This article presents a nesting record of the The Barred Eagle-Owl Bubo sumatranus sumatranus. The species has a wide range from Myanmar, through Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore. It can adapt to the widespread monoculture habitat of oil palm plantations and is of least concern. Still it is a striking looking owl and a pleasure to see.
Change of climate, anyone? Think of winter clothes, hats, gloves, boots, minus 10 degrees. Several of us went for a winter self-drive bird photography trip to Hokkaido in February 2011.
The 2010/2011 migration season saw a sharp uptick of interest in the pelagic birds of the Singapore Strait, a few groups organized outings. I was lucky to go on several of these trips. On the 2nd of October 2010, we set off before dawn in the first of a series of outings organized by Colin Poole.
While photographing Baya Weavers Ploceus philippinus at a site near Lim Chu Kang in western Singapore during May 2008 certain unexpected observations were made regarding adult male behaviour at the nest.
On the first day of July, 2010, I was on Bunker Trail, when just before 8:00am I noticed a bird fly from tree to tree that gave me the overall impression of a large cuckoo. I was in the car at the time and so I drove to the forest edge and observed, the bird continued to move from branch to branch until to my great fortune it settled on a relatively open perch. It would stay on this perch for an incredible twenty minutes giving me plenty of time to observe it’s behaviour. One of the first things I noticed was the bird was making a very soft call, and then within a few minutes a female White-rumped Shama flew in. As soon as the female was there, the cuckoo started quivering it’s wings.
In mid-December 2009 I went to Heliconia Walk at Singapore Botanic Gardens to observe and photograph the sunbirds feeding on the heliconia flowers together with Jean René Croguennec. I had my camera focused on a particularly promising Heliconia psittacorum ‘Lady Di’ flower cluster. Not long after we arrived and to our astonishment, a male Olive-backed Sunbird flew into the flower I was targeting and began his mating display. Although I’d never witnessed this before it was unmistakable what he was doing.
Ever since my first trip to what is now Panti Bird Sanctuary, Johor, I have been fascinated with the Rail-babbler. Now six years later I have seen the Rail-babbler on a number of occasions, usually just brief glimpses of the bird walking away through obstructing foliage. But I’ve been quite lucky twice. Once in May 2010 a pair of Rail-babblers simply walked past my vehicle allowing leisurely viewing and several photos taken from inside the car.