Adrian Lim a.k.a wmw998 documented a pair of courting Blue-eared Barbet (Megalaima australis) in Malaysia sometime in May 2008

The female was perching on a branch of a tree doing nothing in particular. Suddenly there was a loud call, made by a male nearby. He had food in his bill but this did not prevent him from making “such sweet music” as described by Adrian (left). The male was puffing and blowing to expand his throat pouch. As the pouch expanded, it pushed aside the black feathers that make up the black upper breast band, exposing a smooth, rounded, black sac.

The female was attracted to the male’s display but waited for him to come close and make his courtship offering of food. Only then was there copulation. Each act of copulation was preceded by an offer and actual transference of a succulent fig to the female (below). No fig, no sex! *

This courtship feeding of fruits followed by copulation went on for a number of times, as is typical of barbets (below).

In the image below the male is covering the female with his wings in another act of copulation.

The courtship feeding of the Blue-eared appears different from that of the Coppersmith (M. haemacephala). Whereas the former offered one fig per act of copulation, the latter often got away with less number of fruit as compared with number of copulations - often getting away with two for the price of one. Such behaviour was confirmed by another observation where the Coppersmith managed to copulate with the female, to only release the fruit after and not before. And then he mounted her a second time without offering a second fruit. Two for the price of one!

During mating, singing by the pair is incessant and simultaneous, with head bobbling, side to side tail movement, all these in an aggressively looking manner (Short & Horne, 2002).

Adrian confirms the above with his statement about the male: “Blue-eared Barbet seems to make very loud noise most of the time, when it is not having a female or attracting a female… Normally, it sounds like ‘CHIOK CHIOK’, and it can be doing that for minutes at a time. I have a feeling that it is trying to make its presence known to other males. This is a ‘territorial behaviour’ perhaps!

“However, when it is courting a female, or trying to attract a female to a certain perch or tree, the noise is much gentler and softer, and totally different from the ‘CHIOK CHIOK’. I can’t describe the sound to you in words, but in both cases, you can see the black sac.”

There seems to be no mention of the prominent black throat pouch in the literature. As such, this can be a first record in the Blue-eared Barbet, or any barbet for that matter. Discussion of this throat pouch will be posted in the next few days. So stay tuned!

Addenda:
“I have to clarify here that the courtship is a process that is likely to continue for a few days at the least, between the pair. It is not a case of a male going out to have a ‘good time’, spotted a female and making a lot of noise to attract it! In my opinion, the birds had already ‘accepted’ each other, and so the offer of food was like feeding a young, nothing spectacular, no noise making at all, even when the ACT was over. The only time that the gentle sound was made was when the female bird flew off for reason such as disturbance by other birds or animals, and the male wanted to call it back to the same tree.” Adrian, 1st June 2008

*Adrian has written in to clarify that there were occasions when “…the male bird would feed the female continuously, and only once in a while, got on top of her, though still with the food held in the beak and about to offer her.” 4th June 2008.

Reference:
Short, L. L. & Horne, J. F. M. (2002). Family Capitonidae (Barbets). Pp. 140-219 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 7. Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.

All images 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.

In August 2007 Adrian Lim a.k.a. wmw998 had the rare opportunity of witnessing a Gold-whiskered Barbet (Megalaima chrysopogon) capturing a small bird in Taman Rimba Ampang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The barbet was first spotted in the tree, looking for fruits and possibly insects (above). Along came a small bird that Adrian thought was a juvenile sunbird, also looking for food. Then suddenly, the ’sunbird’, flew off into the bushes, followed by the barbet.

The next thing Adrian saw “…was the fluffy thing flying around, and I thought the barbet had just got a big moth. Not until I stopped shooting did I realise that the barbet was actually having the sunbird in its beak, and was shaking it around and trying to swallow it (above).

“The barbet then went up to another tree, still trying to swallow the sunbird… Not sure what happened after.”

Well, the barbet was bashing the hapless prey against the branch it was perching on (below)

According to KC Tsang, the prey does not look like a sunbird. Its bill is not long and curved enough. It is possibly a flowerpecker, a newly fledged flowerpecker. Look at the prominent yellow oral flanges lining the bill.

Barbets have always been known to be fruit eaters. And they are always seen around fruiting fig trees. Ornithologists believe that it very seldom takes birds although Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata) has been recorded to eat birds’ eggs and nestlings as well as frogs and lizards (Short & Horne, 2002).

As far as Gold-whiskered Barbet is concerned, very little about its food other than fruits is known. Until of course, Dr. Redzlan Abdul Rahman photographed a Gold-whiskered Barbet catching and eating a Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) at his backyard in Raub, Malaysia.

Now, we have another report of this same barbet eating a recently fledged flowerpecker. Yes, another new record indeed. And would you believe it, both instances have been recorded by photographers.

Barbets are very aggressive birds, always looking for a fight, especially when food is concerned. They are also aggressive when intruders approach their nesting and roosting cavities. Short & Horne (2002) report that “interspecific aggression is most evident in the breeding season, when ‘innocent’ birds of species that are not nest-hole competitors are attacked without cause.”

The bill of the barbet is stout, pointed and not flattened laterally (above). This is an adaptation for excavating nesting cavities in rotting tree trunks and branches. It is definitely not adapted for tearing flesh. Thus it has to bash the bird it catches to break it up before swallowing. Unfortunately, there has been on observation on whether it tears the prey to pieces to swallow them separately.

It is to be noted that in eating fruits, small ones are swallowed whole while larger ones are first broken up and then crushed to a pulp by the mandibles before swallowing. Even in eating large and armoured insect, they need to be bashed before swallowing. What more a bird!

Reference:
Short, L. L. & Horne, J. F. M. (2002). Family Capitonidae (Barbets). Pp. 140-219 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 7. Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.

All images by Adrian Lim.

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.

On 2nd May 2008, Dr. Redzlan Abdul Rahman photographed a Gold-whiskered Barbet (Megalaima chrysopogon) catching an Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) at his backyard in the Pahang town of Raub in Malaysia.

The barbet caught the sparrow in the jambu tree (Syzygium sp.) and flew across the small stream, to perch on a branch of the petai tree (Parkia speciosa) (above). There, it bashed the helpless sparrow again and again on the branch (below) until most of its feathers dropped off and the bird was literally smashed.

“I didn’t believed my eyes when I saw this. The Gold-whiskered Barbet caught the bird for its breakfast.” It then ate parts before flying off with the remainder, “…to finished it off, or maybe giving to its chicks” (below).

Dr Redzlan photographed the bird at 0748 hours and the exciting drama lasted about 12 minutes.

Barbets eat fruits mainly, especially figs, although most members of the family Capitonidae, to which barbets belong, are known to have a mixed diet that include animal food. Animal food also comes into play when feeding nestlings, especially immediately after hatching.

They are sufficiently opportunistic to take advantage of arthropods (invertebrates with exoskeleton) when the opportunity arises. These include termites during their mating flight, ants, dragonflies, cicadas, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, bees, hornets, moths, mantids, stick-insects and a few others.

Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata) has been reported to eat birds’ eggs and nestlings as well as frogs and lizards (Short & Horne, 2002). However, there is no record of the Gold-whiskered Barbet taking a bird or even a nestling. This would be the first record. The Gold-whiskered is a canopy bird and very little is known about its food and foraging habits. What is known is that it takes fruits such as figs and berries. And based on circumstantial evidence, insects have been included as another food item.

Reference:
Short, L. L. & Horne, J. F. M. (2002). Family Capitonidae (Barbets). Pp. 140-219 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 7. Jacamars to Woodpeckers. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.

“When article ‘An Uncouth Avian Cowboy Comes to Town’ was posted last February (see HERE), I least expected my good fortune to again witnessed another act of copulation by a pair of uncouth Coppersmith Barbets (Megalaima haemacephala), Kama and Sutrajee, who seemed to love kamasutric performances in an open-air auditorium.

“The stage scene was by no means in a romantic perfumed garden or near any golden lotus ponds, but a far cry up on an old skeletal tree branch, across a brackish river for the world to see. The familiar calls of tok! tok! tok! like a working coppersmith sent my head turned, just in time to witness Kama flying in with a beakfull of berries to the awaiting Sutrajee.

“The stage was set for Act 1, Scene 1 of an early matinee side show.

“The two groups of images above and below are to be viewed from top-left clockwise - a sequence showing the art of Avian KamaSutra.

“Potentially, this is what an Avian Kamasutra’s erotic literature may read like - my excerpts written below to add another new dimension in avian writing.

“’Like an angel of the morning, Kama flew in, bearing gifts of berries for fair exchange of an equal number of sensual bonks. Disguised to look like macho Batman, baring his ribby chest, the rogue pumped his seeds of essence into Sutragee, sending her swooning in the warmth of his feathery wings, in ecstasy and screaming for more…. Ohh…. more! for those balmy berries.

In that split few seconds of sensual delight, the aura of warm, white light that surrounded Kama glowed …. only to disappear like magic. Having spent his seeds, they became strangers before the night went cold… …..’

“Mmmm… now cut the chase and back to the real.

“It was observed no berries were offered to Sutrajee until after copulation took place - a universal condition that Coppersmith Barbets seemed to have become known for their classical rogue behaviours.

“The 11cm Kama seemed to be able to count the number of berries offered. Images showed more than two berries. I stayed long enough to see the return of the Shylock for Act 2 Scene 1.

“It is also known to observe frugivorous females whose expectations fall short of what males could best deliver or be felt exploited for whatever reasons, would discreetly play foul and expel the sperms like a quick Chinese spit. To discard bad seeds so to speak (above)!

“The sulking of Sutrajee said it all (left). I would not dare to intervene in a lover’s quarrel.

“This is my 32nd contributed article and will be my last for this season of birds of Malaysia for now until after my vacation.

Pray well and let the iron bird flies me across oceans, chase rainbows and bring back stories of Aves from the Land of the Southern Cross to delight.

“Until then…”

Note: Most images were taken by digiscopy at long distance shots of no less than 60 feet away against a morning sky. While some are quite satisfactory to show, others had to be photo-shopped to death).

AVIAN WRITER DAISY O’NEILL PENANG MALAYSIA © AVIAN KAMA & SUTRAJEE

In the town of Raub, in Pahang, Malaysia, Muhammad Firdaus Redzlan was observing a Gold-wiskered Barbet (Megalaima chrysopogon) cleaning up a nesting cavity in a trunk of a tree. Young Muhammad informed his father who kept watch the next morning.

The barbet returned to check on the cavity. But before Dr Redzlan Abdul Rahman could record the visit, the bird flew off. He waited for an hour that morning but the barbet did not return. Instead, a pair of Common Flamebacks (Dinopium javanense) arrived and duly inspected the cavity (above: male left, female right).

In the evening Dr Redzlan again kept watch. No barbet. But this time a pair of Javan Mynas (Acridotheres javanicus) came, poked their heads into the hole to inspect it (above). They were probably looking for food. Or were they prospecting for a nesting cavity?

Then late that evening he saw a Gold-wiskered Barbet (probably male) perched high up on the tree with food in his mouth. The bird did not inspect the hole but instead flew off with the food in his bill.

This barbet arrived from the west the next day to perch on the branch of the same tree (left). It rested for a while before proceeding east, always with some yellowish food in his bill. Parent birds normally do not fly directly to its nest to feed the chicks. They always land some distance away, to check whether it is safe to proceed, before flying to the nest. This may be what the barbet was doing.

The cavity appeared to have been abandoned as there was no sign of the barbet visiting it during the following two weeks. But the mynas and woodpeckers kept on checking the cavity.

Many birds are hole nesters but not all such birds are capable of excavating their very own nesting cavities. Only birds like barbets and woodpeckers excavate cavities in old and rotting tree trunks and branches. Others have to make do with natural cavities that develop as the wood rots. Or else depend on second-hand cavities, cavities once used by other birds but now abandoned.

Old and dying trees are never permanent. As they rot, the limbs collapse and eventually even the trunk gives way. Such trees pose a danger to life and limbs, especially around human habitation, so they are routinely removed.

Nesting cavities are thus always in short supply. Competition will always be fierce and some birds even go to the extent of physically removing the residing birds. See HERE for an account of the confrontation between the Long-tailed Parakeet (Psittacula longicauda) and the Dollarbirds (Eurystomus orientalis).

One way to reduce this housing shortage is to provide nest boxes. However, we are way behind the west in the use of and research on nesting boxes. But we have made a start with the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris).