The Orange-bellied Leafbird (Chloropsis hardwickii), a resident of the montane forests of Peninsular Malaysia, is always present whenever the bottlebrush trees (Callistemon spp.) are in flowers.

This is an attractive green bird with yellow-orange belly. The male (above) has a black mask and black throat, not th female (left).

The bird visits a wide range of flowering plants, including exotics, to collect nectar. It has a long tongue that extrudes beyond the tip of the bill, even when the latter is closed. The tongue is channeled and brush-tipped, to assist in nectar collection. But it also takes a variety of fruits and insects.
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All images by Dr Eric Tan.

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

Joseph Lai came across a Tabernaemontana corymbosa tree at the end of Liane Road along the Garden Jungle in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

“It was fascinating observing how the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) hovered in the air like a hummingbird to snatch a seed or two from below the down-turned opening of the fruit. I also saw the less tedious way it fed - by positioning itself on the nearest twig to peck at the seeds.”

All images by Joseph Lai.

Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) is a colourful large bird common in freshwater wetlands of Singapore and Malaysia.

The bird is predominantly vegetarian, eating a wide range of water plants: water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), water spangle (Salvinia molesta), water lily (Nymphaea), lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and cyperus sedge (Cyperus), among others.

It is an opportunistic feeder and will also take fish, frogs, lizards, snakes, birds, molluscs, leeches, small crabs, insects and their larvae and spiders when available.

In the image by Adrian Lim, the swamphen is seen taking a freshwater snail. Unfortunately, it is not known whether it simply swallowed it or break up the shell first before swallowing.

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.

An earlier post gave an account of a Spectacled Spiderhunter (Arachnothera flavigaster) collecting nectar from the flowers of the banana plant (Musa) by Dr. Redzlan Abdul Rahman

Now, he has photographed a Little Spiderhunter (A. longirostra) collecting nectar, also from banana flowers (above). NOTE: According to R Subaraj (see comment), the bird in the three images above is a Grey-breasted Spiderhunter (Arachnothera affinis).

The images on the left shows a Little Spiderhunter’s tongue extending beyond the tip of the bill. As with sunbirds, the tongue of a spiderhunter is also a closed tube along the major part of its length.

Spiderhunters feeding on nectar from various flowering plants is well known and extensively recorded. But feeding on spiders is not often documented. After all, these birds are called spiderhunters specifically because they are supposed to feed on spiders.

Much is not known of their animal foods and these need to be observed and documented.

Jimmy Tan a.k.a. skylark was at the Panti Forest Reserve in Johor, Malaysia recently and caught sight of an adult male Scarlet-breasted Flowerpecker (Prionochilus thoracicus) eating a fig. He posted his images in NaturePixels and is sharing the above with us all.

Joseph Lai and Angie Ng identified the fig as brown-scurfy fig (Ficus consociata).

Figs are a favourite food with birds. The best known fig tree in Singapore is the waringin (Ficus benjamina) at the summit of Singapore’s Bukit Timah. And during every fruiting period for the past so many years, there would be myriads of birds attracted to it. This in turn attracted and will continue to attract, birdwatchers without fail: see HERE.

The only regret is that most of our birdwatchers are “listers” meaning they simply make a list of birds visiting the fig tree. And they do this year in and year out. These lists are conspicuous in their total absence of any critical assessment of the events. Details like how the different species of birds take the figs – whether they swallow them whole, take bites off the figs or squash them before eating - are simply ignored. Similarly, how the different species interact and behave around the figging tree do not interest birdwatchers: see HERE

Despite a challenge to birders to be more critical in their observations, made in October 2006, we have yet to see any bird behaviour reports on figging trees: see HERE.

Isn’t it time local birdwatchers do more than mere listing? Bird photographers are currently at the forefront of such observations. The above image by Jimmy should spur birdwatchers to break out of the 20-year stranglehold!

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.