“On my morning walk today I saw this bird (Grey Wagtail, Motacilla cinerea) waging battle with its reflection on the window of a house. The owner of the house was watching the show and he said that this bird had been doing this for the last week or so. The bird, between battle attacks would rest on a ledge of the building and then fly up to the windowpane again. Occasionally it would fly down to the stream running by the house and feed. Each battle lasted about 5 to 10 seconds.”

Ganesh Mani Pradhan & Son
West Bengal, India
12th March 2010

Check out our various posts on birds and their reflections, birds confronting their reflections seen on the side mirror of a car or collision with a window.

This post was received through Sumit K Sen of Birds of India, Kolkata, India who sent it to KC Tsang. Image by Ganesh Mani Pradhan & Son.

Tan Gim Cheong came across a dead Red-Legged Crake (Rallina fasciata) lying on the road at Tyersall Avenue on the evening 9th December 2009. “Must have been hit by a vehicle as it tried to cross the road. The impact point seems to be on the head. It is now in the RMBR,” wrote Gim Cheong.

RMBR refers to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research at the National University of Singapore. For details on the importance of sending specimens to the museum and who to contact, please see HERE.

In April 2009, one was knocked down along Tyersall Road. Fortunately the bird was slightly hurt and after some care, it recovered and was released. In November the same year another was fond dead along South Buona Vista Road. There may be others but not reported.

The Red-legged Crake is an uncommon resident and a winter visitor to Singapore. The pattern of its activity is very much unknown. What we know is that many species of Rallidae (rails, gallinules and coots) are active during the day, roosting at night. Many others are predominantly crepuscular, meaning that they are active at dawn and dusk, rather than in full darkness or daylight. These are their most active feeding periods, spending the middle of the day in rest under shelter.

According to Wells (1999), “Best known as a nocturnal migrant, with numerous reports of strikes on lights inland…” It is possible then that its movements in urban areas between vegetation covers under low light conditions make them vulnerable of being knocked down by passing vehicles. However, this particular bird must have been knocked down during the day as it was still fresh when found in the evening.

Reference:
Wells, D.R., 1999. The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsular. Vol. I, Non-passerines. Academic Press, London. 648 pp.

On 29th April 2007, Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS found a dead adult Blue Winged Pitta (Pitta moluccensis). It was lying on the grass next his guest bedroom windows at Canning Garden in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. The windows were then closed.

“We have spotted this pitta a number of times in the past six years in our urban garden. This time (in 2007) we were surprised to find an adult bird dead in the garden despite looking in prime of health.

“Some views of the bird (top, above) as well as a few feathers we took to remember the pitta by. We buried it in our garden.

“Fortunately we still see the Blue-winged Pitta in our garden almost every migration season - alive!”

Desmond Wong a.k.a. des95446 reported an Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) crashing into a glass pane at his aunt’s house in Janda Baik, Pahang, Malaysia. The impact caused a loud sound that attracted attention. The bird simply rested as seen in the image on the left the entire night, not moving much. The next morning it glided down the slope to the grass patch below, stretching our its wings.

John Vickerman commented: “This bird certainly looks as if it has come off second best in a wrestling match! The fact that it survived the night sounds good news. It was probably winded and a bit bruised by the impact, and almost certainly traumatised by the event. A night’s rest would have helped it. More serious internal organ damage would almost surely have led to its demise overnight. Hopefully, after a controlled glide down the slope (at which time any broken wing would have become visibly apparent), it was able to feed and drink and remain clear of ground predators to allow it to regain full strength again.”

Birds regularly crash into large glass panes as seen in our earlier posts under the category “glass, reflection.”

Image by Desmond Wong.

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

Jackson Low was at his home in Bukit Batok Street 24, Singapore at about 1300 hours in June 2009 when he heard a loud thud. Then another. His curiousity roused, he went out to investigate. There, lying on the common corridor of level 5 of his apartment building was a White-crested Laughingthrush (Garrulax leucolophus). It had crashed onto the common corridor glass window twice before it landed on the floor. Fortunately it was only stunned. It soon recovered, called out repeatedly and flew to the floor above.