Tan Teo Seng brought me what looked like a larger than usual munia’s nest (1, 2) on 7th July 2008. It had two entrances, one above, the other below. It was inadvertently cut off when his worker did some heavy pruning of his Duranta erecta shrub in his garden in Johor, Malaysia.

The structure was actually two nests, built side by side. The upper was 13 x 19 cm with an opening diameter of 3.5 cm; the lower 12 x 16 cm with a 3 cm opening. Both were ovals, the openings overhung with isolated pieces of grass inflorescence stalks.

After measurements the nests were left on a table in the porch. The top nest was empty as I could see the inside. The bottom nest appeared to be empty also.

In the evening I suddenly heard the chattering of what appeared to be a number of chicks begging for food. The sound appeared to come from the porch roof. As suddenly as it started, the sound ended a few minutes later. I was to hear the chirping on and off the next day. However, I could not locate the nesting area nor see and adult birds approaching to feed the chicks.

On the morning of 9th July, as I was standing by the two nests on the low table, the chirping suddenly started. Again it appeared to come from above. Imagine my surprise when I happened to glance at the nests and saw a chick at the entrance begging for food.

Only then did I realise that the chirping came from one of the two nests. The chicks moved out of the nest entrance to reveal another. The second chick was persuaded to emerge. There was a third but it appeared stuck inside. Only by carefully cutting the nest did I manage to extract it. There were a fourth, a fifth and a sixth. All were crammed inside the 7 x 8 cm nesting space and the cramming obviously caused the sixth and smallest chick to die. The image below (left) shows the five live chicks while the right image the sixth dead chick.

The five chicks were placed in a basin and fed with a liquid mixture of leftover boiled carrot soup. Initially, each chick was hand-held and persuaded to open its bill to accept the liquid food in drops, delivered via a dropper. In subsequent feedings a few of the chicks enthusiastically pushed their throats into the top of the dropper to receive the food.

The chicks were used to huddle together in the tight nest space (right top) and when given space to move around in the basin, still huddled together, the larger chicks climbing over the backs of the smaller.

It was easier to feed them thus. As each chick gaped, I was able to place drops of food into its throat. There was always fierce competition to be fed first. All five ate well. After each feed the throat pouch swelled (right bottom).

The scrambling, one on top of the other, apparently caused two other chicks to die on the 10th July, leaving three of the more healthy ones.

Sadly, the remaining three chicks died the next day. Did they die because of the feed? Do they need to be fed solid? Were they weakened because they were left without food during the first two days?

According to Teo Seng, he had earlier observed about six adult munias popping out one by one from the same two nests one evening when he was near the plant. He was not able to confirm from which of the two nests these birds flew out from but he was definite that they flew out of the nest/s. Otherwise all the birds would have flown off together when disturbed.

The literature mention egg dropping by female munias, meaning other females are prone to lay their eggs in an active nest. Normally about six eggs are laid per nest.

Another question that needs to be answered is whether munias roost inside empty nests. And how many birds can a nest accommodate for roosting. Field ornithologist Wang Luan Keng confirms that roosting in empty nests does occur. She further revealed that there may also be nest parasitism but this obviously did not happen here as all six chicks looked alike.

The construction of the boardwalk in Changi in 2003 has proved to be a boom to bird photographers, especially that section known as Kelong Walk. Here, nibong (Oncosperma sp.) stems have been used to give this section of the walk a “kelong” look reminiscent of the old fish traps that once were common around the local coasts.

Due to the weather, the top portions of these posts have worn down, providing nesting cavities to Dollarbirds (Eurystomus orientalis). And bird photographers have been flocking there to document the nesting behaviour of these birds.

In 2007 James Wong a.k.a. Jw73 photographed the adults feeding the recently fledged chicks with insects (top, above). Fry (2001) reports that Dollarbirds take large insects like beetles, mantises, grasshoppers, shield-bugs, cicadas, moths and termites. A recent post shows the adult catching a shield-bug (Cantau ocellatus) to feed its young.

Insects are caught on the wing (above) and brought back to the perch where they are shaken rather than beaten against the branch (below).

Reference:
Fry, C.H. (2001). Family Coraciidae (Rollers). Pp. 342-377 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. (2001). Handbook of the birds of the world. Vol. 6. Mousebirds to Hornbills. Barcelona: Lynx Editions.

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

All images by James Wong.

The Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) is a very familiar bird, found in nearly all habitats. The plumage of the adults can change from brilliant green to purple to black under bright sunlight. The bright red eyes are distinctive. Juveniles appear different. They have a creamy breast streaked with black and a dull, green-grey back.

The birds gather in flocks when feeding and in larger flocks when roosting.

The birds nest the year round, in a variety of cavities – in trees, eves of houses, even in the crowns of palms. A full clutch of eggs is three and often all three survive to fledge.

Dr. Redzlan Abdul Rahman made detailed documentation of the adults feeding the three fledglings from his home base in Raub, Pahang in Peninsular Malaysia.

It is always fascinating to observe such feeding. The two adults cannot satisfy the three fledglings all at the same time. At the most they can feed two at a time, leaving the third hungry and begging. However, as soon as a fledgling is fed, it will start begging all over again. Now how do the adults know which has been fed and which needs to be fed?

The colour of the inner lining of the fledgling’s mouth indicates whether it has just been fed or not - check it it out HERE.

Feeding of the three fledglings is a full time job for the two parents. The fledglings are always hungry and have huge appetites. Imagine, should one adult be predated, can the other cope?

The Changi boardwalk, particularly that section known as the Kelong Walk, has been attracting Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) and Dollarbirds (Eurystomus orientalis) to nest at the top of the nibong (Oncosperma sp.) stems used in the construction of the boardwalk.

James Wong a.k.a. Jw73 documented the adults feeding the three chicks with insects and fruits (above).

When an adult arrived with food, the chicks naturally gaped wide. The image below shows two chicks gaping widely, begging to be fed. The gape of the chick on the left shows a huge opening brightly coloured red, lined with yellow oral flanges. The colour is supposed to act as “food targets” for the parent birds. Unlike the chick on the left, that on the right has a yellow oral cavity.

Now why the difference in colour?

Experiments by Kilner & Davies (1998) using nestlings of 31 species of birds under standardised lighting conditions showed that mouth colour signaled food need only among seed-regurgitating finches. Among these species, there was a ‘red flush’ at the onset of begging. The colour became redder with increasing food deprivation.

Asian Glossy Starling regularly regurgitates seeds and as such should fall under the above finding. Thus the darker colour of the chick on the left would send a signal to the adult to feed it, rather than the sibling with a lighter oral cavity.

Note also that the juvenile has a distinctly different plumage as the adult.

Reference:
Kilner, R. & Davies, N. B. (1998). Nestling mouth colour: ecological correlates of a begging signal. Animal behaviour 56 (3):705-712.

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

All images by James Wong.

The two chicks of the Malayan Whistling Thrush (Myophonus robinsoni) finally fledged on the early morning of 1st April 2008.

At 0701 hours, an adult thrush approached the nest, landing on the wooden beam. The two chick were highly excited, chirping and flapping their wings, their bills agape. As the adult walked nearer to the nest, the chicks responded by moving towards it, in a “flying” sort of way (below, left to right).

The adult seemed to offer the food to one of the chicks but apparently not delivering. Did the adult swallow the food? And at that split moment the adult flew off downwards to be followed immediately by the two chicks (above, left to right). It was too fast for the video to catch the flight.

After so many days of trying every now and then to entice the chicks to leave the nest, the actual moment of fledging seemed an anticlimax.

The nest remained empty for a few minutes before an adult appeared with food. This adult could possibly be the mate of the earlier bird, as it was obviously unaware of what had happened. It perched on the beam, looked around, then entered the nest before flying off with the food (above).

There was a subsequent appearance of an adult at the nest, this time without any food in its bill. It perched on the beam supporting the nest, entered the nest to examine it and returned to the beam. In all, it remained for more than 20 minutes, preening and stretching its wings before flying off (above).

The nest was empty throughout the day and has remained empty since.

PS: Allan Teo’s people at Cameron Highlands informed that when the two chicks left the nest in the morning, they landed on the ground below, hopping about. Apparently they had still to master flight. The two adults were around to keep an eye on them and, no doubt, encourage them to fly. Should the nest be in the forest, their first flight would have landed them on some branch or other lower down. Unfortunately in the warehouse, there are no structures where they could land and so ended on the ground. To keep the fledglings safe from the many wandering dogs, they were put in a box and left outside the warehouse. The adults kept on feeding them until they flew off soon after.

On 4th April, three days after fledging, the two juveniles were flying around, still dependent on the adults for food.

You can view the video of the fledgling moment downloaded by Allan HERE.

For earlier entries, please see “Related Posts” below.

YC would like to thank Allan for giving him access to the video recordings of the nesting; Allan gratefully acknowledges the family of Shum Yip Leong for permission to install the video camera within their premise and for generously contributing to substantial bandwidth support.