Photographers like to show images of Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis) carrying their chicks on their back. Indeed these images attract the most attention, as seen in the one above by Dr Jonathan Cheah Weng Kwong.

Most grebe species carry their chicks in a pocket formed between the wing and the dorsal feathers. This may be seen when the birds are on the nest, with the adult feeding the chicks when they are snug inside. When the adult is swimming, the chicks may be transported along inside the pocket. Occasionally when the adult dives, the chicks may still be inside the pocket.

The Little Grebe feeds on insects, molluscs, crustaceans, amphibians and some fish. The image above shows a chick swallowing a fish. Grebes have been known to eat their own feathers that form a characteristic feather-ball that lines the gizzard. This ball is regularly regurgitated in the form of a pellet containing the non-digested parts of the food like fish bones and insect exoskeleton.

However, feather eating and pellet casting have yet to be documented in the Little Grebes seen locally.

I have been keeping an eye on a nesting pair of Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) in my small belimbing tree (Averrhoa belimbi) for the whole of June 2008.

The birds took about a week to build their simple nest, tucked between the bases of the compound leaves near the top of one of the many leading shoots. The nest was not obvious and was just above eye-level. It looked just like a mass of dead leaves stuck on to the leaf bases (above left).

Whenever I walked past the tree, as I often did a few times a day, I could only see traces of the dried leaves that made up the nest. Tried as I did, I could not see any sign of a bird incubating the eggs. But a bird was always there. However, once I caught sight of a tail jutting out of the nest (above right). And once when I was watering my garden, I accidentally sprayed the tree where the nest was. A bulbul immediately flew off and perched on a nearby branch eyeing me suspiciously.

And for the last few weeks of June the adults were taking turn incubating the eggs, arriving and departing quietly. Only during these periods did the branch showed signs of disturbance. The eggs were not ready to hatch but probably about to. Once hatched there would be some commotions, as the chicks would beg for food as soon as the adults arrive.

But it was not to be. Hatching, I mean.

On the morning of 26th June, I was attracted to the nesting site by the clear view of the nest (left top). Not actually the nest but the nesting materials that scattered about among the leaf bases. Usually only traces of brown nesting materials were seen.

On close scrutiny, I was disappointed to find a number of the belimbing leaves detached and scattered on the ground below. The nest was in shambles but there were no traces of nesting materials on the ground, only the detached green leaves.

The nest must have been raided. The intensity of the attack left many leaves broken off from the stem and most of the nest gone. No traces of eggs even. All these must have been taken away during the attack.

A few days later I found part of the destroyed nest on another tree about 10 meters away (left bottom).

Who was responsible. Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis)? A squirrel or a monkey? But I have never seen monkeys in my garden, although they are around the area.

In June 2008 Nelson Khor posted images of the adult Oriental Pratincole (Glareola maldivarum) in breeding plumage and a juvenile, and commented that it: “Is common in Penang and Kedah in Malaysia, once they arrive, immediately they start nesting, when the juvenile are grown, they will start to move on and back to their home…”

The image of the juvenile above shows it stretching its right foot and wing at the same time. This appears to be a favourite comfort behaviour even with the adult (below).

Oriental Pratincole is an uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant to Singapore. In Peninsular Malaysia it a resident as well as a migrant.

The bird breeds in E Siberia, NE Mongolia, S Manchuria, China, India, Sri Lanka, S Japan, Taiwan, S Myanmar, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and as far south as Luzon.

It can be seen in open country, coastal pools, lakes, by rivers and dry rice fields.

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

From India comes a note from Ashwini Vaidya, on the preference of the Indian Silverbill (Lonchura malabarica) for old weaver nests.

“I have been following BESG for a while and find it really interesting. Sending my picture of Indian Silverbills occupying a Baya Weaver’s nest. They were abandoned, half completed nests and this is the second time I have seen Silverbills occupying nests made by weavers. The picture was taken in Hyderabad, India.“

Earlier in January 2007, Ashwini wrote “I was at Manjira WLS, Sangareddy on Sunday. We observed a curious thing there: a silverbill with a feather in its beak was perched on a tree that had several weaver bird nests. It was followed by a female(?) silverbill and both of them surveyed us standing close by. Then the bird with the feather fluttered into the weaver bird nest - it was one of those ‘two-storey’ nests and stayed there for a while. The other bird remained outside and kept uttering low chirp sounds. Then the first flew out, minus the feather. Looks like the silverbills were trying to use the weaver bird’s nest for themselves!”

Indian Silverbill is a small to medium-sized munia of the open country, scrub, cultivated areas and any areas associated with human dwellings. It is found throughout the Indian subcontinent and west to the Middle East.

Its nest is a somewhat irregular to ovoid sphere made of grass with an entrance at one end. It is built in bushes and trees up to 3 m above ground. According to Restall (1996) the Indian Silverbell also favours old weaver nests, like those of Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) and Streaked Weaver (Ploceus manyar).

Reference:
Restall, R. (1996). Munias and mannikins. East Sussex: Pica Press.

In my earlier post on the changing face of birding in Singapore, I lamented on the lack of bird behaviour observations made by local birders during the last few decades - a result of excessive twitching and listing. I also mentioned that bird photographers are currently at the forefront of behavioural studies.

I was thus pleasantly surprised when I found out about the latest publication on the brooding care of the Chestnut-bellied Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus sumatranus) by Alvin Lok and Lee Tiah Khee. Tiah Khee is an award-winning photographer who contributed all the spectacular images except one by Mark Chua – enter this LINK for a PDF copy of the paper.

The significance of this event is not so much the publication of a paper where a photographer is involved. This has been seen in a number of BESG’s publications (1, 2). What is significant is the collaboration of a photographer with someone outside of BESG.

There are plenty of bird behaviour observations by bird photographers that need to be written up and published in scientific journals. More suitably qualified people should come forward to help photographers publish their observations. It is heartening to see a biologist working closely with a photographer to bring out this scientific paper.

Congratulations to Alvin and Tiah Khee.

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Image of the malkoha feeding its chick by Lee Tiah Khee.