From looking at birds to studying birds: The story of the Bird Ecology Study Group. Part 1: Looking at Birds.

As far back as the mid-1960s, there was a loose group within the Malayan Nature Society (Singapore Branch), now Nature Society (Singapore). Members of this group were frequently in the field studying bird behaviour (Wee & Tsang, 2008). When Clive Briffett, an accomplished as well as a passionate birdwatcher, joined the society in 1984, he formalised this group into the Bird Group. Clive introduced activities like guided walks, annual bird race, bird surveys, water bird census and bird counts, etc. (Wee, 2006). Such activities helped members to improve their skills in bird identification. An updated checklist of birds was later compiled to replace Gibson-Hill’s outdated 1950 copy https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/app/uploads/2017/04/20brm005-299.pdf. In 1987 a limited-edition Singapore Avifauna was published to record bird sightings, nesting and other aspects of bird behaviour (Wee, 2006). In 1992 Clive published a Singapore Science Centre’s guide booklet for locals interested in nature (Briffett, 1992). This was followed by a Guide to the Common Birds of Singapore, co-authored with Sutari bin Supari, for the more serious birdwatchers (Briffett & Sutari, 1993).

During these years, local and expatriate birdwatchers had no problems watching birds together. This was indeed the golden years of birding in Singapore. Under Clive’s leadership, the group grew from strength to strength https://besgroup.org/2011/11/10/a-tribute-to-clive-briffett-birdwatcher-and-conservationist/.

After six years of leading the group, Clive graciously stepped down as locals were eager to take over. The post of chairman went to Lim Kim Keang who in turn roped in Lim Kim Seng, Dr. Ho Hua Chew, Subaraj Rajathurai, Sunny Yeo and Sutari Supari for various committee duties..

Until today the main activity of the Bird Group continues to be the annual bird race that was started by Clive. Small groups of members gather in the early morning and move to various locations to seek out birds, identify the species and make sketches and notes as evidence. At the end of the day they return for the judges to verify the groups’ sightings and declare the top dog of the day.

The leaders of the group naturally tried very hard to be the top dogs. To ensure this, they were willing to manipulate the rules to favour themselves. One glaring example was banning bird calls in identifying birds. The late Subaraj Rajathurai was well known for his ability to identify birds by their calls. After all, in the forest birds are often heard than seen. This of course gave Subaraj an advantage. In due course the organisers changed the rules by denying participants to use bird calls in identifying birds.

The 2012 bird race saw another example of dirty play. Knowing that he would be late for registration, Subaraj phoned the office earlier and was told that late registration would be accepted as usual. When he came to register, he was told that the organisers had just changed the rules. So he was not allowed to join the race. What Subaraj did was to organise his private race that ran “parallel” to the official race. His unofficial team, which included his wife and two sons, ended the race with 141 bird species against the 102 species scored by the official team https://besgroup.org/2012/10/23/a-family-big-day-a-personal-bird-race/. Obviously his score was not accepted but Subaraj got satisfaction that he was the unofficial top dog.

Some years later, I was pleasantly surprised to read in the local Straits Times that Lim Kim Chuah and Dr. Yong Ding Li were both “passionate” about bird sounds. Well, now that they are familiar with bird calls, they must be still waiting for Lim Kim Keang to attune his ears to such calls before any formal change in the bird race rules can be made. Anyway it is safe to have a rule change now that the late Subaraj would not be joining these races anymore.

Wang Luan Keng was a zoology graduate and an ornithologist in her own right. In the 1980s she joined up with Dr. Christopher J. Hails who was then attached to the Singapore Botanical Gardens to undertake field research on birds of Singapore. After the compilation of their research data, there was a dispute about authorship. The bird group demanded co-authorship just because the data included some bird species that were earlier listed by the group in unpublished documents. The demand was denied and the data were eventually published in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (Wang & Hails 2007). Thereafter, Luan Keng moved out of the group and joined the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, leaving the group without its only ornithologist. Dr. Hails left for Switzerland to take up a job with the World Wildlife Fund. So the bird group lost its only ornithologist in its team.

The change in leadership from Clive to Kim Keang did not go well with expatriate birdwatchers. The local leaders, being relatively new to birdwatching unlike their expatriate counterparts who were more experienced, led to many of the latter moving out of the group to enjoy birding by themselves (Wee, 2006). Prominent among those who left included R. F. Ollington, an experienced birder who had been keeping a privately circulated monthly newsletter, Birdline that documented his personal sightings and observations (Wells, 1999; 2007). His inaugural 1992 issue continued to more than 82 issues. Other experienced birders who left the group included Richard Hale and Subaraj Rajathurai. This in turn resulted in contributions to Avifauna drying up from 12 issues a year to four.

In 2005 the then President S. R. Nathan suggested publishing a book on birds seen at the Istana. The Singapore Environment Council was naturally involved. However, the authors were James Gan Wan Meng and Aileen Lau. The former is from the Singapore Botanic Gardens while the latter is a publisher. On the 150 years anniversary of the Istana which was in 2019, a new edition was commissioned to update the book with the latest bird audit and other information. This edition was produced by the same team. This shows that there are many good birdwatchers who are not members of the Nature Society’s bird group.

Peace with Nature: 50 Inspiring Essays on Nature and the Environment, was published in 2024 (Koh et al. 2024). This book is a major publication on Singapore’s nature scene, initiated by Nature Society’s Patron, Prof. Tommy Koh. The Bird Group’s contribution was by Dr. Yong Ding Li who wrote a paper on bird migration (Yong, 2024). What surprised me was that the essay on “Singapore birds” was contributed by a pair of bird photographers, Morten Strange and Ng Bee Choo, who are not from the Bird Group (Strange & Bee Choo, 2024). Is there any surprise then that the Bird Group will always keep on looking at birds and ticking checklists?

The formation of Bird Society of Singapore in 2023 and its team of dynamic leaders who earlier were removed from the Bird Group will provide a credible alternative to the recreational Bird Group of the Nature Society (Singapore). Why were they removed after doing volunteer work for many years? Well, those responsible were too shy to reveal. For details of the saga, see: https://besgroup.org/2023/12/11/bird-society-of-singapore-a-credible-alternative-to-the-nature-societys-bird-group/.

In July 2024, the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law hosted an event to celebrate the Good Stories Movement initiated by Philippines’ top environment activist Tony Oposa. The local top environment organisations as well as individual activist were awarded certificates for their role in environmental activities. The Nature Society (Singapore) and more than a few members were honoured. Again, Morten Strange and Ng Bee Choo were honoured for their role in hornbill activities. The Bird Group was not recognised, possibly because they were just a recreation group https://besgroup.org/2024/09/14/good-stories-movement/.

References:

1. Briffett, Clive, 1992. A Guide to the Common Birds of Singapore. Singapore Science Centre.
2. Briffett, Clive & Sutari bin Supari, 1993. The Birds of Singapore. Oxford University Press.
3. Gan W. M, James & Lau, Aileen Lau, 2005. Birds seen at the Istana. Suntree Media and Singapore Environmental Council.
4. Gibson-Hill, C.A. 1950. A checklist of the birds in Singapore island. Bulletin of the Raffles Museum 21: 132-183.
5. Koh, Tommy, L. H. Lye & Shawn Lum (editors). 2024. Peace with Nature: 50 Inspiring Essays on Nature and the Environment. World Scientific.
6. Strange, Morten & Bee Choo Strange, 2024. Birds of Singapore. In: Koh, Tommy, L.H. Lye & Shawn Lum (eds.), p. 306-314.
7. Subaraj, R., 1988. Migrating sunbirds. Singapore Avifauna, 2(2): 27–29.
8. Wang, L.K. & C. J. Hails, 2007. An annotated checklist of birds of Singapore. The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 15: 1-179.
9. Wee, Y. C., 2006. Forty years of birding and ornithological research in Singapore. BirdingASIA, 5: 12–15.
10. Wee, Y. C. & K. C. Tsang, 2008. The changing face of birding in Singapore. Nature in Singapore, 1: 97–102.
11. Wee, Y. C., K. C. Tsang & R. Subaraj 2010. Birding in Singapore and the challenges of the 21st century. Nature in Singapore 3: 53-58.
12. Wells, D. R., 1999. The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume I, Non-Passerines. Academic Press, London. 648 pp.
13. Wells, D. R., 2007. The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume II, Passerines. Christopher Helm, London. 800 pp.
14. Wikipedia, 2012. Nature Society (Singapore). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_Society_Singapore#cite_note-38 Accessed 01Mar. 2012.

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