sgbeachbum: May 2013

Saturday, May 25, 2013

white-bellied sea eagle escapes a murder of crows @ SBWR - May 2013

The white-belied sea eagle, Singapore's largest resident bird, was enjoying a sunny morning on a bare branch at one end of Pulau Buloh across from Platform 1 at SBWR. It was soon joined by a single crow but within minutes, there were quite a few more crows crowding the surrounding branches.

As the crows grew in number, they started leapfrogging between the nearby branches constantly repositioning themselves around the eagle which was many times their size. It seemed as if there was intelligence behind the repositioning like a chess game being played on the chequerboard of branches.

The eagle was becoming increasingly concerned with the attention by the ever increasing crows. Soon, it was time for the crows to show the eagle who was boss of that corner of Pulau Buloh.

The eagle quickly decided to take flight after a crow brushed up too close against its wing. Time to escape a murder. It was immediately chased by some of the other crows which had ben waiting on the nearby branches. The eagle flew off to a less crow-ed (pun intended) part of the reserve.

white-bellied sea eagle and a murder of crows @ SBWR May2013 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Here are some links about crows :

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/crow-intelligence-mind_n_2457181.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_19042_6-terrifying-ways-crows-are-way-smarter-than-you-think.html

http://nusavifauna.wordpress.com/category/crows/

http://nusavifauna.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/large-billed-crow/

http://www.besgroup.org/2006/10/23/a-house-crow-went-fishing/

http://www.besgroup.org/2006/04/20/the-house-crow-and-the-bat/

http://www.besgroup.org/2009/07/13/house-crow-caching-meat/

http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/pub/naturewatch/text/a094b.htm

http://blog.nus.edu.sg/lsm2251student/2010/04/14/the-bully-in-singapore/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070108-crows.html

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3802688?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102330702267

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3802944?uid=3738992&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102330702267

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/world/asia/08singapore.html

Saturday, May 4, 2013

changeable hawk eagle - dark morph @ bukit brown - 01May2013

Took a detour into Sime Road and entered the main gate of the Bukit Brown Cemetary when I noticed a large dark bird sitting high on a bare tree.

It was sitting on a stump whilst the rain drizzled on. I moved around to get a better vantage point to observe the bird. The dead tree it was on was a little behind the banners put up to help save Bukit Brown from development.

The bird was on the branch for about 20 minutes before it flew off. I'm guessing it had gotten wet in a downpour and was sitting high on the bare tree drying itself off.

changeable hawk eagle - dark morph @ bukit brown - 01May2013 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Having seen the pale morph version of this rarely seen locally resident eagle, it was a first for me to see the dark morph version at Bukit Brown. Unfortunately, seeing these rarely seen birds at Bukit Brown will likely soon become history once development plans are put into a higher gear. Already, some trees near the entrance have been cut down.

Find out more about these rarely seen resident birds here :

http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.sg/2013/05/changeable-hawk-eagle-pale-morph.html

http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.sg/2013/01/changeable-hawk-eagle-pale-morph-bukit.html

http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.com/2012/11/changeable-hawk-eagles-tanah-merah.html

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=31546

http://www.besgroup.org/2007/10/07/changeable-hawk-eagle-pale-x-dark-morph/

http://www.besgroup.org/2007/08/16/portrait-of-an-eagle-changeable-hawk-eagle/

http://besgroup.blogspot.com/2007/01/changeable-eagle-attacking-colugo.html

http://www.besgroup.org/2006/11/02/changeable-hawk-eagle-and-the-long-tailed-macaque/

http://www.besgroup.org/2007/07/21/changeable-hawk-eagle-nesting-observations/

http://nusavifauna.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/changeable-hawk-eagle/

http://singaporebirds.blogspot.com/2012/06/buttonquail.html

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Nisaetus-cirrhatus

http://wildbirdsingapore.nss.org.sg/Raptor%20Manual_circa.pdf

changeable hawk eagle - pale morph juvenile @ maxwell road - 4 May 2013

It's not everyday you see a large raptor in the vicinity of the central business district. I had seen the raptor briefly as it flew overhead into a clump of trees on the left side of the AYE-ECP just past the tip of Maxwell Road (this is the southern part of Maxwell Road closest to Marina South). Being only able to reach the clump of trees about twenty minutes later, I thought the bird was long gone. There was only a crow flying about the small sliver of trees bordering Maxwell Road. The crow was however repeatedly flying towards the ground behind some bushes and then up again as if it was trying to harass something on the ground. It was also calling out loud. Moving a little aside, through the bushes, I saw the raptor standing on the ground. It was trying to lift off with something but I was not able to see what it was it had in its talons. It soon flew to a tree branch just about 3 metres away before flying off to better cover further into the trees. Perhaps the CHE had come from the nearby Gardens by the Bay. I tried looking for what it had been trying to lift behind the bushes expecting to see an injured bird or snake but did not see anything which was the likely target.