Ulu Sembawang, Sungei Buloh 12Aug23

From KH

This weekend, Danny, JS and I were on a mission to get JS his 2 lifers: Great Slaty Woodpecker and Black-and-red Broadbill. We started at Jalan Ulu Sembawang for the female Great Slaty Woodpecker that was first reported since 31 Jul 2023. Sure enough, she was still around and very vocal. In fact, she stayed until 18 Feb 2024!

Short-tailed Babbler was also very vocal. Yes, that blur blob in the middle is the babbler.

Next, Sungei Buloh for Black-and-red Broadbill. Sure enough, it was still around. In fact, it's the same individual that was ringed here in 2019.

Also got Lesser Adjutant in flight.

Buffy Fish-Owl at its usual spot at the entrance boardwalk.

Other animals include this Common Greenback and these Whitespots.

Johor 18-19Aug18

From KH

I went Johor forest birding with Con and Danny this weekend.

It was babblers galore.

Fluffy-backed Tit-babblers duetting. Striped Wren-babbler singing.


Grey-headed Babbler


Short-tailed Babbler

The other birds here included:

Purple-naped Spiderhunter

White-bellied Woodpecker

Male Grey-rumped Treeswift

Whiskered Treeswift: female and male

Sepilok 07Jun18 late morning

From KH

At the lodge, we added a few more common birds: Pacific Swallow, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Asian Glossy Starling and Olive-backed Sunbird.

A wet Yellow-vented Bulbul

Male Olive-backed Sunbird

Then, we were off to RDC again.

The first bird that welcomed us back was a Greater Coucal at eye level.

Followed by this male endemic Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker, which showed us his rump.

A few of the other Bornean subspecies here are potential splits: the White-crowned Shama (left) looks quite different from the White-rumped Shama; while the Charlotte's Bulbul does look like the Buff-vented Bulbul.

Other birds here included Blue-eared Barbet, Fluffy-backed Tit-babbler and Short-tailed Babbler.

This pair of Black-and-yellow Broadbills must have a nest nearby. The female (left) had a cockroach in her mouth, while the shy male was hiding high up.

The Prevost's Squirrels here are black.

Skink running away.

Freshwater crab with nice pattern on the back. Interesting plated millipede.

A couple of butterflies: Idea species and Common Imperial.

These ants were carrying a scorpion pincer! Exoskeleton of a stick insect.

Time for lunch and an afternoon siesta!

Peirce Area 06Feb10

From Danny

A pair of adult Chestnut-winged Babblers were spotted on 6 Feb 2010 at Nee Soon Swamp responding to playback of call, note not the song, possibly an engaged pair. It's time of the year to prepare for breeding. From video, notice how the babblers call out thru the gullet air sags exposing the white patches. At end of video when both babblers were side by side, the bird on the left had relatively larger white patches & more active, likely a male.

Here's the Dark-sided Flycatcher at Mousedeer Trail.

From KH

The first interesting creatures at the Nee Soon Pipeline were non-avian. There was a Malayan Brown Snake in the paddle. Can't really tell the length, but it's definitely more than 2 feet.

The other creature of interest here was the nymph of a Flatid Bug.

Nee Soon Swamp

Banded Bay Cuckoo 1 calling while in flight
RC Barbet 2 heard
OHB 1
GHFE 1
CHE 2
CW Babbler 2
ST Babbler >4
Little Spiderhunter 1
Asian Brown FC 1
Arctic Warbler 2
CV Bulbul 2
OW Bulbul >3
and the usual sunbirds, OB flowerpeckers, tailorbirds, dollarbirds, bee-eaters

Mousedeer Trail

CB Malkoha 1
Dark-sided FC 1
1^st winter male SB Robin 1

Lower Peirce

BBKF 1
Banded Woodpecker 1
ST Babbler >2
female SB Robin 1
Arctic Warbler 2
CV Bulbul 2
OW Bulbul 2
and the usual drongos, striped tit babblers, tailorbirds

A Black-backed Kingfisher

and a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo were the main cast at Lower Peirce keeping us company during the hot afternoon.

Came evening time, the Lower Peirce bathing party began. This Cream-vented Bulbul (left) was amongst the bathing party. So was the Olive-winged Bulbul (right).

A Female Siberian Blue Robin

and Short-tailed Babblers are also part of the bathing party.

Lower Peirce 31Dec09

From Danny

Left my office early today, finally decided to head to Lower Peirce rather than SBG. Pretty quiet with few joggers. The friendly Short-tailed Babblers were at the usual U turn boardwalk taking their evening baths together with a couple of female Siberian Blue Robins.

At exactly 7 pm the Black-backed Kingfisher turned up at the previous year perch and for the next 3 minutes or so made repeated bath dives with preening in between.

Glad to end the year with a BB Kingfisher.

MacRitchie Reservoir 03Feb09

From KH

This evening is a special one. It is an evening of forest gems. When I arrived, Con, Danny, GC and a few other photographers were already there. First and foremost were the bathing babblers - Striped Tit-babblers and Short-tailed Babblers.

Striped Tit-babblers. Short-tailed Babbler.

We were hoping that the Siberian Blue Robins would come to take a shower, like it did previously. However, they only called and I could only glimpse a female in the thick undergrowth.

There were supporting cast of Banded Woodpecker and Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

Banded Woodpecker. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

While waiting for more actions, non-avian creature kept us company.

A few Branded Imperials rested on the same plant.

An exotic Common Snapping Turtle wondering what we were doing.

Then at closed to 7 pm, the Black-backed Kingfisher showed up. It would dive at roughly the same spot for fish, but the action was too fast to be captured.

However, all these pale in comparison to our very rare forest raptor - the Bat Hawk. However, as I left before the Bat Hawk showed up, I missed the chance to see this forest gem of the gems.

Here's the account from GC

Bat Hawk Sighting in Singapore
Date: 03 Feb 2009
Time: 1935H
Location: Central Catchment Nature Reserves
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Observers: Tan Gim Cheong, Danny Lau, Con Foley, Marcus Ng.

The sun had already set and a Large-tailed Nightjar was “chonking” away but we could still see a bit as it was still twilight. I was the last in the group as we were walking and I noticed, some distance away on my left, a relatively large bird flying away. I lost sight of it as it flew behind some trees. It appeared to be roughly the size of a crow and also appeared all black, so I surmise it must be a House Crow for I had seen them flying at night before. Then the bird flew across our path from left to right, disappeared from view, and reappeared a bit closer. Now, I could see that it was indeed quite a large bird. It had a stout head and neck, and it lacked the long bill of a crow. Together with its pointed wings, the bird’s silhouette strongly resembled that of the Peregrine Falcon. Its wingbeats were strong and regular. As the bird flew to our back, I said “Raptor!” and was answered “At this hour?” Subconsciously, I knew what a raptor that had pointed wings and that was active at this hour could plausibly be, but I had to get a better look to be sure, so I turned around to go after it. I could still see the bird flying against the sky and amazingly, the bird flew back towards us and as it approached, I looked at its throat area and Bingo – its white throat stood out against its dark plumage even in the dim lighting and I exclaimed “White throat! Bat Hawk”! We waited and hoped the bird would come back. After a while, the bird could be seen flying above the tree line and then it flew close enough for photographic evidence of our sighting to be gathered. Back home, upon referring to the relevant literature, I was amazed to find out that despite a small number of sightings in the last 20 years, there were no confirmed records of this species for Singapore since 1951, a break of 58 years!