On 26th October 2010, Geoff Lim sent in this account: “I found this at the ground floor of my home. It’s quite small in size and looks like a warbler of sorts. Or could this be an immature Siberian Blue Robin because of the relatively long tarsus and robust looking beak with a short tail? Would anyone be able to enlighten me on it’s identity?”
It was possible that the bird crashed against the glass door as it was found about 1.5m from it when Geoff was rushing off to work. The bird was dead with no sign of blood around, hence it was unlikely to have been caught by a cat.
Robert Teo wrote in, suggesting that the dead bird looked like a Lanceolated Warbler (Locustella lanceolata). This was confirmed by Dr David R Wells.
The Lanceolated Warbler is a rare winter visitor and passage migrant to Singapore. The first appearance of this northern migrant is around early September, lasting up to late January, although isolated individuals do appear up to late April.
Bird Ecology Study Group Migratory birds, Bidadari and the threat to MacRitchie forest…
[…] “Migratory birds do not choose Bidadari over the Central Catchment and other patches of trees. Migratory birds simply turn up everywhere. There are thousands upon thousands of migratory birds that move through Singapore during the migratory months, mainly during the autumn passage (latter months of the year). Most passerines move during the night and will put down at the nearest green patch at dawn or when the weather becomes unfavourable (eg. heavy rain). They also become disorientated by bright lights, especially when rain forces them to low altitudes and this results in many casualties when they crash into buildings LINK. […]