Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS was out cycling with his wife on the morning of 25th April 2010 when she spotted a juvenile bird on the road in the heart of the city (left). It was a juvenile Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans). The nest could not be located nearby where there were tall trees.

So what did the couple do? They fished out a plastic bag, put the bird in it and brought it home. Leaving it behind was not an option to them as there were marauding cats nearby.

“After consultation with Sein-Chiong Chiu we are feeding it mashed fruits – button tomatoes, banana and papaya. The chick is hard to feed as it will not take food and, after reading experiences on the net, have had to force feed it using a syringe. After the first feed it became quite perky and started ‘peeping’ softly. After a number of feeds, today the bird is more able to cooperate and much more friendly. Hope it can take food on its own soon,” wrote Amar.

Looking after an injured young bird is a lot of work. The image on the right shows the bird being fed with mashed banana via a syringe. However, Amar is looking out for other food, especially protein sources.

Dr David R Wells provided some advice on feeding: “You are up against the problem of substituting crop-gland ‘pigeon’s milk’. Protein and calcium might be sortable by adding a little susu lembu or f-c milk powder. Trial and error here!” Amar was thinking of using milk but worried about diarrhoea (indigestion).

Chiu had this to say (he has vast experiencing caring for birds over years, we all turn to him): “Previously when I kept a pair of coppersmith chicks, someone recommended that I give puppy food pellets as protein to the chicks. What I did was to cut the pellets into small pieces that can be swallowed and soaked it in water until it was slightly soft and then fed it to the chicks for about 10 days. I alternated between fruits and pellets to the chicks but after about 10 days the chicks did not want the puppy pellets anymore and went for the fruits only.”

Unfortunately, on 27th April the bird died. “It was feeding well for two days with good stool output,” as Amar puts it. “We had only, as yet fed, it fruits. It was also very active. My wife, to keep the bird’s spirit up, even made sure it had opportunities to sit in the garden (supervised). It is unlikely it had any internal injuries due the fall from nest as it was perky and could hop about. When we went to bed it was as spirited as usual. When we woke up in the morning it was in a moribund state, comatosed. I suspect some form of septicemia,” concluded the medical specialist.

The dead pigeon was buried it in the garden with sadness as both Amar and wife got attached to it. As wife Swee-Im puts it, “we will not nurse another lost chick, too painful,” but Amar suspects that “the next one we find will break her heart as well and will make us take it in. What we really need is a good animal/bird hospital.”

Note: The sad experience brings to mind the recurring problem of people picking up chicks that accidentally fell or were pushed out of the nest by its sibling. Shall we just leave the poor chick to its fate as nature intends it? Shall we pick it up and place it in a safe place where the adults can care for it? Or do we take it home to care for it ourselves? In which case, should the chick survives and subsequently released, will it be able to survive in the wild without the adults around to teach it to seek out food, to recognise potential predators and how to avoid being predated?

“Over the last three days I have been observing the Yellow-vented Bulbul’s (Pycnonotus goiavier) nest and hoping to get more photos of the progress of the baby birds. In order not to overly stress the parents, I spent minimal time at the nest itself. However, I noticed only one head popped up regularly. Even during the first week after they hatched. I had the feeling that something was not right even then.

“This morning I noticed a stench as I approached the nest. I suspected that one of the chicks probably died of starvation or ill treatment by its sibling.

“I retrieved the only chick left in the nest and might have removed the rotting corpse from the nest as well. I returned later to find the dead chick on the ground, but I did remember that something was being held in the legs of the live chick as I took it out.

“My hands were also full of rotting juice.

“Am going to bathe the chick later when the sun is hot with swimming pool water and clean it up.

“What set me thinking was:

1. Do parents remove dead chicks from the nest?
2. Do siblings manage to kick their kin out of the nest.
3. What happened in this case where the winner might have done itself in. The sibling died in the nest, creating a cesspool-like living condition for it to live in.

“I have seen much younger chicks kicked out of the nest. That is a cleaner and clear-cut way of ending the battle. When the chicks are much larger like this one, they are able to lock their claws firmly on the nest even in death resulting in horrible nest conditions like this one.

“Sometimes there is a happier ending, when you see a pair of fledglings huddling together in the tree waiting to be fed and also looking out for and encouraging each other.

“Attached are the two photos I took this morning at the nest. Notice the nest has a dark damp bottom full of rotting juice. I retrieved the only chick left in the nest and might have removed the rotting corpse from the nest as well. It was dead for not more than 2-3 days.

“[Later when the sun was up], I took the remaining chick and cleaned it with swimming pool water. It was living in filthy conditions. However, it had already imprinted on its parents and would not take food from me, despite me putting the much older tame chick [rescued earlier from its nest when crows tried to attack it] beside it and the bigger chick begging for food.

“In the end, I noticed that the parents were still keeping an eye on us and the chick, so I decided to put it back [into the nest]. By noon, the parents have encouraged the chick to leave the nest and it has been moving around the territory. Chick looks in very good spirit and healthy. Letting the parents do their job now.

“I don’t think they will move far. There are other pairs of birds staking out their territory and will attack and not tolerate any intrusion.”

Jeremy Lee
Singapore
12th May 2010

Sein-Chiong Chiu called Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS on 18th April 2010 to inform that he was caring for an injured Hooded Pitta (Pitta sordida cucullata).

Said Chiu, “Early this morning my neighbour passed me a dazed and stunned adult Hooded Pitta which he picked up in his garden. The bird probably flew into his window pane during migration. It was unable to fly and its head was hanging to one side when I placed it in the cage. When I came back from market 1.5 hours later it could fly around inside the cage. Will keep it overnight to allow it to rest and eat and will release it tomorrow morning. This is the third Hooded Pitta to be rescued over the years around Ipoh”.

Amar came over to Chiu’s place at lunch time with his wife to see the bird. It was alert and quite recovered. “Took some pictures though the bars (no flash used) just for documentation of plumage. Choose not to handle the bird as was distressed with approach,” added Amar.

The next day Chiu reported, “Happy to inform that after giving it a night’s rest, the release this morning was successful. The pitta flew to the golf course, will be suitable habitat for it as it will be able to find worms before continuing on it’s journey north.”

The rescue was in the Malaysian city of Ipoh in the state of Perak.

Image by Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS.

“Was fortunately on leave yesterday. Had just come back at lunch time from a walk in a forest reserve when I received a frantic call from three home-schooled young teenagers (one of the perks of being a paediatrician is a lot of contact with children of all ages). Daniel, Shobhana and Matthew wanted me to come right over to their home as a large “snowy white” owl had landed in their garden. These three kids had recently received a copy of my book on garden birds and are, as their dad says, “budding bird watchers in the making”.

“I rushed over and there was a large owl sitting in their compound adjacent to a wall for shade. Had some difficulty with identification at first but later recognised it was a juvenile and the appearance suggested an eagle owl, then ID was easy. It was a juvenile Barred Eagle Owl (Bubo sumatranus sumatranus).

“The kids and parents were ecstatic to see such a delightful, large creature in their home. We were unsure if it was hurt or a bird escaped from captivity. We let it sleep much of the day and then feed it some chicken strips in the evening which it took with gusto. Although it was adult in size (juvenile plumage) it was not able to feed off a surface and still needed food to be brought to it (we used pieces of chicken impaled on a stick to feed it). After being fed it could fly quite well but stayed near by. The juvenile makes soft chirping sounds for food and a loud ‘clack” when upset.

“We called Sein-Chiong Chiu for help as he has nursed injured raptors as well as a juvenile Barred Eagle Owl previously. We collectively decided that although it could fly it was still not able to hunt and would starve on its own. So Chiu brought his cage and a decision was made to nurse it for another 2-3 weeks until it could feed independently. I must say that I have yet to see as skilful a ‘capture’ of a bird with razor sharp talons as done by Chiu. He has given instructions on feeding and care and the saga continues…

“The children have already named the bird ‘Prince’ although some of us were keen on a Harry Potters’s owl’s name ‘Hedgwick’ – but they have the privilege, having discovered it first.

“Many thanks to Chiu for his time, expert advice and gentle care.”

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh City, Perak, Malaysia
2nd February 2010

On 18th December, veterinary surgeon Dr Gloria Lee sent in images of a bittern for identification. The bird was sent to the AMK Veterinary Surgery at 31 Sembawang Road in an injured condition by Joseph Lim of the Nature Society (Singapore). Joseph has been caring for injured and displaced birds for years now, but this time the bittern had to be euthanised (left).

KC Tsang and R Subaraj helped identify the bird as a Cinnamon Bittern (Ixobrychus cinnamomeus). Subaraj was interested in background information as this “bittern is a rather scarce resident but easier to see in winter, when migrants are around.”

As Gloria has no information on the bird, I wrote to Joseph. Instead of getting information on one bittern, I received details of four…

1. Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) – On 15th November, a possible juvenile was picked up in a canal at ?Kent Ridge. Andrew Tay was contacted who collected it from Goh Si Guim and released it the next day.

2. Von Schrenck’s Bittern (Ixobrychus eurhythmus) - The bird crashed onto a house at First Avenue. Joseph collected it on 30th November and together with Angie Ng, released the bird at Kranji, off the BBC Station.

3. The Cinnamon Bittern that Joseph brought to Gloria came from a lady who lives in Changi Lorong 105 on 16th December. She said that a fish-eating bird had crashed into their backyard. The injured bird was collected that very morning. It was a healthy bittern but with an injured wing. As Joe was too busy that day, he brought it to the Nature Society’s office and then to his home that night. The bird could feed itself on live fish. This was the most ferocious bitterns that Joe ever handled - it would puff up all its feathers to make itself bigger (almost ball-shaped), aimed its beak at Joe’s eyes and leaped up to strike with its neck extending despite a broken wing! Other bitterns that Joe came across would usually extend their long necks when trying to strike. The bittern was left at Gloria’s veterinary clinic the next day (17th Dec). Gloria called later to say that the bittern’s injuries were bad and she will have to ‘put it to sleep’ as it can no longer fly.

4. Coincidentally, Gloria had also treated a Cinnamon Bittern that day with a broken leg. Joe offered to look after the bird, like what he did with a Black Bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis) Gloria passed to him last July. Sadly this beautiful Cinnamon Bittern did not make it through the night. Gloria texted Joe to inform that bird was picked up at Bencoolen Street bus stop outside Sunshine Plaza.

Image by Dr Gloria Lee.