Samson Tan of manta’s experience… had the good fortune to photograph the courtship feeding of the Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea). This seldom-witnessed feeding occurred at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on 16th February 2010 (left).

Asian Koels are extremely shy birds, often heard but seldom seen. The bird will always move behind some foliage to avoid being noticed. And seldom is the male and the female spotted together. Thus to observe them together and in courtship feeding is a rare sight indeed.

Payne (1997) reports: “In a number of brood-parasitic cuckoos, including the Spotted Cuckoo and other members of the genus Clamator, the male, having attracted a mate by calling, will then offer her a caterpillar. This mate-feeding is not infrequently followed by copulation.” Payne (2005) quotes Lamba (1969) and Higgins (1999) as mentioning courtship feeding in the Asian Koel. But we are not aware of reports of such behaviour for this region.

References:
1. Higgins, P. J. (ed.), 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic birds. Vol. 4, Parrots to dollarbirds. Oxford University Press, London.
2. Lamba, B. S., 1969. The nidification of some common Indian birds - part 12. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 66: 72-80.
3. Payne, R.B., 1997. Family Cuculidae (cucoos). In: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott & J. Sargatal (eds.), Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 4. Sandgrouse to Cuckoos. Lynx Editions, Barcelona. Pp.508-607.
4. Payne, R.B., 2005. The cuckoos. Oxford University Press. 618 pp.

“This pair of Blue-tailed Bee-eaters (Merops philippinus philippinus) was hawking for insects from this branch. It was interesting to note the behaviour of the Blue-tailed Bee-eater on the right. As the partner/friend flew in with a catch, it began to “wag the tail” and get all fluffed up in anticipation. It then continued the ”wagging” and seemed to “beg” for a bite/to eat the prey. Only when it was sure that it was not going to be fed did it return to usual behaviour.

“Not sure if this is a juvenile who has recently become an adult or just a mate expecting a feed.”

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ex-mining pools around Gua Tempurung
Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia
29th December 2009

Note: Maybe the bird on the right is a female expecting to be fed in courtship? And maybe the priority of male was more to eat than to mate?

For most of 2006 and after, a Great Hornbill (Buceros bicronis) and a Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), both had somehow escaped from captivity, were seen regularly at a patch of secondary growth at Eng Neo (1 and 2). The pair was prospecting a tree cavity along the trunk of an old albezia tree (Paraserianthes falcataria), a normal courtship ritual in hornbills. Obviously there would be no breeding as the pair was of different species, besides both being females.

In early 2009, The Singapore Hornbill Project trapped the pair, caged the Great in the Jurong BirdPark and later released the Rhinoceros.

The plan was to re-introduce a male Rhinoceros Hornbill into the wild to provide a mate for the female Rhinoceros, now that its female Great companion was safely caged.

The caged male Rhinoceros was left at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve to attract the free-flying female Rhinocrous, and hopefully the two would bond and take the “straight and narrow” path.

The female Rhinoceros did initially visit the caged male but subsequently left, never to return. However, a resident from nearby Johor in Malaysia reported seeing a Rhinoceros Hornbill flying around the Johor Baru padang in late 2009. This could possibly be the missing bird. As of today, the missing Rhinoceros Hornbill has yet to be located, despite the GPS tracking device attached to it, which by now would no longer be working.

Meanwhile the caged male escaped and was subsequently found by an amateur angler floating in the sea, probably as a result of exhaustion. The Jurong BirdPark was informed and the hornbill is now safely back in the park.

Hornbills apparently bond for life - I suppose regardless of whether they are of different species, in addition to being of the same sex. After all, don’t they mate “for better or for worse”?

This may well be wishful thinking, but now that we know the female Rhinoceros is not interested in a male bird of the same species, should not the female Great that is currently caged in the Jurong BirdPark be released? …in an effort to lure back the missing female Rhinoceros and allow both to fly free? After all, the escaped female Great had been enjoying her freedom for probably more than a decade, as sightings of Great Hornbills were reported as early as 1986.

Admittedly the Great Hornbill is not native to Singapore, and conventional wisdom believes that it should be caged, but Singapore is constantly seeing exotic birds flying freely. Recently two other exotic hornbill species were sighted - Narcondam Hornbill (Rhyticeros narcondami) that is confined to the Narcondam and Andaman Islands and Southern Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri), found in parts of Kenya, Burundi, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. I wonder where these two species escaped from?

Anyone sighting a stray Rhinoceros Hornbill in Singapore or nearby Johor, please keep us informed. Marc Cremades, who is spearheading the Singapore Hornbill Project, is eager to locate the wayward bird. The bird can be recognised by the GPS pack attached to its back.

Image by YC Wee.

Irfan Choo photographed three Chestnut-winged Babblers (Stachyris erythroptera) perching together at the Sandakan Rainforest Discovery Centry, Sabah, Malaysia during the last Christmas holidays. The three birds all show their iridescent blue throat patches.

An earlier post by KC Tsang describes the male Chestnut-winged Babbler exposing his bluish patches on either side of his puffed up throat whenever he sings his courtship song. Dr Jonathan WK Cheah similarly describes a male exposing his patches while singing and bobbing his head.

Can it be assumed that only males have the blue patches? And that the three babblers in the image are all males?

Smythies (1999) describes the ritual thus: “Members of this group, while calling and displaying, lean forwards with head and tail down, rump feathers fluffed up, and slide along their perches, chase and snap at one another. The body, tail and perch are all vibrated. This behaviour is exactly like that described for Chestnut-rumped Babbler.” However, there is no mention of the blue patches being exposed.

Collars (2007), on the other hand, simply states that this babbler, “…when singing, shows blue, pale-green or violet bare neck skin.” But there is no mention whether these patches are seen in both sexes or only in the male.

Wells (2007) describes thus, “…two or more birds regularly perch huddled together side by side. …members sway from side to side, crane heads forward or up, and swell throats to expose lateral patches of bare blue skin (Teesdale, 1972).” Again, no indication that only the male exposes the blue patches.

Among birds, mostly the male sings. And if the Chestnut-winged Babbler sings and displays the blue patches, then it can be assumed that it is the male that has the patches. However, in some species both the males and females sing (Kroodsma, 2004) and we have no information that only the male Chestnut-winged Babbler sings, not the female.

So can anyone confirm that only the male Chestnut-rumped Babbler has the blue patches?

References:
1. Collar, N. J. & C. Robson, 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers). In: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott & J. Sargatal (eds.). Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chikadees. Lynx Editions, Barcelona. Pp. 70-291.
2. Kroodsma, D. E., 2004. Vocal behavior. In: Clark, G. A. Jr., 2004.. Pp. 3.1-3.70 in Podulka, S., Rohrbaugh, R.W. Jr & Bonney, R. (eds.), Handbook of bird biology. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY. Pp. 7.99-7.98.
3. Smythies, B. E., 1999. Birds of Borneo. Natural History Publications & The Sabah Society, Kota Kinabalu. (4th ed., revised). 853 pp.
4. Wells, D.R., 2007. The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsular. Vol. II, Passerines. Christopher Helm, London. 800 pp.

Image by Irfan Choo.

As with many birds, feeding of the female by the male is an item of courtship in the Indian Skimmer (Rynchops albicollis). The male offers a fish and the female accepts it (above left), clamping it in her bill (above right). Only then will she allow the male to mount her (below), followed by copulation (bottom). All this time the female holds on to the fish in her bill, swallowing it only after the act is completed.

“It’s fish for sex when you are an Indian Skimmer at Chambal River…” says Ingo Waschkies, who was in India recently to document the episode. “Actually it was quite funny, he arrived with two fish, then presented one as a gift. He ate his fish and then proceeded to do his skimmer thingie while she kept the fish for après.”

This courtship behaviour is similar to that of the Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) found in the Americas (Zusi, 1996).

Reference:
Zusi, R. L., 1996. Family Rynchopidae (Skimmers). In: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott & J. Sargatal (eds.) Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 3. Hoatzin to Auks. Lynx Editions, Barcelona. Pp. 668-677.

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