Sun Chong Hong earlier posted a video of an Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) eating the seeds of chempaka merah (Michelia champaca). In his statement he mentioned the bird’s frequent defecating and regurgitating.
Chong Hong subsequently “extracted a screen by screen sequence of the first instance of regurgitation during the ‘critical’ time, using ‘ZoomBrowser Ex’, a photo and video editing software provided by Canon as part of the package of their digital cameras… Although my video was taken with a Fujifilm camera, I found that the software still works.”
The series of grabbed images clearly show the sequence of regurgitation. The image above shows the tiny seed minus the pulp about to leave the tip of the bird’s bill (arrow).
An earlier post showed an Asian Glossy Starling swallowing fruits of the Alexandra palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae) to subsequently regurgitating the seeds. The fruits are 10x12mm in size and the regurgitation could easily be seen through a pair of binoculars or photographed. In this case, the seeds are much smaller and the casting of the seed is not easily detected by conventional means. Videography has again shown its superiority over the camera as close analysis of the individual frames can show the seed leaving the starling’s gape.
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