The Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus) is a common resident in Singapore and Malaysia (left). It is found in open fields, grasslands and parks. It builds The bird builds its nest at ground level, in a slight depression, lined with dried stems, grass and fibres. The near-circular top is slightly overgrown with vegetation, providing excellent camouflage.

It is not often that the nest is located and photographed - Nelson Khor being one of the few and he is sharing his images here with viewers (below). He noted that there is every chance of the nest being trampled by people bashing through the light growth.

The single chick seen inside the nest was fed by the adult with caterpillars. Its tufts of natal downs can still be seen on each side of the head just above the eyes (above right). The yellow flanges lining the mouth are obvious in the chick, remaining prominent well after fledging.

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.

A pair of Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) built a nest on top of Opel Mok’s pot of mint plant and laid one egg on 9th and another on 11th July 2008.

The eggs hatched on 24th July . Most probably hatching was on different days and Opel would have missed seeing one of the adult flying off with the eggshell, as is usually the case. The above shows, from left, the adult with two eggs, two-days old and six-days old chicks.

The adults took turns brooding the chicks and fed them with crop milk, as with pigeons and doves. Above, from left: adult with 7-days of chicks, ten-days and 13-days old chicks.

At 14-days, the chicks left the nest and rested in the porch. There were still around the next day (above left) but by 8th August when they were 16-days old, they were ready to fly off. Mother and child spent the day on the grill as it was raining (above centre). By afternoon they were still around (above right). However, at 1915 hours the fledglings flew off

As Opel mused: “Still around this afternoon. I’m going to miss them on 8th August.”

Mike Tan a.k.a. woof documented a pair of Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) nesting in an abandoned cavity in a rotting tree trunk. There were two chicks and an adult was seen feeding them (below).

The Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) is one bird that builds its nest in a variety of places. These include shallow cavities that develop at the tops of rotting palm trunks and tree stumps. Less often, nests are seen among vegetation like the axils of coconut palms fronds, epiphytic ferns, in shrubs and according to Wells (1999), on a banana fruit-bunch.

According to Jz, “They build their nests almost anywhere from thick shrubs, in the fork of branches of small trees, palms (at the base of the palm frond), hollow trees and even near human habitation: under a veranda, in a hole in the wall, in an old tin can, and in stables. Nests are usually built low. Their nests are large, untidy, shallow cups loosely made from grass or dried leaves, twigs, moss, roots.”

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

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.

Opel Mok directed me to his images of a pair of Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) that found his pot of mint plant a suitable place to build their nest (above).

The pair checked out his garden on 7th July 2008, built a simple nest made up of a platform of twigs and the female went on to lay a white egg two days later. A second egg was laid another two days later and on 17th July the two eggs were still in the nest (below).

From past observations on Pink-necked Green Pigeons (Treron vernans), both parents help in incubation and brooding. The male bird usually takes on the duty during the daylight hours while the female takes over the night shift. The Peaceful Dove (Geopelia striata) similarly follows this schedule but as the sexes are not differentiated externally, we simply assume that it follows the same behaviour.

In this case, the different sexes of the Spotted Dove cannot also be distinguished but we can always observe the shift change in the mornings and evenings.

Hopefully, Opel will keep us informed if he continues his observations until the chicks fledge.

Dave Culley recently sent images of the Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) nesting in his garden in Cheshire, England. He has been monitoring the pair for some time now. These images here are of the 2008 nesting.

The brood of five chicks is seen above at 12 days old. The other image (below) shows the female sheltering the chicks from the rain.

The female is just starting to hunt with the male, now that the chicks are older. Prior to this the male was hunting, bringing food to feed the female and the chicks.

The male is seen with his prey, preening himself after a bout of hunting (above).

Check out Dave’s webpage HERE.