I examined the photos that I realized that the bird was mostly green!
“In retrospect, I have seen P. vittatus before, but certainly never on the floor like this. I didn’t get a shot or a good look at the other of the pair, so I can’t tell whether it might have been another of the same species.”
The Laced Woodpecker is a common resident that can be found almost everywhere but not in forests. The male on the left, by Johnny Wee, has a red crown while the crown of the female, sighted by Terry, is black. It hunts singly or in pairs, both usually in close contact. The bird forages on the ground, probing among the leaf litter and even the soil. It also checks out tree trunks and branches as well as the bases of palm fronds, looking for insects and other invertebrates.
At about the same period, a female crashed into the glass door of a condominium unit in the Clementi area.
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Categories: Feeding strategy
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