“I went to the newly opened Gardens by the Bay yesterday and surprisingly found there were many birds settled down there. It includes the Oriental Magpie-robin, Black-naped Oriole, Olive-blacked Sunbird, Little Spiderhunter, Asian Koel and those common resident birds – Common Myna, Eurasian Tree Sparrow and crows. There are also considerable amount of butterflies and dragonflies.
“One female Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis) caught my attention as it repeatedly visited a piece of cloth which was covering a plum tree. When I checked the photos, it seems the bird have been taking the fibers from the cloth for building material. It shuttled between the plum tree and another tree more than 20 times within 30 minutes.
“Here a series of photo taken, including the bird pulling the fiber out from the cloth and carrying the fiber in it’s bill.”
William Ip
Singapore
10th July 2012
Note: Thanks to Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS for pointing out that the species is probably a female Olive-backed Sunbird.
Subaraj Rajathurai
Sorry! This is actually a female Olive-backed Sunbird. It would be really odd for a Little spiderhunter to be found at the new Gardens, as this species is mainly found in and around the Central Nature Reserves.
Chintana
What kind of cloth? It looks like a fiber or a bark?
Common Tailorbird Gathering Nesting Material « G33k5p34k
[…] still had support struts tied to the trunk, with a cloth-like material (looks similar to the one in an earlier BESG article featuring an olive-backed sunbird) wrapped around the tree to cushion the trunk against the […]