“On arrival to Chaaya Village, Habarana, Sri Lanka, 4th July 2010, evening, we were so fortunate to be able to witness the Changeable Hawk-eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus) feasting on his recent kill of the Black-naped Hare (Lepus nigricollis).

“The unfortunate hare was ripped open from his most vulnerable part, which is his stomach. The fearsome tool that the eagle had was his very strong curved and sharp beak, that constantly tore at that section of the body, tearing off portions of the skin together with the hare’s fur. Than it proceeded with tearing off pieces of fresh meat slowly filling up his crop. The whole episode lasted more than three quarters of an hour, and in the meantime the smell of fresh meat also attracted a lot of flies, which constantly accompanied us in greater or smaller numbers.

“On almost finishing three quarters of the hare, the hawk-eagle decided that it could than fly away with the remains of the hare to a more private place away from the prying eyes of us humans, and their cameras and flashes.

“This video clip was done with the Sony Handycam HDR CX 550, with a ProOptik 2x Tele-conversion lens.”

KC Tsang
Singapore
16th July 2010

. Haw-eagleCh-hare

“I would like to use this post to make a suggestion based on a number of observations about the feeding behaviour of the Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata hodgsoni).

“Firstly, the Lineated Barbet is known to take small birds as prey - flowerpecker and Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Whether this is for self or for chicks we are uncertain (possibly for juveniles).

“I have also recently seen the Crested Goshawk (Accipiter trivirgatus peninsulae) furiously chasing a Lineated Barbet with the barbet yelping in terror. See HERE.

“Last week my wife and I saw a raptor nest while out cycling early. We both thought we saw a juvenile in the nest. I went back later to have a look and found a Lineated Barbet feeding in the nest (left). I was too far to identify what was taken.

“My suggestion: When I saw the Crested Goshawk chasing a Lineated Barbet I assumed it was for a meal for juveniles or self. But could it be that the Lineated Barbet has a habit of robbing nest for chicks and the Crested Goshawk was acting out of anger to chase away a predator from its nesting site?

“Appreciate views from readers’ observations.”

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh City, Perak, Malaysia
18th April 2010

“Brahminy Kites (Haliastur indus) and White-bellied Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus leucogaster) are raptors that are fond of soaring along the sea coast to forage food from the sea. I have always admired the ability of these raptors holding on to their slippery preys while in flight. I have not come across any prey that has managed to slip out of the powerful talons of these raptors. Not until three weeks ago when I was to witness preys getting away from these two species of raptors; all happening on the same day.

“A Brahminy Kite was up in the sky early and was already in the hunt at 7:20 am that morning (above left). At 7:50 am, it dived steeply to snatch a fish off the surface of the sea. As it lifted off, the outline of a long fish that became twisted in its talons could be seen (above centre). In less than a second, the slippery prey managed to wriggle free and fell back into the sea. Prey no. 1 had managed to slip away (above right).

“At 8:26 am, the kite had another attempt. This time, the kite caught nothing as its talons clutched at emptiness after striking at its target in the sea (above left). As seen from the continuous images, both predator and prey were headed in about the same direction (above centre). After the narrow escape, the fish actually sped faster than the kite and had almost caught up with the kite when it leaped out of the water (above right). In all likelihood, the kite was surprised and reacted by turning its head to look at the fleeing fish. There was no second chance for the kite to make another attempt at catching this fish. Prey no. 2 had got away.

“Later in the afternoon, two White-bellied Sea Eagles were soaring in the sky. At 4:55 pm, one of them caught a fish (above left) and was ascending when it somehow lost its grip on the fish (above centre). The prey fell from an estimated height of 20 metres into the sea and was likely to be dead upon impact. In an instant, the eagle decided to turn and glide down as it attempted to retrieve the prey (above right). All of a sudden, the script was dramatically changed when a Brahminy Kite appeared, almost right above the eagle (below left). The eagle aborted its descent and swept towards the kite. The faceoff was brief with the eagle looking up, poised to do battle with the kite. However, the kite was in no mood for a fight and avoided the eagle. It kept a distance from the eagle and flew away after circling the area once.

“All this while, I had my camera trained on the eagle and the kite. In the meantime, unknown to me, a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) must have seized the opportunity to pick up the prey that was dropped by the eagle earlier (above right-top). It was seen flying away from the area with a similar fish in its beak. Prey No. 3 was stolen from the distracted raptors but did not escape from being a meal.

“It may be of interest to note that the fish involved in all three episodes could well be from the same species as all looked strikingly similar in appearance with a long body and snout.

“PS: Please note that images are not of optimum quality due to poor light, wrong setting and heavy cropping. Image of WBSE holding on to prey was attached for reference - it was taken on another day (above right-bottom).

Kwong Wai Chong
Singapore
15th April 2010

Images by Kwong Wai Chong.

“I found your latest blog entry, Birding in Singapore and the challenges of the 21st century, fascinating, more so in that it triggered off many old memories from my childhood days.

“Probably the first serious birding book I acquired while still in junior school was Delacour’s Birds of Malaysia (1947). It did not contain any pretty pictures, just a few black-and-white line drawings. However, in his introduction, on pages 5 and 6, he covered what he considered to be critical needs for the study of Malaysian birds. By the way, this was with reference to geographical Malaysia, not the current political entity.

“These recommendations have formed the framework of the objectives I constantly try to meet during my work as a field ornithologist.

“These pages, reproduced below, verbation, might be of interest to your readership. It is extracted from Delacour (1947), where the author uses Mayr (1945) as his source material in the opening paragraph.”

Slim Sreedharan
Malaysia
17th March 2010

HINTS TO OBSERVERS

Too little is known about the life histories of most Malaysian birds. To fill this gap, every amateur can make observations that are of the greatest value and interest to science. As a guide for bird students, the following list of suggestions is reprinted from Mayr (1945):

ECOLOGY

(1) In what kind of habitat does a species occur (rain forest, forest edge, native gardens, grasslands, swamps)?

(2) At what height is it usually found (treetops, lower branches, undergrowth of forest, small trees outside of forest, ground)?

(3) Are the singing perches at the same height as the feeding places?

(4) What is the annual cycle? (Is there any evidence of a definite breeding season? Count the number of nests and eggs of every species in every month. Record at different seasons the number of songs in the first morning hour.)

(5) What is the daily cycle? (Are there any feeding or roosting flights? What birds sing during the night? What birds sing most commonly in the heat of the day?)

(6) How many birds are found in a given area? (Make an accurate census of a ten-acre area. Make a rough census of the total population of a single species on a small island.)

(7) Study the activities in flowering and in fruit trees. (How many species visit them? How long does an individual stay? How many birds are in a tree at the same time? How many come and go every ten-minute period?)

HABITS

(1) Describe the call notes, the song.

(2) Describe the feeding habits. (Are insects caught by flying out from branches in the manner of flycatchers? Are they picked off leaves, off branches, or off the bark? Does any feeding take place on the ground? Are fruits swallowed whole?)

(3) Describe situation and structure of nests.

(4) Describe each species as to whether it is usually found singly, in pairs, or in flocks.

(5) Describe size and composition of bird flocks. (Follow a flock for 10 minutes or 60 minutes and record its activities. How far has it moved? Is the flock a closed unit? Does it have a leader?)

(6) Which species defend the area around the nest (territory) against other individuals of the same species? (Do males of these species occupy definite singing perches? Do singing and feeding alternate?)

(7) What share does the male take in nest building, incubation, feeding of the young? (Record actual figures of minutes spent on the nest or number of feedings per hour. Does the male incubate during the day or during the night?)

(8) How many singing males are not mated? Do more than two birds take part in the feeding of the young?

Whenever possible these questions should be answered by carefully watching a definite individual for several hours (same day or several days) and counting and recording carefully all of its activities. Additional questions can be found in Hickey’s A Guide to Bird Watching (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1943}. Much of his advice is well applicable to tropical birds: see particularly chapters 3 and 4 and Appendix C.

Image of Peaceful Dove (top left) by YC; that of Striped-tit Babbler in nest (top right) by Dr Jonathan WK Cheah.

References:
1. Delacour, J. 1947. Birds of Malaysia. The MacMillan Company, New York.
2. Mayr, E. 1945. Birds of the Southwest Pacific. The MacMillan Company, New York.

An Oriental Honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhyncus) first visited KC Tsang’s home in March 2008. The raptor then peeped into his kitchen window.

In July 2009 the raptor made its presence felt when it was mobbed by House Crows (Corvus splendens) and Black-naped Orioles (Oriolus chinensis) while perching on the roof of the building opposite KC’s home. And in November 2009 the raptor was again peeping into KC’s kitchen window.

Its latest visits to KC’s Simon Lane’s home were in February 2010. The image on the left was taken at 0815 hours on the 4th. The raptor’s latest return visit was on the 11th.

It would be interesting to find out whether it is the same bird that paid KS these visits through the years. We would be monitoring future visits…