{"id":60469,"date":"2021-09-20T10:21:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T02:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/?p=60469"},"modified":"2021-09-20T10:21:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T02:21:59","slug":"white-breasted-waterhen-behaviour-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/besgroup.org\/2021\/09\/20\/white-breasted-waterhen-behaviour-series\/","title":{"rendered":"White-breasted Waterhen – behaviour series"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following series on the different behaviours of a White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus phoenicurus<\/em>) are based on observations by Dato\u2019 Dr. Amar-Singh HSS<\/strong> made on different days around an urban habitat in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waterhen on a wooden fence.<\/p>\n On 29th<\/sup> April 2020, the above White-breasted Waterhen\u00a0hopped up on this\u00a0wooden fence in front of me and allowed close observation and images. It was feeding on insects on the foliage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waterhen feeding on insects.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waterhen foraging in a pond.<\/p>\n On the early morning of 2nd<\/sup> May, a waterhen was seen foraging in the centre of a pond covered (coated) with Lemna minor<\/em> (Common or Lesser Duckweed). It was sieving through the aquatic plants looking for snail prey, some were tiny as seen in the image below .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waterhen with snail prey.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waterhen with nesting material.<\/p>\n On 21st<\/sup> May a waterhen was seen with a nesting material. It\u2019s short tail often flicked when nervous.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waterhen flicking its short tail.<\/p>\n An older video and DSLR images of a\u00a0White-breasted\u00a0Waterhen\u00a0(Uwak) making less commonly heard calls. Many of us would be familiar with the \u2018classical\u2019, calls these birds make \u2013 a cacophony of loud, raucous notes that are answered by the mate \u2013 often sounding like its local name \u201cuwak-wak-wak-wak\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sonogram of waterhen\u2019s call.<\/p>\n The bird also has larger repertoire of other calls. One that I hear infrequently is the one shown in the video and sonogram (above). They are discrete, repetitive calls made every 1.2 seconds (16 calls in 19 seconds) and last 0.2-0.3 of a second. Few authors describe them. Craig Robson (Field Guide to Birds of SE Asia 2002) alludes to them as contact calls and describes them as \u201cpwik\u201d.\u00a0Bird that made calls in Post 2 seen below.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The waterhen that made the call.<\/p>\n Video recording here:\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/ELHfqhO3Cqo<\/a><\/p>\n