Joseph Lai came across a Tabernaemontana corymbosa tree at the end of Liane Road along the Garden Jungle in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
“It was fascinating observing how the Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) hovered in the air like a hummingbird to snatch a seed or two from below the down-turned opening of the fruit. I also saw the less tedious way it fed – by positioning itself on the nearest twig to peck at the seeds.”
All images by Joseph Lai.
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Any views and opinions expressed in the articles are solely those of the authors/contributors, and are not endorsed by the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM, NUS) or its affiliated institutions. Readers are encouraged to use their discretion before making any decisions or judgements based on the information presented.
4 responses
One of my postgraduate students in Hong Kong, Jacqui Weir, measured how long seeds take to pass through the guts of Chinese (= light-vented) and red-whiskered bulbuls and, using radio-telemetry, how far the bird moved, on average, during the gut passage time. It turned out that the bulbuls were moving most seeds less than 100 metres, but the occasional one more a kilometre. I can send the paper to anyone who is interested.
Cheers,
Richard Corlett, NUS
That’s excellent Richard. I think the Mod can put up the paper on this blog for all to share and learn =)
Richard has sent me a copy of the paper. I will summarise it as a future post.