“Was caught in a little forest birdwave today and heard simultaneous calls from Pin-striped Tit Babblers (Macronous gularis), a Van Hasselt’s Sunbird (formerly known as Purple-throated) (Leptcoma brasiliana), and a Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra). “Above is a video of the … Continued
We have accumulated a collection of more than 200 bird calls and songs LINK since our earlier posts urging for birdsound documentation LINK 1 and LINK 2. Even then only a small number of bird species found in Singapore and … Continued
In a paper published in BirdingAsia, Kittipon Bouranasompop and Robert DeCandido describe how ecotourism helped reduce bird trapping in an area bordering the Kaeng Krachan National Park in western Thailand. Every year, from mid-November to February, flocks of birds descend … Continued
Cave nectar bats (Eonycteris spelaea) are the main pollinating agent of the durian (Durio zibethinus) (Tomlinson, 1999). These bats are active at night and feed on the durian’s flowers. An earlier post LINK reports on the Common Red-bellied squirrel, also … Continued
Besides spiders, the Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) is a specialised nectar feeder. Its long tongue can protrude several centimetres beyond the tip of the bill, such that it can probe nectar found deep inside flowers. The above image by Liu … Continued
A number of accounts of Macaranga bancana attracting sunbirds, bulbuls and other birds were posted earlier. These observatins were made at Ipoh’s Kledang-Sayong Forest Reserve in the Malaysian state of Perak by Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS during his forays on … Continued
Steven Chong sent in an image of a Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) harvesting nectar from the flowers of the torch ginger (Etlingera elatior) The Little Spiderhunter visits Steven’s garden three to five times a day collecting nectar from one flower … Continued
A Little Spiderhunter (Arachnothera longirostra) was photographed collecting nectar from a wild banana plant (Musa sp.) in Rengit, Johor, Malaysia by Adrian Lim recently. So far, photographers have documented the spiderhunter drinking nectar from the cultivated banana plants… the Spectacled … Continued
On January 2013 Tan Teo Seng gave me a young banana plant (Musa edible cultivar) in a small polybag. It was a tissue culture plant, produced for the banana plantations in Malaysia. I transferred the plant into the soil and … Continued
“I can’t think of a better way to introduce the sub-family of Spiderhunters (Arachnothera), under the huge family of Nectariniini, comprising of a worldwide 123 species, than by introducing Archibald- the mascot Grey-breasted Spiderhunter (A. modesta) to represent its eleven … Continued
