“Was on my way out of this forest reserve, at the fringe, when spotted this Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia horizoptera) far away, high in a tree. It had nesting material in its beak – looked like soft cotton material possibly from a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra).

“I scanned the tree but could not find a nest – possibly quite high up in the canopy, 8-10 meters up.

“I waited around and was rewarded with the adult collecting more material much nearer to me (above left). It was searching the leaves of trees for pupae.

“It manipulated the material for quite some time (2-3 minutes), possibly to ensure it was empty. Occasionally stopping to examine it, rest as well as sing out to the mate (above right). It pulled and stretched the material, until satisfied, then flew off to the nest (below).

“Although nests have been assumed to be held together with cobwebs, it is possible that sticky silk material from cocoons of pupae could also be used.”

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Kledang-Sayong Forest Reserve
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
15th June 2010

Note: The material collected is a cocoon of a communal-living lepidopteran species. The nest of the Common Iora covered with insect silk is shown HERE; collecting of spider silk is discussed HERE.

“The image on the left shows an old Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) nest which was active around April 2009. A few days ago, I discovered that it was brought down by a heavy thunderstorm.

“The trunk has broken up, revealing the chamber of the nest. This is shown in the other attached images (below). I did some measurements and they are as follows: diameter of entrance = between 3 to 3.5cm (almost a perfect circle); diameter of chamber = between 6 to 6.5cm; depth of chamber = about 20cm (really hard to tell where is the end of the chamber because of the rotted, broken condition).

“I wonder if the museum at NUS (don’t know its full name) or if any other is interested in keeping this.”

Sun Chong Hong
Singapore
29th July 2010

A nest of the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) in Jeremy Lee’s condominium was somehow moved by the gardener and placed on a lone slender palm. During a recent check, the chick was found on a frond just below the nest with the parents still in attendance.

“However, just about half an hour later when I passed by again, I noticed to my horror that the bird appeared to hanging by its tongue,” recounted Jeremy. “From the picture (left) you can see that the nest is already toppled and you can see through the bottom of it. That was why I took its elder sibling and hand raised it for fear that it would all go down to the ground during the afternoon storms.

“No imagination can solve how this bird got its tongue caught in the material. I got a pair of scissors and cut the line as close to the tongue as possible. The bird looked in a bad condition but it still sat firm on the twig although its neck was now really tired and drooping down and its eyes began to close.

“It comes to a point where you have to decide how far do you want to interfere with fate. I decided to leave the bird as it was and let the parents handle it. I suspected that the bird is rather developed and further handling by a stranger will put it through more stress.

“By evening when I brought our tame chick along it was also calling and begging for food when it heard its sibling call. Hopefully tomorrow I find it in better form. Otherwise I will take it in and force-feed it if I have to.

“Back to the material that snagged it. It was definitely synthetic. Very fine and light and difficult to cut. I strongly suspect that it is the modern nylon kite flying line that is used for modern day kite fighting. That explains its abrasive nature and how it snagged the bird’s tongue and also how it resisted being cut by a pair of scissors.

“The bird’s nest was mainly constructed of fibre from neighbouring palms. Only a small amount of this white string was found on the nest.

“Talk about making our homes child-safe… even birds have the same problem.”

The next morning Jeremy checked on the nest. The adults were around, flying from tree to tree. The chick was on the ground, alive. It flew about 10 metres before Jeremy caught it.

As Jeremy wrote, “A close inspection showed that there was still a considerable amount of string in the mouth, so I left the bird on a perch and went back to get a sharp scissors. When I got back, I took a closer look and found that another 2-3 inches of string was attached to the tongue and at the free end of it, there appeared to be some kind of partially digested but dried up food. I proceeded to cut away the free string and took a closer look at the tongue. It was still a little swollen but in much better shape than the day before. This bird might not grow up to be the best singer in the condo, but it sure is better than dying from being hung by your tongue.

“Putting the pieces of evidence together, it seems like this free strand of string was hanging too close to the perched chick when the accident happened. It looks like a case of an insect or caterpillar that the parent brought back which was not going to go down the throat without a last fight and it probably caught hold of the loose string. So string and caterpillar went down the bird’s throat. The instinctive chocking response of these chicks probably caused the chick to further wrap more loose string round its arrow tipped tongue and the more it struggled the tighter the string got. Until I found it as it was yesterday. Cutting away the taught string solved half the problem. The chick managed to cough up the other 3 inches that was in the stomach. So at this point in time, it only had some string that was wrapped around its tongue behind the arrow tip. I think it can probably do fine without further intrusive surgery. And judging from its strength this morning, even with the remaining 3 inches still on it, it was able to eat despite the inconvenience.

“Will be walking by the last known area where the bird was found everyday to listen out for the parents calls and the chick’s call to ascertain that it is still doing well.

“A closer look at the string, it might be loose thin nylon string from the neighboring construction site. Very thin, but very strong. I found the same material in 3 nests along the same perimeter of the condo fence. Some of the newer nests in other parts of the condo also had the same material. In the past, it was just palm fibre and nothing else.”

Jeremy Lee
Singapore
20-21st May 2010

“I have long searched for the nest of the Zitting Cisticola (Cisticola juncidis malaya). On Saturday [29th May 2010], by chance, found one less than 600 meters from my home. This is a large field of Imperata cylindrical grass (awaiting housing development).

“The Zitting Cisticola nest is called the ‘luck bird’s nest’. According to G C Madoc (An Introduction to Malayan Birds, 1956), my ‘sifu’ in bird behaviour: ‘…. placed in the middle of a meadow, it is very difficult to find. I believe that this may be the lucky bird’s nest mentioned by Winstedt in Sharma, Saiva & Sufi. The author describes how a pawang (Malay medicine man) taking the soul of the rice, may choose ears from stalks with a lucky bird’s nest at the foot.’

“I consider myself very ‘lucky’ to have found it, but the credit must really go to a friendship that exposed this nest to me. I happened to be checking the environment around my home, so as to never to become blasé about what some call ‘common birds’.

“I walked far into this large field of Imperata cylindrical grass when I noticed a female Zitting Cisticola and a male Yellow-bellied Prinia (Prinia flaviventris) (left). They were very closely associated and are, I subsequently discovered, nesting about 1 meter apart. When I chanced near their nests they both took off together to the same vantage point.

“Then returned to their nests when I was about 7-8 meters away. Because the Yellow-bellied Prinia was easier to spot, I was also able to locate the Zitting Cisticola deep in the tall grass.

“The Zitting Cisticola nest is extremely hard to spot. I obtained these pictures without touching the nest and used my camouflage cloth to rest on the grass and expose views. All measurements were made without touching. I had a quick look to make sure there were no eggs or young before proceeding. It was built 30 cm off the ground, the grass was about 85 cm tall. Nest height 9cm, width 5 cm, entrance 2.5×2.5 cm but irregular.

“The side view will show that the Zitting Cisticola combines some of the stalks of the Imperata cylindrical grass into the nest (above left). It is a very beautiful delicate nest, very much like a silk purse. The walls are thin and the opening smaller than the base. The interior picture is taken with flash and shows the delicate and intricate knitting – possibly grass, spider webs and cotton fibre (above right). The spiders have to learn a thing or two from these birds.”

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Near Canning Garden Home
Ipoh City, Perak, Malaysia
29th May 2010

For another perspective of the Zitting Cisticola’s nest, see HERE.

A pair of adult Common Mynas (Acridotheres tristis tristis) was seen by Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS collecting feathers (left) from a dead Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) that was lying on the road (above). This was on 9th March 2010 in the Malaysian city of Ipoh in Perak.

The mynas were transporting the feathers to their nest on top of an old air-condition unit (right). The untidy nest was made up of lots of grass, plastic, paper, etc.

Mynas usually construct their nests with whatever material they come across, including feathers, “but it still surprised me that they would use a ‘dead colleague’ so to speak,” wrote Amar. “Well at least the Yellow-vented Bulbul’s death was not ‘wasted’.

On 18th April Amar reported two more unusual nests – one built into a crack near the top of a cement electrical pole, 4-5 meters up (left). Both adults were busy at work, getting the nest ready for their young. The second nest was a chance observation. The myna was seen flying high up to the street light, 6-7 meters up (above). The adult pair was later observed working on their nest using dried grass, plastic and paper. It is not sure if they prised the lighting structure open or found it already defective.

The Common Myna is considered some of the smartest of the urban birds. They appear to be able to survive in the concrete jungle mankind is creating.