On 5th August 2014, we received through the courtesy of Lee Chiu San, two images taken by Mark Lim of Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital in Yishun Central, Singapore.
Mark spotted a male Pink-necked Green-pigeon (Treron vernans) sitting quietly on its nest outside the hospital’s food court on 1st August 2014. A few days later, Mark spotted two chicks sitting beside the adult.
As with pigeons and doves, the male usually incubates the eggs and broods the chicks during the daylight hours. Come evening, the female will arrive to take over the night duty. See HERE for details of nesting behaviour.
Most people walking past the small tree would not have spotted the active nest. And if some observant passersby did notice the nest, we are sure they would not have seen anything unusual.
And what is unusual in this nesting?
Pigeons usually build a simple platform of a nest made out of twigs. But this time the pair of green-pigeons used an abandoned nest of the Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) LINK.
Most probably the birds overlaid the abandoned nest with their simple platform, using the abandoned nest as a foundation. After all, the latter was firmly in place between the forks of the branches.
Chiu San has this is say: “You see, even the birds have been taught to recycle at Singapore’s greenest hospital!”
Mark Lim & Lee Chiu San
Singapore
August 2014
