For more than a few months a pair of Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) was seen in and around my garden (above). Their loud and melodious songs cannot help but attract attention to their presence.
In March 2015 I began to notice the pair loitering around my Belimbing (Averrhoa belimbi) tree, sometimes hiding among the clusters of leaves at the ends of a pair of closely growing stems. On closer examination I noticed the beginning of a crude nest lodged between the bases of the compound leaves (above, arrow).
They appeared in the mornings and evenings, spending time among the branches. Most times two (sometimes three) birds flew in, one entering the nest to insert the material it brought. The other perched nearby, sometimes even checking on the one in the nest, waiting for it to complete its task before both flying off together. All these times the accompanying bird or birds sang their slightly different loud and melodious songs.
Then for a few days their presence was conspicuously absent. The nest was possibly completed. A few days later their melodious songs were again heard. Was the female coming to lay her egg?
YC Wee
Singapore
April 2015
2 responses