“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.

“Sunday morning, 13th December 2009, while asleep in my bed, I received an awakening call from a friend Rahul Kolekar, currently working on a research project in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, saying that he is forwarding my number to his friend Sameer Patel, who has a raptor with him, which he had rescued from his workplace Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Colaba, Mumbai.

“The raptor was attacked by crows some two days ago. I thought it must be just a Barn Owl, for which I had been receiving quite a number of rescue calls in the earlier two to three weeks, this being the prime time of the year when many juveniles are found attacked by crows…

“I soon received a call from Sameer. He said, it was a falcon and he thought it to be probably a juvenile Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug). …I rushed to his place to find that it was an Amur Falcon (F. amurensis) (above). On inspection it seemed to be in good condition, not injured; it flew well and was eating well too … and decided to release it as early as possible - as Sameer fed it meat (the only option) and it being not its natural diet, being largely insectivorous on migration, it could have affected it’s health…

“I decided to leave the bird with Sameer, asking him to give it water, to avoid any further discomfort to the bird as it had plenty of space to fly over there and a caring nature lover to look after, and returned home for the day as we had planned to release it on the next day.

“The very next day, I went to Sameer’s place. We provided water to the bird and then three of us, myself, Sameer and Sameer’s friend Yashoda Narvankar went to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, to release the bird in the wild at around 1030 hrs. As we released it, it flew well and perched on a nearby tree (left). It preened itself for almost 10-15 minutes while we monitored the bird from some distance. And finally it took off its perch flying away with agility and probably also tried to hawk dragonflies once. We watched it for a minute or two before it finally disappeared after letting us enjoy some spectacular flight display leaving us with some memories of this magnificent bird and some questions in my mind about bird behaviour, instincts and their migration patterns.

“Thanks to Sameer and Yashoda for all the help while taking identification photographs.”

Saurabh Sawant
Mumbai, Maharshtra, India
14th December 2008

Note:
The rescued Amur Falcon is female, possibly a sub-adult bird, showing adult-like underparts, underwings, tail pattern, buff thighs and orangish legs and beak along with other most adult-like characters but still showing buff edges to upperwing coverts like juveniles. The bird is an autumn passage migrant to the Indian subcontinent

Check out the earlier parts of the Blue-throated Bee-eaters (Merops viridis) saga: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Micky Lim a.k.a. limmick has been “baby sitting” these four chicks since their rescue. And it has been a stressful time as they demand to be fed constantly. The cage also needs cleaning and its occupants their regular dry-cleaning.

Although the chicks ate heartily and growing well as seen in the increase in size and feather development, there was always the worry of imprinting. Can the chicks survive when released into the wild? Would they be able to forage in the absence of handouts of mealworms? Will they be able to recognise predators and avoid them? Normally, the adults would be around to teach the chicks once they fledge and leave the safety of the nest. The adults would still feed them but slowly get them to forage on their own. In this case they would be on their own. A bleak future indeed.

As seen in the above image, their state of growth varies. The oldest (below) has its wing and tail feathers nearly fully developed, although its throat and head feathers have yet to be fully unsheathed. However, the younger chicks are covered with pine feathers that have yet to begin unsheathing. They have much growing up to do.

Long term documentation of birds can result in emotional attachment to the extent that the photographers feel for their safety. Thus the decision to rescue the chicks when their nests were in danger of being obliterated. This was not interfering with nature. Rather, it was interfering with human activities that interfered with nature. Unfortunately, due to the rapidity of developmental activities, there was no choice but to dig the nests up, although a reprieve of a week or so may just see more chicks fledging naturally. There will definitely be controversies well after the dust have settled. But one significant factor emerged - the unanimous decision of the photographers who were then documenting the nesting to go ahead with the rescue.

For decades citizen scientists have been involved in documenting birds in Singapore (also, see “Watching Birdwatchers Watching Birds”). Since the early 2000s, bird photographers have been at the forefront of bird sightings and the study of bird behaviour. And this is the first occasion where citizen scientists got involved in a mass rescue of chicks in Singapore. Previously, a few concerned citizens may pick up a displaced chick in the misguided notion that hand-rearing it would contribute in its survival. This may not be so - see HERE. But mass rescue in the face of human activities? This is a first! And it speaks well for bird photographers.

Images by Micky Lim.

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

Check out the earlier parts of the Blue-throated Bee-eaters (Merops viridis) saga: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Details, images and videos of the chicks rescued from nests #2 and #4 have been provided by Micky Lim a.k.a. limmick.

The four chicks above are huddling against one another just after being fed on the morning after they were rescued. The smallest is on the left, but quite aggressive and a bully at times, with the largest on the extreme right showing some greenish feathers. Their lengths range from ~ 8.5 to ~ 11.5 cm. Note the brownish pin feathers with whitish tips, mainly on the wings. The youngest chick has more bare skin devoid of pin feathers while the oldest show green barbs unfolding from the sheath.

The hand-reared chicks were kept in a cage and fed mealworms. Video clips of them being fed and cleaned can be viewed HERE: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On average the chicks grew about 0.5cm daily for the first week.

The image of the oldest chick above, taken on 12th June, shows the greenish wing feathers having been further unsheathed, although not fully so. Note the pin feathers around the throat are turning light green while the tail feathers are becoming blue. The chick is obviously not yet ready to fledge.

The pellets shown on the left, composed of the undigested parts of the mealworms, were regurgitated by the chicks.

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