Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot – a family
Female A small family or social unit of 3 Blue-crowned Hanging Parrots (Loriculus galgulus) – two males and one female. Female My anecdotal experience is that numbers are coming down as these birds are heavily poached for the bird trade, … Continued
Laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) picks up worm from ground
The laughing kookaburra is also known as the laughing jackass in Australia. Wong Kais took a video of one such bird on the sidewalk of Adelaide North Terrace. It looked around the grass, walked up to a worm and gobbled … Continued
Arctic Warbler – sighting
Saw two Arctic Warblers (Phylloscopus borealis) feeding in the same immediate location. This was a bit unexpected for me, always having only seen one except when due to migrate back. One bird was very worn as shown here in this … Continued
Asian Openbills
In the past few months, since January 2020, I have been seeing Asian Openbills (Anastomus oscitans) in the city. Initially at the fringe, and now in the heart of the city. At first it was 3-5 birds, now flocks of … Continued
Ptyas carinata (keeled rat snake)
Ptyas carinata (formerly known as Zaocys carinata), the keeled rat snake, is a colubrid. Read this account to find out more about colubrid snakes. This non-venomous, diurnal snake is terrestrial in habits and feed on rats and other small vertebrates that it … Continued
Sunda slow loris (Nyctecebus coucang)
This slow loris, a venomous primate, was spotted on 15 October 2021 in a Singapore nature reserve. As the creature is critically endangered, BESGroup is withholding the location where this was filmed. Nyctecebus coucang is a nocturnal omnivore. It feeds … Continued
Brown-streaked Flycatcher Muscicapa williamsoni ?
I saw this darker looking ‘Asian Brown Flycatcher’ and considered M. d. williamsoni (Brown-streaked Flycatcher). David Wells (2007 & pers. comm. 2018) states that williamsoni “normally has an all-yellow, not black-tipped, lower mandible”. I reviewed all 15 images labelled as williamsoni (Brown-streaked Flycatcher) in OBI database … Continued
Blue-eared Barbet – conflict behaviour
Many barbets at the fruiting Ficus religiosa (Sacred Fig) especially the Blue-eared Barbets Megalaima australis duvaucelii (Psilopogon duvaucelii duvaucelii) (10-12 birds), Gold-whiskered Barbet Megalaima chrysopogon (8-9 birds) and an occasional Lineated Barbet Psilopogon lineatus and Coppersmith Barbet Megalaima haemacephala. There was much competitive feeding between … Continued
Baya Weavers – moulting and feeding
I enjoy these ‘common’ birds very much. This male Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus infortunatus) with a rich breeding cap was moulting extensively in the breast (cinnamon plumage) and mantle plumage. Notice the beak which is becoming fully black as expected … Continued
Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker– diet
Saw this young Crimson-breasted Flowerpecker (Prionochilus percussus ignicapilla) foraging and self-feeding. I think it is an immature female ( below). There was no crown-flash or red-breast but the underpart were yellow and wings olive-green and some white malar-stripe (Wells 2007 … Continued
