The spotting of a leucistic Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) at East Coast Park on 28th June 2018 caused much excitement among bird photographers.
A leucistic Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus) can be spotted on and off. Other leucistic species reported in this website include Yellow Bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) and House Crow (Corvus splendens), both spotted in Malaysia.
In this particular case, it was not so much the leucistic fledging that caused the excitement. Rather, it was the unusual spectacle of two colourful adult kingfishers feeding the whitish, recently fledged juvenile that generated the excitement – see video above by MeiLin Khoo.
The juvenile was spotted by the road where the adults tried hard to get it to fly off by tempting it with food. When this failed, the adults relented and fed the juvenile
Before long the juvenile ended under shelter of vegetation and the adults were feeding it with a continuous supply of food – as shown in the video below by Jeremiah Loei.
According to Jack Lai, food brought by the adults included caterpillar, dragonfly, grasshopper and cricket.
MeiLin Khoo, Jeremiah Loei, Siew Mun, Yeo Eng Chai, Terence Tan, Dave Koh & Jack Lai
Singapore
28th June 2018
This post is a cooperative effort between Birds, Insects N Creatures Of Asia and BESG to bring the study of birds and their behaviour through photography and videography to a wider audience.
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