“On 9th October 2016, my niece, Veronica Foo Tze Fen and I were at Tampines Eco Green when we spotted a male Scarlet-Backed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum) hunting on a Muntingia calabura (Buah cheri) tree. It soon decided a semi-ripe fruit (instead of the few ripe ones around) and tried to dislodge it. After several attempts from various angles it succeeded only to find the fruit too big for its gape and the fruit too hard for it to squeez.
“It them manipulate the fruit with its beak till it finally manage to piece it with its upper mandible. Then it squeezes the juicy contents out.
“After finishing the fruit juicy contents, it discarded the skin, wiped its mouth, ruffled its feathers and lightened its weight and flew off, satisfied.”
Veronica Foo Tze Fen & Foo Jit Leang
Singapore
24th October 2016