“The frequent and consistent rate at which parental Mangrove Pittas (Pitta megarhyncha) were feeding their seemingly seen three life chicks via my field scope, demanded house-cleaning. Their excretions would have to be dealt with and nest kept clean and odour free to detract potential predators to the nesting site.

“The physiological aspect of chicks removing their waste products is through collection of their poo in a white membrane called faecal sac and subsequently evacuated through the anal canal.

“It was observed that when ‘potty’ time was due, a parent after feeding chick did not fly off immediately but stayed, communicated and waited for some sort of an exchange at the entrance of the nest (below left).

“The scene changed when a chick turned around to expose its posterior. The chick was seen expelling the faecal sac. In the process, the midwife parent pecked and fished out the appearing white, pearl looking sac and flew off with the waste (above centre and right).

“How Mother Nature and their feathered parents played out this interesting scenario was worth capturing in movie mode. An unusual observation took place in one of the observations. A chick was seen with faecal sac in its mouth! The chick managed to scramble to the nest’s entrance, to the awaiting parent to have its poo removed my AvianWaste Express Oral - Speciale (left).

“Remnant poo was partially seen in throat of one chick.

“All images of birds taken in this documentation series were taken by digiscopy technique, no less than 20 feet from subject and more than 35 feet from nesting site. Great care was taken to ensure my presence and position did not generate undue stress nor compromise routine feeding of chicks. No attempts were made to investigate or be close to nesting site to eye view eggs or chicks at anytime as descriptions of such are already available in bird field guides and reference books.

“A total of 4+1 selected visits were made to the location to extract sufficient observations in compiling the series. All observations were done via binoculars 8×42 and Fieldscope during a window period of 27 days from 1st sighting of parental Pitta with nesting material to the last day where 3 viable chicks were seen in nest.

“The 5th visit saw a vacated nest within 72 hours of previous sighting.”

AVIAN WRITER DAISY O’NEILL PENANG MALAYSIA
© Mangrove Pitta breeding part 5

It is always exciting to witness an adult Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) arriving at the nest where the chick, with its head sticking out of the entrance, bill gaping wide, begged loudly to be fed. Photographers have always documented such intimate moments, not to mention when the adult inserted its long bill deep in the throat of the chick, as if to place the food morsel right inside the crop.

However, the removal of faecal matter immediately after the feeding has not been always photographed. This time, after the chick was fed and it turned around and offered its posterior end to the adult, Mark G. a.k.a. strobby was ready. When a whitish faecal sac emerged from its vent and the adult gingerly picked it, he documented the moment (left).

The adult flew off to dispose the sac elsewhere so that the wastes do not collect below the nest and attract the attention of potential predators by the smell.

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

Johnny Wee was at Singapore’s Jurong Lake Garden in June 2009 and photographed a Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata) bringing fruits to its nest. After feeding the chick, it entered the nesting cavity, cleaned it up and scooped up the trash at the bottom of the cavity for disposal elsewhere.

Barbets keep their nest clean, scooping faecal matters, indigestible fruit remains and hard seeds with their bill and flying off to dispose them away from the nest. Initially the faecal matters may be eaten by the adults as they contain undigested foods. As the chick grows and its digestive system becomes more efficient, the faecal matters are deposited as faecal sacs and carried away to be dropped some distance from the nest. However, we do not generally see the adults picking up these sacs from the posterior end of the chicks as with other species like bulbuls, white-eyes… Most probably the sac is mixed together with the uneaten foods, etc. and carried in the adult’s bill.

Loose wastes are usually mixed with wood chips and carried away. Some excavation of the nest may be necessary to provide the wood chips.

Home renovation and housekeeping chores is an on-going process that nesting parents perform and share duties to accommodate their growing hatchings.

Removal of waste was observed to be carried out several times a day; either simultaneously after feeding their young or during patrols on ‘AveWaste Express’ and disposed off a distant flight away (left).

It was also noted in a couple of instances, chick poo and contents were dropped off from their favourite perch of the Albizia (Paraserianthes falcataria) tree.

While Goggle-Eye, the female Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) was entrusted to spend more time providing sorties of delicious figs and berries throughout the day, Blowfish usually initiated a couple of joint trips in the mornings and again before sundown.

The rest of the time, Blowfish conscientiously took on his primary role of sentry duties. Sometimes it got boring and he was seen yawning. He showed a black tongue (below).

His duty began smoothly and steadily on his favourite perch where his outpost- the Albizia tree, overlooked 100 metres away from the nesting site.

This was soon going to change as my observation turned into frenzy confusion. I was seeing three barbets on the nesting tree!

Who was who? A curious competitor of Blowfish has showed up and a showdown was just about to begin.

Curiosity Joe was seen creeping from behind the branch and reached out for a ‘look-see’. He then crawled round the cavity entrance and stuck his face into the nesting cavity to have a peep. Goggle-Eye was at home (below left).

Blowfish swiftly swooped towards the nest and confronted Curiosity Joe with karate leg stunts and gave out a two note angry call, like a furious, noisy woman chasing the ‘other woman’ with broom, sending the latter to flee!.

Blowfish leant his lesson quickly. From that day onwards, it was observed his sentry outpost was shifted to a mere two metres from the nesting cavity and not 100 metres away as observed earlier (above centre). He got switched on. The slightest cross-over of a resident squirrel species to another tree would send Blowfish on an attack mode. The latter would fly and swipe passed the scurrying creature (above right).

Even a buzzing bee was an insult to Blowfish. He tried to catch it with his beak. Sentry duty is a serious business for this macho guy (below left)!

But, he was a bit careful who to take a swipe at when having to share tree with the big boys- House crows (Corvus splendens) and Black-naped Orioles (Oriolus chinensis).

It was interesting an observation which I could not understand for a moment why Blowfish was seen to be chasing after Goggle-Eye, the latter with fruit in beak. When they got to a branch together, Goggle-Eye surrendered the fruit to Blowfish who then flew into the nest. A blurry image issued.

It happened so quickly (above: centre & right).

Has Goggle-Eye lost her nerve to enter home after having been startled by Curiosity Joe’s face staring down at her?

“What’s next Avian Writer?”

Showtime is next in Part 7 to wow at the power of flight by the ubiquitous pair.

AVIAN WRITER DAISY O’NEILL PENANG MALAYSIA
Of Sani-Sentry Duties & Coppersmith Barbets (Part 6)
All images by digiscopy technique
Optics used: Fieldscope ED82 +30x + P3/P4

In an earlier post, Angie Ng described in detail how a male Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) deposited a string of sticky seeds on her sui mei (Wrightia religiosa) plant thus:

“After comfortably positioning itself transversely across the branch, it turned its head… then it awkwardly stretched apart its legs, lowered its little body for a second or two and with a swagger, it moved a few steps to the left. With that quick swaggering action it wiped off a string of six gluey mistletoe seeds onto the branch of my sui mei.”

Now, Chan Yoke Meng has documented another behaviour by a female Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker excreting Macrosolen cochinchinensis seeds. These mistletoe seeds were excreted one at a time. Each seed was enclosed within a tough gummy substance that remained unchanged after passing through the bird’s alimentary canal. The seeds were excreted in a string - any one seed attached to the one before and the one after by this gummy substance.

The bird had no difficulty expelling the seeds from the its vent, that is, its posterior opening. The problem was to get rid of the seeds after they emerged. With all the gummy substances around, the seeds remained stuck to the bird. In Angie’s case, the bird rubbed its posterior end on the branch it was perching on.

Meng’s observations show the birds actively removing the sticky seeds with the help of its bill and feet (of course, not using both feet at the same time, ha ha). The action was rapid and he missed documenting the most interesting scenes. However, he managed to record the bird entangled with strands of gum stuck to its bill and feet (see panel above). Two seeds that the bird managed to remove remain stuck to the branch behind it. Note the translucent globs of gum still attached to the seeds.

Earlier posts on mistletoes include accounts on the plants, naturalist’s account, observations of a sometime bird watcher, and pollination by Hanging Parrot.