{"id":11886,"date":"2010-07-04T00:06:44","date_gmt":"2010-07-03T16:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/besgroup.talfrynature.com\/?p=11886"},"modified":"2023-06-24T17:32:49","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T09:32:49","slug":"yellow-vented-bulbuls-rain-dance-an-answer-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/2010\/07\/04\/yellow-vented-bulbuls-rain-dance-an-answer-at-last\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow-vented Bulbuls ‘rain dance’ \u2013 an answer at last?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The phenomenon of the Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier<\/em>) darting out of a tree canopy after a heavy downpour, termed \u201crain dance\u201d by Lena Chow<\/strong> was first discussed<\/a> in August 2006. At that time there were no images to illustrate the account. Lena finally managed to provide images<\/a> in July 2009. The cause of this behaviour was discussed<\/a> but no conclusions were arrived at.<\/p>\n

Now, Lena has managed to video the phenomenon. You can download the video HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Jeremy Lee<\/strong> sent in this account of his observation on 25th June 2010: \u201cRemember there was this discussion about YVB’s congregating in large numbers and behaving oddly?<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it again, yesterday 24 Jun at about 7.20pm. Conditions were about the same as the last time I witnessed it. There was about 15 to 20 minutes more of sunlight to go before most birds called it a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing that caught my attention was the calls that were being made. It sounded different from the normal ‘scolding type’ notes of the bird. They were more like some sort of ‘mumbling in content’ kind of calls. I first heard it from a single bird nearby a location where two chicks just fledged. So I thought it was just some adolescent call. But I noticed that the captive adult bird at home also makes this call frequently. However I seldom hear it among wild birds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I walked further I noticed that many more birds were making that same call and when I finally homed in on the source, I found more than 20 YVB clustered on the top of a date palm. They appeared to be in pairs. Instead of the usual territorial behaviour exhibited during the breeding season over the past two months, they were all singing this pleasant repertoire. They took short flights out of the palm only to make a 180\u00ba u-turn back and head straight back to the tree. This I last mistook for the birds trying to catch flying insects like termites. However this time I was very sure there were no termites and it wasn’t going to rain either. Only the timing and lighting conditions were the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked some 100ms away from the site to play squash and realised that there were more pairs of birds joining up in flight and heading to the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like a congregation of all the pairs of bulbuls around the area in communal celebration of some event or end of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it looked like it coincided with the ending of the breeding season. I don’t see any more new nests in the condo and the last nest I saw seemed to be abandoned. A female was seen still incubating the eggs last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cA very interesting behaviour of the YVB which I have already withnessed twice. They seem to like the palms around the estate and when they congregate in such numbers, it is quite hard for a me not to notice the calls as they are perculiar and quite loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI managed to whip out my handphone to take a video clip. Can barely see the birds but at least I could record the calls made.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 3rd July Jeremy wrote again: “I saw the same grouping of YVB again late this evening after the rains. I was leaving the house when I noticed more YVB than usual hanging around the same palm tree. It was rather late and the birds seemed to be puffed up. Probably due to the cold weather after the rain. This gathering seems to be more frequent than I imagined. Now that I know that they frequent a particular group of trees. I will observe if it becomes a daily event and whether it continues for the next few months.” <\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> This \u201crain dance\u201d phenomenon may find an answer in David Wells<\/strong>\u2019 vol 2 of The Birds of the Malay Peninsula. On p158, describing the feeding habit of the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, it is written that: \u201cMuch food is taken in the air, including alate ants and termites, which are sometimes snatched by rocketing up vertically from an exposed perch into swarms passing overhead\u2026\u201d So those who believe in the alate termite theory may be right after all\u2026 The problem is that the termites may not be visible from a distance, especially when they are not present in a dense swarm. And the presence of detached wings during such swarming is not obvious since the termites are swarming above trees.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Lee & Lena Chow <\/strong>
\nSingapore
\nJuly 2010
\n(Image is a grab from a video by Lena Chow)<\/p>\n

Reference:<\/strong>
\nWells, D.R., 2007. The birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsular. Vol. II, Passerines. Christopher Helm, London. 800 pp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The phenomenon of the Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier) darting out of a tree canopy after a heavy downpour, termed \u201crain dance\u201d by Lena Chow was first discussed in August 2006. At that time there were no images to illustrate the account. Lena finally managed to provide images in July 2009. The cause of this behaviour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":16338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}