Coney Island 10Sep19

From KH

Surprised to see a female Barred Buttonquail foraging at Coney Island West Entrance during my late afternoon jog, and only had my phone with me...

Venus Loop, Sime Forest, Halus 18May13

From KH

Con, Danny and I headed to Venus Loop for the pair of Blue-rumped Parrots which have been found feeding on star fruits. We had a very vocal Abbott's Babbler. A Greater Coucal was heard calling. However, since no parrots showed up, Danny and I decided to take a long walk, through HSBC treetop walk to Jelutong Tower.

At Jelutong Tower, the usual forest birds were still around. On the way back to Venus Drive, a White-rumped Shama was singing its heart out, but not showing.

Juvenile Greater Racket-tailed Drongo with dark eyes and without rackets on the left; adult on the right showing red eyes, very worn tail end and one racket lost.

From Danny

Next drove to Pulau Punggol, on the bridge next to Seletar Airport, could spot the dusts churned up in the direction of the pond, sure enough on arrival, apparently, contractors hard at work, driving along could see many trees being cut down on right side of road towards Punggol Marina, not much trees left for next migratory season, sigh!

We ended up at Halus, surprisingly a lot of birds activities, from waxbills, tailorbirds, sunbirds, buttonquails, little terns (breeding plumage) and ten smooth otters fishing and feasting on plentiful supply of fish. The otters as a group had clever way of fishing, by crowding and forcing the fish to surface for easy catch, the entrapped fish practically jumped out and hit the otters guarding the surface, amazing!

Photos from KH

Smooth Otter family having a good time fishing.

Little Tern pair - the male (top) feeding the female.

Barred Buttonquail pair - female on the left.

Golden-bellied Gerygone - the smallest bird in Singapore. Crimson-rumped Waxbill - one of several African waxbills released.

Venus Dr, Pulau Punggol 23Feb08

From JS

Today, we went to Sime forest and P. Punggol. The weather was great; no rain from morning to afternoon. Also, the rain came a day earlier, encouraging some ground activity from an Abbott's babbler and the white-rumped shama. For the former, we had some good views but photography in the thickets proved too great a task for me.

The day started with the sighting of two common snipes in the open grass patch beside Venus Dr Carpark. We approach one bird to less than 5 m. Interestingly, it just go lower, trying to hide behind the very short grasses.

Common Snipe

In Sime forest, we did better than in Panti by getting 4 migrants, more than the 3 we got in Panti. The migrants we saw in Sime are Arctic warblers, an asian brown flycatcher, a wingbar-less female yellow-rumped flycatcher and an Oriental honey-buzzard.

At P. Punggol, we had several surprises. First, we saw no rare raptor. Second, a ruddy-breasted crake came so close to me that I could only photograph its head! Third, a pair of barred buttonquails foraging by the road.

Female Barred Buttonquail

Oriental Reed Warbler

Ruddy-breasted Crake

Zitting Cisticola

Sime Forest
1) Pink-necked Green-pigeon
2) Thick-billed Green-pigeon (2)
3) Emerald Dove (1)
4) Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
5) Olive-backed Sunbird
6) Crimson Sunbird (1)
7) Purple-throated Sunbird (2)
8) Javan Myna
9) Hill Myna
10) Asian Glossy Starling
11) Red-crowned Barbet (h)
12) Coppersmith Barbet (1)
13) Pacific Swallow
14) Swiftlet spp.
15) Dollarbird
16) Common Flameback (2)
17) Banded Woodpecker (2)
18) Abbott’s Babbler (1)
19) Chestnut-winged Babbler (h)
20) Striped Tit-babbler
21) Arctic Warbler
22) Common Iora (h)
23) Black-naped Oriole
24) Blue-winged Leafbird (2)
25) Oriental Honey-buzzard (1)
26) White-bellied Sea-eagle (h)
27) Brahminy Kite (1)
28) White-rumped Shama
29) Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo
30) Common Snipe (2)
31) Asian Brown Flycatcher (1)
32) Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (1 female)
33) Large-tailed Nightjar (h)
34) Collared Kingfisher
35) White-throated Kingfisher
36) Blue-crowned Hanging-parrot (3)
37) Long-tailed Parakeet
38) Asian Fairy-bluebird (2)
39) House Crow
40) Ashy Minivet (>5)
41) Olive-winged Bulbul
42) Cream-vented Bulbul
43) Yellow-vented Bulbul
44) Common Tailorbird (h)
45) Dark-necked Tailorbird (h)
46) Rufous-tailed Tailorbird (h)

Pulau Punggol
47) Barred Buttonquail (2)
48) Ruddy-breasted Crake (>5)
49) White-breasted Waterhen (2)
50) Osprey (1)
51) Black-winged Kite (1)
52) Black Baza (3)
53) Common Kingfisher (1)
54) Common Sandpiper (2)
55) Grey Heron (>3)
56) Little Egret
57) Oriental Reed Warbler (>4)
58) Zitting Cisticola
59) Paddyfield Pipit
60) Yellow-bellied Prinia (h)
61) Spotted Dove
62) Zebra Dove
63) Blue-tailed Bee-eater
64) Black-headed Munia (2)
65) Scaly-breasted Munia
66) Baya Weaver
67) Yellow-fronted Canary
68) Asian Koel
69) Lesser Coucal (1)
70) Brown Shrike
71) Oriental Magpie-robin (h)

Pulau Ubin, Changi 28Apr07

As Danny put it, "It was a marvellous weekend of local birding." As a change of style, I'll do a photographic write-up instead. Photos from Danny unless otherwise stated.

The cuckoo was little bronze, juvenile. The bronze-green coloration on the wings gave it away. We were hoping for a Horsfield's, but fat hope.

The junglefowls are probably feral birds, not true wild birds, because they continued to forage despite seeing us at a distance.

As for the buttonquails, initially we thought they were chicks as they were tagging along behind the chickens. Upon closer examination, the pair of 'chicks' turned out to be a pair of buttonquails! The female has a black throat.

I think the best time to catch the elusive mangrove pitta is probably early morning (earlier than 9am). After that, the chance diminished exponentially ;).

lucionensis should have grey cap, right? So this is probably the typical brown shrike we see so often (i.e. cristatus or confusus). Dunno what's the diff between the latters though.
cristatus: E Siberia to nw Mongolia; winters to India and Malay Pen.
confusus: Manchuria and Amurland; winters to Malay Pen. and Sumatra
superciliosus: S Sakhalin and Japan; winters to Sumatra and Lesser Sundas
lucionensis: Korea and e China; winters to Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi

After these exciting birds at Ubin, Danny and I went to Turnhouse Road (at Changi) and saw OP hornbill, Tanimbar corellas, red-breasted parakeet, all nesting on the 2 tall trees. Thanks to the many tip-offs from Con! I took a shot of the male hornbill and the pair of corellas.

Danny:"How did the Parakeet brought a piece of rock/brick into the nest? If you get too close, it may drop onto you!!"

Also, we went to the black-naped terns' nesting rocks. With Danny's scope we could see the terns and chicks (and eggs!) from the Changi boardwalk. There were also 4 little terns (3 in breeding plumage) on one of the rocks offering clear comparison of size and plumage with the BN terns. There were also many AG starlings nesting in the pole-tips at the boardwalk. The nesting season is really fantastic isn't it?! :)

Changi, Turuk Track, Mandai Mudflat 04Dec05

From Con

On sunday morning I went to Changi and saw a few usual raptors, including Black Baza. In the afternoon I was at Turut Track and saw the Barred Buttonquail. In the evening, I ran into Danny and Jia Sheng at the Mandai mudflats, and saw the Black-Headed Gull.

Black Baza ©Con Foley

Great Cormorant ©Danny Lau

Left to right: Common Greenshank, Whimbrel and Black-headed Gulls ©Danny Lau

Black-headed Gulls ©Con Foley

Black-headed Gull and Whimbrel ©Con Foley

This is the male Barred Buttonquail, but it incubates the eggs and rears the chicks single handedly. The nest is on the ground. This one must have stepped away from the nest briefly, and then a human (me) shows up and he goes into his act. He walks across the road very slowly, like walking through a minefield. He quivers on every step. Then once across, he lays down in the sandy verge and pretends to feed and take a sand bath. As soon as I move, he scurries off into the bush. From start to finish I watch him for 5 minutes, and he never takes his eyes off me. Clearly his instinct is to draw the predator away from the nest, pretending to be an injured bird.