Birds Watching at SBWR

With more & more arrival of the migratory birds, is time to head to Sungei Buloh (SBWR) to watch this once a year affair!

While I was washing my hand in the toilet, I heard someone knocking on the roof right on top of me. I was more than happy to see a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbill! Perhaps, they are knocking on their own image from the glass reflection.

There are quite a number of egret perch on top of tree just opposite the Main Bridge.

I saw this spider before entering the Main Hide. There are lots of birds feeding in front of the main hide.

This egret trying to scare the prey from their hiding so that she can hunt them.

Whimbrel is one of the bigger shore bird among those feeding on the mud flat.

Marsh sandpiper

This Lesser Sand Plover been to Singapore before! The ring (green & white) means it was tagged/ringed in Singapore before.

One of the best thing to do is just sit there watching the arrival/taking off of these birds.

Other than birds, the mud skipper can be found near the water edge. Good weather, good sighting & hope tomorrow the weather is as good! :)

Feeding Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Last quarter is always the best time to go birding in Singapore. On top of native birds, there are lots of migratory birds that will arrived from the north to avoid the cold winter. Asian Paradise flycatcher is one of them.

Asian Paradise Flycatcher is one of the many birds that I like to see it in the wild. This year must be my lucky year, I have seen quite a number of them and even have the opportunity to learn more about their feeding behavior. I'm so happy that I saw this flycatcher just caught a cicada! The flycatcher is trying to align the cicada so that it can swallow it.

Perhaps the cicada is consider too big? The flycatcher transfer the cicada to the claw.
The flycatcher then start by biting off the head of the cicada.
Instead of taking the whole prey at one go, the flycatcher taking this cicada bit by bit.
The flycatcher now hold the half eaten cicada with its beak.
With one gulp, the half eaten cicada go down the flycatcher throat.
Is quite unusual for flycatcher to have this feeding behavior. They do not have strong & big talon to hold their prey & they also do not have curved or hook-like bill to tear their prey. Nevertheless, is an fantastic experience to be able to know more about this beautiful bird. This flycatcher continue to perch there for me to take more shots before flew off. What a satisfying birding trip for me! :)

Spotted House Gecko

It has been raining the whole night and the weather starts to clear a bit in the late morning. I went over to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for my birding trip while it was still drizzling. There are lots of Long-tailed macaque at the car park, some of them sitting on top of the parked vehicles! They should look for food in the forest and not at the carpark. .As I make my way to the Hindhede Trail, I saw a lizard of about 20cm crawling not too far in front of me. Upon closer look, it was a Spotted House Gecko (Gekko monarchus)! This gecko suppose to be a nocturnal animal. Perhaps it was forced to look for food after the overnight rain? The close-up photo of the gecko's leg looks like a dragon's palm! :)


It was a rather shy animal and run to hide and take cover upon seeing me in this tiny gap.



I manage to take a full body shot before it go hiding.