On 29th April 2007, Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS found a dead adult Blue Winged Pitta (Pitta moluccensis). It was lying on the grass next his guest bedroom windows at Canning Garden in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The windows were then closed.

“We have spotted this pitta a number of times in the past six years in our urban garden. This time (in 2007) we were surprised to find an adult bird dead in the garden despite looking in prime of health.

“Some views of the bird (top, above) as well as a few feathers we took to remember the pitta by. We buried it in our garden.

“Fortunately we still see the Blue-winged Pitta in our garden almost every migration season - alive!”

“At Changi Business Park late this afternoon, one of my habitual weekend dog walking haunts, I saw a flock of at least 100, perhaps double that, Daurian Starlings (Purple-backed Starlings) (Sturnus sturninus). At first they were flitting from tree to tree near the large lake, chirruping away to each other, and it took me a while to work out what they were - despite their relative commonness, I have never actually positively ID’ed one before. 


“About ten minutes later I came across them again, and something flushed them from the trees they were in. They instantly coalesced into a formation and soared and swooped and whirled, the late afternoon sun catching their pale underparts.

“A beautiful sight, and one I have not seen in Singapore before. It reminded me of my childhood in England where I would see vast cloud-like flocks of Common Starlings (S. vulgaris, though I didn’t have any idea then, other than just ‘starlings’). 

It made my day!”

Howard Banwell
11th October 2009

Note: The Purple-backed Starling is a common winter visitor and passage migrant to Singapore, flocking in large numbers in many parts of the main island. Such sights can be seen around September-October and again in March. An earlier post can be seen HERE.

Jeffery K. Chan documented a series of images showing a female Blue-winged Leafbird (Chloropsis cochinchinensis) eating an adult male Green Katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) or long-horned grasshopper.

This leafbird regularly catches grasshoppers, including large ones. Here, the bird would have earlier subdued the grasshopper and in the process removed the limbs (above left). It then swallowed the insect head-first, wings and all (above right, below left). It apparently had one of the limbs with it, seen in the images (above right, below left) as the tinge of yellow to the right of the bird and on the branch, eating it last (below right).

An earlier post showed a Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) dismembered a long-horned grasshopper before eating it, unlike this leafbird that swallowed it without dismembering it.

Images by Jeffery K. Chan, Dr Leong Tzi Ming identified the grasshopper.

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

“I have been watching birds feed on the Neem Tree (Azadirachta indica) in our garden for more than 10 years and recognise that it is an important food source for garden birds. It is also a useful “fruit tree” to attract birds to the garden. The Neem tree has a fruit that is oval, approximately 1×1.5 cm in size and has a skin covering, a thin pulp and a hard seed.

“Birds that feed on the Neem fruit in our garden include:
1. Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier analis)
2. Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis)
3. Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
4. Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis strigata)
5. Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans)
6. Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata hodgsoni)
7. Common Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea)

“Of these the Yellow-vented Bulbuls are the commonest. It also feeds the fruit to its young. It has been hard to capture this because the Yellow-vented Bulbuls, after plucking the ripe fruit, take it to our roof to ‘process’. They are very friendly birds but not excited for me to take photographs, while they are feeding on the roof, with me nearby with a large black object in hand (camera). I have observed the behaviour often with the naked eye.

“The above composite shows a sequence of feeding (numbered). Was fortunate to already be on the roof (noon day) and this was on the neighbour’s roof taken through lots of foliage, hence occasionally a bit blur:

#1 - After plucking, the Neen fruit is brought to the roof.
#2-4 - The fruit is positioned many times, put on the roof for readjustment (in this occasion
3 times), so that the bird can squeeze the closed end of the fruit.
#5-6 - Finally the ripe pulp and seed are ejected from (squeezed out from) the skin
covering the fruit.
#7-9 - The bulbul then swallows the pulp together with the seed whole.

“At peak fruiting we see large numbers of these empty shells on our roof or patio floor daily.

“All the birds listed above swallow the pulp and seed whole without the skin but most can do it while still in the tree. What puzzles me is that the volume of flesh (pulp) is small compared to the large seed, thus many fruits need to be eaten.

“Of course we have many Neem tree seedlings growing in our neighborhood as the Yellow-vented Bulbuls and others help propagate this tree.”

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
17th October 2009

Note: The neem, also known as margosa tree, has been used in ayurvedic medicine since ancient times. In fact the Indians consider the tree a pharmacy in its own right. Every part of the plant has its use, from treating malaria, sores, boils, wounds, hemorrhoids to expelling intestinal worms and protecting the hair from lice. The twigs are used as a toothbrush and to prevent gum infection. In ancient times libraries in India used the leaves to keep books free from mites and other insects. Hindu devotees in Singapore and ?Malaysia carry a bunch of leaves together with two lemons as they walk across a pile of glowing lumps of coal during the festival of Theemithi.

Adrian Lim’s a.k.a wmw998 image of the Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) was taken in Australia. After all, the bird is endemic to that continent.

The frogmouth’s distinctive feature is its wide, strong bill, thus its common name, frogmouth. The bird takes large insects, centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, spiders, crustaceans, frogs, lizards, rodents, birds and small mammals. It has been known that some frogmouth crush their prey or bash them up against the perch until the bones are crushed before swallowing them.

The prominent feature, besides the mouth, are the well developed facial bristles. However, these are less prominent in the Tawny Frogmouth then in other species. The function of these bristles is not known. The longer bristles in other species may assist in directing prey into the mouth. Or they may have a tactile function.

Image by Adrian Lim.

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