GS Soh was at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on the morning of 15th February 2009 and documented a pair of Copper-throated Sunbird (Leptocoma calcostetha) (above: male left, female right), Crimson Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja) (below left) and an Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus) (below right) enjoying a leaf-bath.

February 2009 was a hot month with intermittent rain. The birds must be feeling the heat. As soon as there was a bout of rain, some birds must have enjoyed the droplets by not taking shelter. Others, like these birds, took advantage of the droplets that collected on the larger leaves after the rain to enjoy a leaf-bath.

These birds typically land on the leaf and moved their bodies about to wet their feathers. Once the birds had wiped the leaf clean, they moved away to preen.

Leaf-bathing is one method of feather maintenance, that includes anting, water bathing and preening.

Images by GS Goh.

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

Willis was in Darwin, Australia in January 2009 when he was at the carpark of Casuarina Mall, the biggest mall in Darwin…

“Every evening, hundreds of lorikeets and to a lesser extent, White-breasted Woodswallows (Artamus leucorynchus), come in to roost at the carpark… Although photographically very cluttered and not possible to get a good shot, it was quite funny observing them fighting for best position.”

White-breasted Woodswallows are more sociable that other woodswallows. They often cram together in groups of 10-50, sitting side by side along a branch, often preening one another. This is how they roost at night, under foliage. They seldom land on the ground, catching insects on the wing.

Reference:
Schodde, R. & S. C. Tidemann (eds.), 1986. Reader’s Digest, complete book of Australian birds.Reader’s Digest, Sydney. 639 pp. (2nd ed.)

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

“The birds, I guess, were in the stage of courtship, and at the same time, looking for location to burrow. The threesome puzzled me a bit. Perhaps they were young birds, two males, trying to impress a female.

“Alone, I just couldn’t tell if it was a male or a female… When it comes to courtship, and perhaps fighting to win the opposite sex, plenty of actions can be seen. This is when the birds become most charismatic. The birds also become oblivious to your presence, unless you are real, real close!

“There was actually another bird watching and ready to join in the action of these two birds, but I have cropped it out. Now this is love at first bite!”

Adrian Lim
Malaysia
6th January 2009

Note:
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti) nest alone or in groups of six to eight pairs. Colonies of hundreds of nests have also been located.

Some species of bee-eaters, especially those that breed in colonies, have complex social relations. A colony may include from 15 to 25 families, with members of each family feeding, roosting and breeding cooperatively. Here, non-breeding males of a family help to feed the young of the most closely related breeding pair.

However, in Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, nest helper have not been detected (Fry & Fry, 1992).

References;
1. Fry, C.H. & K. Fry, 1992. Kingfishers, bee-eaters and rollers. New Jersey, Princeton University Press. 324 pp.
2. Gill, F. B., 2007. Ornithology. W. H. Freeman & Co., New York.

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

The image of a Red-eyed Bulbul (Pycnonotus brunneus) eating a piece of capsicum or chilli (Capsicum annuum) was taken in Belum, Malaysia. Howard Banwell kindly made it available to BESG..

Why birds and chillies? Well, on 9th February 2009, Sun Chong Hong wrote in response to a post on a Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) swallowing figs whole.

“This brings back memory of my childhood. About forty, fifty years ago I noticed the ripened chili padi potted in our garden always went missing, while the pedicel and calyx remain attached to the plant. I always wondered who was the culprit that stole the fruit, until one day I saw a Yellow-vented Bulbul swallowing the ripened fruit whole, with its beak pointing upwards to the sky.”

Bulbuls are well known for taking these fiery hot chillies, especially the small chill padi.

Birds do have taste buds, but these are usually few in number. And these buds are not found on the tongue or at the tongue’s tip. They are usually on the roof of the mouth or deep in the oral cavity.

But then birds do not chew their food. They may manipulate it in their bill or tear off pieces, but then they swallow the pieces whole, without giving them time to taste it.

Image by Howard Banwell.

Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) is known to forage in shallow waters, catching small fish, prawns, frogs and other vertebrates. In the image shown above, Lee Tiah Khee caught the bittern in the act of catching a frog along a patch of water weeds.

KC a.k.a. Pittalover has similarly photographed this bittern catching a frog in a January 2009 posting. He sighted the bittern “‘frogging’ in the watery grassland at Tuas. It was so focused on catching its breakfast that it did not seem to be bothered by our close approach. I’m glad we did not flush away its meal.”

Image by Lee Tiah Khee.

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