The Spotted Doves (Streptopelia chinensis) regularly came to my garden to feed as a pair. Their arrival would sometimes come after cooing. And in between feeding bouts one or the other would indulge in comfort behaviour. Only on 10th July 2010 did I notice affection between the pair. There was cooing before the pair flew down to the ground, with one bird continuing cooing with head bobbing. After some minutes picking up birdseeds, the pair suddenly faced each other and made bill contact. The act happened suddenly and lasted less than a second. The bill tips touched, pulled back and touched again. They then resumed feeding. A more prolonged act of affection happened later when the pair also indulged in allopreening. The presumed female preened the presumed male, both with eyes closed.

Sometimes the pair flew to the nearby tree and perched on separate branches after feeding, to subsequently come together on the same branch. There, they would touch bills, preen and preen each other.

On the afternoon of 22nd July, there was cooing with the pair perching on my neighbour’s house. The moment I entered the garden, both flew down and started touching bills. There were mutual rapid probing of bills, each session lasting a few seconds when the bill of one dove probed into the open bill of the other (above). Note that in the image below, the eyes are closed. Only after the ritual ended did the doves start feeding.

Can the above be courtship feeding?

Earlier parts can be accessed here: 1. Introduction, 2. Feeding behaviour; 3. Comfort behaviour; 4. Eyelids and 5. Family visit.

“The Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea) must be thriving as it is now quite a common bird in Singapore. Their presence is usually given away - not by sight, but from hearing their unmistakable, prominent calls. The male’s plumage appeared to be all-black, but is actually a dark metallic bluish sheen. The female’s plumage is brown, with whitish or light brownish speckles on the upperpart. The underpart is white with heavy brownish streaks that could also look like stripes. The long tail feathers of the female are barred.

“I have encountered a trio of Asian Koels recently - two females, which were having a duet, and a male, which barged in to spoil their party.

“It was 7:30 am in the morning when I was passing by and loud calls were heard. The calls were distinct and unmistakable, which I recognised to be from the Asian Koel. Upon investigation, I found two female Asian Koels hidden in the dense foliage of a tree (above left). The pair seemed to be performing a duet; alternating their two-syllables calls that sounded similar to their common name: “ko-el, ko-el”. Their heads and tails were in dance-like movements - moving up, down or sideways, jerking in rhythm with their constant calls (above right). They were not stationary but were moving constantly from branch to branch. Within sight of each other, they were never far apart. At times, they would be on the same branch moving closer to each other. As the distance between them shortened to less than a body-length, the face-off will be abruptly ended with one bird darting away to another branch. As there was no sign of aggression, it did not seem confrontational. It must be qualified that they were at times blocked from view by the dense foliage; hence, some action may have been missed.

“Later, one of the birds flew to another tree. The other bird quickly followed. Their duet performance resumed but it became more difficult to view the action as they stayed higher and were inside denser foliage.

“Finally, a male koel appeared and flew to their tree, making the same “ko-el, ko-el” calls as it approached (left). It did not perch for long. There was a sudden commotion as the male barged to where the females were and broke them up. After a short chase in the tree, one of the females flushed out of the tree with the male following closely behind. The other female was left alone in the tree while they disappeared into dense vegetation.

“Were the female koels trying to attract and court any male koel that was nearby?”

Kwong Wai Chong
Singapore
22nd June 2010

Myron Tay a.k.a. myrontay took an eleven-day trek up Arfak Mountains in Papua New Guinea in early 2010. It was tough going, walking up and down mountains through heavy mist and rain most of the time. Besides, he had to forgo a proper bath during the entire period. But it was worth the hardship as he encountered numerous colourful birds like birds of paradise that he would otherwise never see.

His encounter with the bower of the Vogelcop Bowerbird’s (Amblyornis inornata) was another highpoint of his trip. This rather common medium-sized bowerbird has a restricted range, present in the West Papuan Highlands EBA. Throughout this range it is common and thus not globally threatened.

The bower looks like a cone-shaped hut built around a central sapling and made entirely of sticks. There is a low entrance that opens out onto a large front lawn. The lawn is cleaned of debris and carefully laid out with a large bunch of pink flowers on one side and a black pile of bracket fungi on the other. Nearer to the entrance is another smaller pile of black objects, probably pieces of bracket fungi and what not. There is an orangy piece of unidentified object in the centre of the entrance.

The bower is constructed by the male, who is reported to spend 9-10 months a year building and maintaining it. Its purpose is to attract the female. The male after mating plays no part in the brooding and raising of the chicks.

A BBC video of the courtship ritual of this bowerbird in his bower can be viewed HERE.

Image by Myron Tay.

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

Mike Tan’s (a.k.a. woof) documentation of the courtship of the Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) shows the pair indulging in allopreening of the head area (above). Note that the eyes of both are covered with the nictitating membrane, although in another image not shown here, one bird has its eyes open.

The stage of the courtship documented here is apparently advanced, probably missing earlier display of head bowing, etc. This is confirmed as immediately after, the female crouched and the male jumped on her back (left).

With the female standing on firm ground, there is no problem about losing her balance as when on a perch. Even then, her wings are somewhat stretched to provide balance. The male on the other hand has a harder time balancing himself with his wings as his tail maneuvers beneath hers to effect the classic cloacal kiss. Note that his body feathers are all fluffed.

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

Images by Mike Tan.

One of the attractions of the Dairy Farm Nature Park is the Singapore Quarry, sited at the south-western end. And the main attraction of the quarry pool is the Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), an uncommon resident. First recorded in 1992 at a pond in Punggol, by 1994 a few were noticed feeding and breeding across the Serangoon River. By 1996 the number increased to 27 birds, helped by colonisation from nearby Malaysia. Unfortunately habitat destruction caused the number to once again decline but by 2005 a pair was found breeding in Serangoon. See HERE and HERE for more information.

Since then the Little Grebe has slowly spread to other parts of Singapore.

This shy bird will immediately dive into the water when approached. It is difficult to get near for any meaningful observation and photography. But Samson Tan was fortunate on the evening of 4th April, 2010. It was a wet day and still drizzling around 1600 hours when he was there. Four grebes suddenly appeared in two different locations opposite the platform where he was. The Little Grebes then put on a rare performance, the courtship ritual that few have the opportunity to witness, let alone document.

One of a pair swam away for a short distance before spurting off with a combined “walking-and-flying” on the water surface with wings flapping wildly. Once some distance away, it turned around and repeated the movements until it was in front of its mate. This courtship ritual was accompanied by loud vocalisation by both birds. The other pair similarly did their courtship ritual as well.

According to Limona & del Hoyo (1992), grebes carry out various highly characteristic ritualised displays, in which the female plays almost as active a role as the male. With the genera Tachybaptus, to which Little Grebe belongs, courtship is highly vocal. With other species, a “head-shaking ceremony” carried with varying degrees of intensity may be occur. And this may serve as an introduction to ceremonies when “the two birds station themselves opposite one another, with their necks erect; both are silent, and they shake their heads, either quickly up and down, or slowly from side to side.” Or a more elaborate “weed ceremony” seen in is the Great Crested Grebe where “both swim away from each other in an extremely ceremonious manner, with a contact “twanging-call”, until each ceremoniously submerges. After several seconds, both reappear, one after the other, each with a billful of weeds, and they quickly moves towards each other, before suddenly rising up vertically, breast to breast, treading water vigorously, in order to keep position, and rocking their heads quickly from side to side, to produce a beautiful dance.

Reference:
Limona, F. & J. del Hoyo, 1992. Family Podicipedidae (Grebes). In: del Hoyo, J., A. Elliott & J. Sargatal (eds.), Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 1. Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Editions, Barcelona. Pp. 174-196.