“We saw a number of House Crows (Corvus splendens) both in Johor Bahru (Malaysian side) and at the Sungei Buloh Wetlands, Singapore. At the mangrove wetlands we saw a flock of 7-9 birds foraging on the mud under the mangrove trees.
Above shows one of the birds with prey; it was using the tree trunk to process it. A colleague from the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore, who was with us thought it might be a crab. I have, on a number of occasions, seen House Crow foraging on the beach and muddy coast, so this is highly likely. Another possibility is one of the mangrove tree fruits.
“Above is an image of another in this social group.
“On the Malaysian side at Johor Bahru I saw larger numbers and some were collecting nesting material (above). Wells 2007 states that nest building has been reported from September to April.
“The bird above had picked up a stick that was more than twice its length. Other birds were also keen on this stick and there was a squabble before it could fly off, hotly chased by others. There were many other sticks around but this seemed to be the ‘chosen’ one.”
Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS
Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
28th-29th October 2018
Location: Sungei Buloh Wetlands, Singapore
Habitat: Mangrove forest wetlands
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