Jimmy Tan a.k.a. skylark was at the Panti Forest Reserve in Johor, Malaysia recently and caught sight of an adult male Scarlet-breasted Flowerpecker (Prionochilus thoracicus) eating a fig. He posted his images in NaturePixels and is sharing the above with us all.

Joseph Lai and Angie Ng identified the fig as brown-scurfy fig (Ficus consociata).

Figs are a favourite food with birds. The best known fig tree in Singapore is the waringin (Ficus benjamina) at the summit of Singapore’s Bukit Timah. And during every fruiting period for the past so many years, there would be myriads of birds attracted to it. This in turn attracted and will continue to attract, birdwatchers without fail: see HERE.

The only regret is that most of our birdwatchers are “listers” meaning they simply make a list of birds visiting the fig tree. And they do this year in and year out. These lists are conspicuous in their total absence of any critical assessment of the events. Details like how the different species of birds take the figs – whether they swallow them whole, take bites off the figs or squash them before eating - are simply ignored. Similarly, how the different species interact and behave around the figging tree do not interest birdwatchers: see HERE

Despite a challenge to birders to be more critical in their observations, made in October 2006, we have yet to see any bird behaviour reports on figging trees: see HERE.

Isn’t it time local birdwatchers do more than mere listing? Bird photographers are currently at the forefront of such observations. The above image by Jimmy should spur birdwatchers to break out of the 20-year stranglehold!

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.

Adeline Chia was taking the Southern Ridge walk in Singapore one day in June 2008 with a few friends…

“We were out for the Southern Ridges walk. We started from Habourfront, and was going towards the Henderson waves bridge where we stopped to see the open view of HDB estate before the bridge. Someone then pointed out a large black raptor to us, and we say that it was indeed very dark, and was perching on a large branch of a tree a distance away feeding on what I was told looked like a squirrel. It fed for quite some time and even called out a few times in the midst of feeding.

“My boyfriend took some shots of it, but as we only have a point and shoot camera it was of course not crystal clear with zoom. We had to continue our journey after 10 minutes or so and it was still feeding when we left.

“I searched through a few websites and came across your posting. on the pale and dark morph of the Changeable Hawk Eagle and it really looked like the dark morph of that eagle. But as I’m not a bird watcher it’s just very a casual guess.

“I’m wondering if someone here can help me to ID it and if I could attach a photo for this purpose.”

Adeline added: “The bird was spotted after Mount Faber, at an area with an open view of HDB flats slightly before entering the Henderson Waves Bridge.”

The images were sent to our bird specialist R Subaraj and his reply: “Its an eagle. Could be a dark phased Changeable Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus), though I cannot make out a crest. Appears more like a Black Eagle but that should not be in Singapore (sedentary resident in Malaysian highlands). The white bits are probably just moult or feathers that are out of place.”

Roger Moo a.k.a. cactus400D was in China around April 2008 when he visited Zhangjiajie in the province of Hunan, a popular tourist destination. Along the way, he stopped at a place called ‘Kingdom Village (Town of Fu Rong) - Wang Village’ and documented his most interesting encounter (above).

What he saw was some of the most beautiful local birds, pheasants mainly. But they were not in their natural habitat. Rather, they were prominently displayed in the front of the many shops along the main road (left). These shops were selling exotic meat for tourists, mainly local wildlife.

The most prominent birds displayed appeared to be the Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), also called Chinese Pheasant (below). These were hung with their full colourful plumage and long tail feathers dangling. The spectacularly beautiful male pheasant has a golden crest and rump, bright red body and exceedingly long and pointed tail feathers.

Also seen was the Lady Amherst’s Pheasant (C. amherstiae).

All images by Roger Moo.

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.

Tan Teo Seng brought me a nest of the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) from his fruit farm in Kota Tinggi, Johor, Malaysia (left). The chicks had just fledged and he collected the nest that was built attached to the slender stems of his hibiscus bush (Hibsicus rosa-sinensis). The plant is less than a metre tall but very bushy, such that the birds built the nest near to the ground.

The nest is a typical cup-shaped structure that the Yellow-vented Bulbul builds: 11 cm diameter and 8 cm high. The nest cavity is of 6cm diameter. It sits on a bed of dried leaves held in place by the fern stems.

The nesting material is mainly the pliable branched stems of the Dragon’s Scale Fern (Pyrrosia piloselloides) (left). These stems make up the outer layer of the nest, the longest being 32 cm. They are also used to attach the nest to the three slender main stems of the hibiscus.

Inner to the fern stems are a layer of dried leaves, including grass and bamboo leaves. Plant fibres line the inside of the nest cup, with a few strands of slender, herb stems.

The nesting materials consist of: 22 dried leaves, of which 3 are of durian (Durio zibethinus); 83 pieces of fern stems (Pyrrosia piloselloides); 24 bamboo leaves; and 118 fibre strands.

In May 2008 Adrian Lim a.k.a. wmw998 photographed a Blue-winged Minla (Minla cyanouroptera) catching and eating a moth in the highland of Peninsular Malaysia. He wrote that these minlas “behave very much like Mountain Fulvettas in their eating habit, but they move faster and most of the time, are at a higher level. They are also seen more often in the open than the Fulvettas. These shots were taken early in the morning.”

The bird held the moth in its foot (top) and used its bill to bash as well as rub it against the branch to stun and get rid of most of the scales, if not the wings themselves, before swallowing it (above, below).

This shy forest babbler is little known. Wells (2007), who calls it Blue-winged Minla, gives its food as a variety of berries, stating that no animal food has been identified.

Collars & Robson (2007) place it as a Siva. They believe that it is markedly different vocally from Minla and there is no evidence for a close relationship – thus Blue-winged Siva (Minla cyanouroptera). The food is recorded as “Insects, berries and seeds.”

Adrian has obviously uncovered a new food record for this babbler – a moth.

References:
1. Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. (2007). Family Timaliidae (Babblers). Pp. 70-291 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chikadees. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.
2. Wells, D.R. (2007). The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsular. Vol. II, Passerines. Christopher Helm, London.

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.