“After a pair of Green Imperial-pigeons (Ducula aenea) was found nesting last year LINK, I had a hunch that they would nest there again. An urge to revisit the site has been delayed many times. In July 2015, I finally made my way to revisit the site and was blessed to find another nesting on the same tree (above).
“Initially two adults could be seen on an adjacent tree and indulging in preening activities (above).
“From the photos captured, a close look at the eye shows an obvious white eyering. Not that obvious, a red ‘eyering’ appears to be inside the circumference of the white eyering (above). It was only when it closed its eye during preening that the red ‘eyering’ revealed otherwise (below). It had transformed into a straight line in the middle of the eye. The red “eyering” is actually the edges of its eyelids.
“After half an hour of waiting, one of the adults flew into the tree with the nest and perched just below the nest. The elusive nestling, which I had struggled to spot for the past half hour finally made an appearance when it was seen just outside the nest to check out the adult (below). I had time for only two shots of this nestling as it went back into the nest with the adult following.
“The nestling remained hidden in the nest after more than an hour of waiting.
“There was consolation when one of the adults flew to the fruiting MacArthur Palm (Ptychosperma macarthurii) that were not too far away for feeding. Note the different appearance of the green metallic sheen on the same individual’s back: dull when not under sunlight (above) and brilliant when under direct sunlight (below).”
Kwong Wai Chong
Singapore
27th August 2015
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