In April 2008, a group of Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) was attacking a helpless Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) in Centennial Park, Sydney while Dr CH Lee a.k.a. lchxian was trying to photograph a frogmouth.

“The Noisy Miners were harassing the dove, flying over it and using their claws to grab the dove. I was not convinced at that point that the claws of Noisy Miners could do much harm.”

The miners spread their tails as if in a war dance and surrounded the poor dove that was totally intimidated. One by one the miners made individual aerial attacks, leaving the dove injured.

“There was this urge arising from deep in me… maybe I should be compassionate and help the dove out of danger. But craving for good action photos, I struggled with the decision to stop photographing and start to intervene with the natural world.

“…As I walked towards the birds, a couple walked by. They turned their head to have a look at the commotion and walked on… Later they turned again, seeing this Chinese boy standing near the injured dove, fending away the noisy miners. I wonder what they were thinking…

“As I stood near the dove, it looked scared and badly injured. There were hardly any feathers left in its tail. Surprisingly, as I stepped back to take this photo…, the Noisy Miners attempted another aerial raid. I had to pretend to kick them, to fend them off.

“Standing over the injured dove, I was hoping that it would gain enough strength to fly away. But it just sat there. The Noisy Miners were still loitering around, waiting for their chance to finish up the dove.

“At this point I decided to pick up the dove and send it to a vet. As I held the dove in my palms, it struggled and flew off. One Noisy Miner started to chase after it, luckily the dove managed to fly for cover in a bush nearby.

Noisy Miner is a common Australian bird. Its typical diet consists of nectar, fruit and insects. Occasionally it feeds on small reptiles or amphibians.

A territorial and gregarious bird, it lives in small groups and aggressively defend their area against larger invaders such as magpies, currawongs and crows. They may attack smaller birds inside their territory, particularly in suburban environments that favor them. Although adapted to urban areas, it faces competition from the Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis), an introduced species to Australia. It is also commonly mistaken for the Common Myna.

For a more detailed account, please go to Ichxian’s site.

All images by Dr CH Lee except portrait of Noisy Miner by Dr Eric Tan.

“The Yellow-bellied Prinia (Prinia flaviventris), which is grouped among the African warbler family, is considered to be common, and resident breeding in Singapore. They can be found among lallang grass (Imperata cylindrical), and other bushy plants in open, often degraded land that had been previously bulldozed over and prepared for construction of Housing and Development Board apartments or other uses. Land that had been left alone for some while, long enough for fast growing plants to recolonise it.

“This bird, with a grasshopper between it’s bill, was about to take it to her chicks (above). But are they actually her chicks? One need to ask this as these birds are often being brood-parasitised by the Plaintive Cuckoo (Cacomantis merulinus).

“The calls of this delicate looking bird often starts with mewing, like that of a cat, then it goes into a very pleasant repetitive rhythm, very difficult to describe.”

According to Wells (2007), the “song is delivered from a prominent perch at the top of cover, is a hurried tidli-idli-ul, stressed on the first and last syllables and repeated at length, sometimes with intercalation of an extra idli. The alram call is a scolding (almost mewing) cheeair single or repeated once, and males (only?) produce a sharp, cracking or tearing wing-throb, prr’up, repeated rhythmically as they fly over their territory (this noise also recorded from a nest-builder).”

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

Vesak Day in Singapore falls on 19th May 2008. On the eve of that day, Tang Hung Bun came across a pair of strange birds at Venus Link (below). Puzzled at the identity of these birds, he posted the images in the BESG’s forum.

Jeremy Lee was the first to respond, identifying one of them as Peach-faced Lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis). Tan Kok Hui similarly identified it as the blue form of the Peach-faced Lovebird.

Summerian Turks added, “These are lovebirds (Agapornis sp). From the pictures I can only id confidently the bird on the left as the Peach-faced Lovebird (A. roseicollis) and the other could possibly be a Masked Lovebird (A. personatus) judging from its white-eye ring (can’t see the face well). But these birds are definitely lovebirds. Commonly found in the bird trade and I am certain they are someone’s pets.”

YC countered, “The front-faced bird looks like a Gray-headed Lovebird (A. canus), a male. Peach-faced has a red face.”

But Summerian stated that “A. canus is not in the Singapore bird market for a long long time and they die easily in captivity and some aviculturists here say due to our hot, humid weather. Plus Madagascar, where they originate, is birdflu country and the local authorities do not allow imports from there. There are many varieties of peach-face mutations in aviculture. This is one of them. A. canus is not in our market. Not to my knowledge at least.

“…The abandoned specimens, if I’m not wrong, are the Pastel Blue or the Dilute Blue. They have been hybridised even with A. fischeri and A. personatus and all the subsequent mutations that you actually get a variety of rojaks (mixture) in aviculture. Usually if they are hybridised with an A. personatus or A. fischeri, most mutations retain the characteristic white eye ring with the body having a variety of colors ranging from blue to shades of green and cinnamon, depending on the parent birds. This is from my experience with my flock a long time ago. Another commonly found mutation of Peach-face in Singapore are the Lutino Red Face. They are all yellow with the face being red… I have seen an all grey and diluted yellow Peach-face Lovebird mutations here. The color varieties are amazing.”


Vesak Day commemorates the birth and enlightenment of Lord Buddha and his entry into Nirvana. Among the various rituals that Buddhists undertake is the release of caged birds, animals and even insects. This signifies giving freedom to those in captivity

This practice of releasing animals has resulted in an increase in exotic species in our rural environment as devotees purchase caged animals from pet shops to release them. Unfortunately, these are not local species and many are unable to survive in the wild and eventually succumb to predation or simply die. Others are able to out-compete the indigenous species to eventually displace them.

The lovebirds found by Hung Bun may possibly be released by devotees on the eve of Vesak Day. The chances of their survival are slim. I am sure those responsible are not aware of the misery they are inflecting on these birds.

The National Parks Board has been at the forefront of educating the public and trying very hard to persuade people not to release exotic animals with varying success.

Bee-eaters belong to the family Meropidae. There are 25 species, mostly African. A few are found in Asia, two in Eurasia and one in Australia.

Thailand has six species of bee-eaters: Chestnut-headed (Merops leschenaulti) (above left), Blue-tailed (M. philippinus ) (above right), Green (M. orientalis) (below left), Blue-throated (M. viridis) (below right), Red-bearded (Nyctyornis amictus) (bottom left) and Blue-bearded (N. athertoni) (bottom right).

Malaysia has four species, lacking only Blue-bearded and Green Bee-eater. Singapore has only Blue-throated and Blue-tailed, the former a common resident and an uncommon winter visitor while the latter a common passage migrant and winter visitor.

Of the six species, Blue-tailed, Blue-throated and Green have the elongated central tail feathers. Blue-bearded and Red-bearded both have shaggy blue and red “beard” respectively, these being long, loose throat feathers.

As a family, these birds are fairly uniform in appearance and thus easily recognised. Their plumage is colourful and gorgeous - predominantly green, with patches of blue, red, yellow and black. Many wear a black mask and bear a prominently long, slender and slightly decurved bill. Males and females are generally not distinguishable as sexual dimorphism is uncommon.

The sharp points of the bill function like forceps, enabling the bird to pick insects out of the air. Small insects are simply crushed by the powerful jaws while larger ones are carried to a perch where they are beaten against the branch. As the name implies, it has the ability to de-venom and de-sting bees before swallowing them. Its main hunting technique is to hawk insects from an exposed perch.

These birds excavate nest burrows in steep earth banks or hillocks.

All images by Dr Eric Tan except Red-bearded Bee-eater by Harry Ong.

This post is a cooperative effort between www.naturepixels.org and BESG to bring the study of bird behaviour through photography to a wider audience.

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On 18th May 2008, Gerard Goh chanced upon an owl chick at Pasir Ris park while cycling along the bicycle track and posted a short account on his blog (above left).

“To prevent it from being unknowingly crushed by cyclists or accidentally trampled by joggers, a fellow cyclist and I prodded it onto a piece of fallen tree bark, lifted it and placed it onto a low hanging branch of a tree. Hope it manage to survive,” he wrote.

The owl chick probably fell out of its nest or made its first fledging flight and landed on the ground (above right). It has yet to fly properly and vulnerable to predators and being overrun by cyclists. Gerard did right to get it out of harm’s way and onto a branch. The adults would be around somewhere, keeping an eye on the chick and should take over from there.

Such accidents are quite common in the bird world. However, many of us feel compassionate and invariably try to pick it up and bring it home to raise it until it is capable to flying. This may not be the right thing to do for various reasons… see HERE.

Due to the age of the chick and the clarity of the image, it is not at all easy to identify the species. However, according to KC Tsang, it may be a Buffy Fish Owl (Ketupa ketupu).