White-Rumped Shama

Many thrushes are powerful songsters but the White-Rumped Shama Copsychus malabariscus is surely one of the best. Its rich and bubbling song is a delight to hear in the forest.

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A close relative to the Magpie Robin, the White-Rumped Shama is also a good songster; its rich bubbling fluty whistle a characteristic sound of the lowland rainforest. Because of its beautiful song, it is trapped for the cage bird trade. It often descends to feed on the ground but delivers its song from a perch. Specimens see in cage are likely to be escaped cage birds. Source: Strange & Jeyarajasingam (1993)

Head, breast and wings are entirely glossy black in male; bold white rump and long, graduated black tail with white edges; lower breast and abdomen rufous-orange. Female similar but dark grey and rufous rather than black and orange; shorter tail. Source: Davidson & Y.F. Chew (1995)

Pacific Swallows

Pacific Swallows are found everywhere, but usually near water and open country. In Singapore, they are particularly common along the coasts, and also found in mangroves. Earlier this year, a few pacific swallows rested outside my office window. Thus, I was able to take some close-up photos of them.

photo: Kent Ridge

Pacific Swallows eat insects, catching them during flight. To feast on swarming insects, they may join other birds like Swifts. But unlike Swifts that simply trawl the air with their mouths open, Swallows don't hunt on the wing. They perch and wait, then actually chase after individual prey and perform aerial acrobatics to catch them. Swallows also hunt at lower levels than Swifts.Unlike Swifts, Swallows can perch and also come to the ground to drink or gather nesting material.

This species is a small swallow at 13 cm. It has a blue back with browner wings and tail, a red face and throat, and dusky underparts. It differs from Barn Swallow in its shorter and less forked tail.
Adult: Upperparts metallic blue; forehead, throat, upper breast chestnut; lowerparts grey, never white.

Juvenile: Upperparts browner; less chestnut on throat and forehead.

text source: http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Hirundo_tahitica.htm

Asian Koel

Some time back, a pair of Asian Koel was sighted on the tree outside my office. Big and long-tailed, the male is glossy black all over with red eye and pale heavy bill. Female similar in shape but dark brown with bold spots and bars all over.  Calls unmistakable, often starting before dawn: ten or more increasingly loud glissading notes, koel!

A remarkable case of rapid spread: in ten years koels have colonised the whole peninsula of Malaysia, as nest parasites of crows and mynas. Like many species of cuckoos, Asian Koel practices brood paratism, which is defined as a bird laying its eggs in the nest of another bird (either another species or another individual of the same species) so that the young will be raised by the host parents.

NUS Kent Ridge

My search on the internet reveals that cuckoos have evolved various strategies for getting their egg into a host nest, depending on the host defensive strategies.

Egg-laying strategy: Female cuckoos have evolved secretive and fast laying behaviors, and in some cases, males have been seenn to lure host adults away from their nests so that the female can lay her eggs in their nest in the first place. It is also noted that the shells of the eggs of brood-parasites is usually thick - they have two distinct layers with an outer chalky layer that is believed to provide resistance to cracking when the eggs are dropped in the host nest. 

Egg-mimicry strategy: Some host birds are able to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own, leading to those eggs least like the host's being thrown out of the nest. In such setting, female parasitic cuckoos lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host. Parasitic cuckoos that show the highest levels of egg mimicry are those who hosts exhibit high levels of egg rejection behaviour. Some hosts do not exhibit egg rejection behavior and in these cases, the cuckoo eggs look very dissimilar from the host eggs.  

Egg-camouflage strategy: Other species of cuckoo lay "cryptic" eggs, which are dark in color when their hosts' eggs are light in color. This is a trick to hide the egg from the host, and has evolved in cuckoos that parasitize hosts with dark, domed nests.

Big-bully strategy: Some parasitic cuckoos have also exhibit "mafia-like" enforcement, in which adult cuckoos will completely destry the host's clutch if they reject the cuckoo egg. In this case, raising the cuckoos chick is less of a cost than the alternative - total clutch destruction!

It's in the genes: The cuckoo egg hatches earlier thatn the host's, and the cuckoo chick grows faster; in most cases the chick evicts the eggs or young of the host species. Since the chick has no time to learn this behavior, it must be an instinct passed on genetically.

  

source: Davidson & Chew (2008); wikipedia. 

Spotted Dove

The Spotted Dove is a very popular cage bird and the illegal trapping of will individuals is still a common practice. An adaptable bird with a wide tolerance for habitat, it is found in woodlands, open country and fields. It spends a lot of time walking on the ground near long grass, feeding on seeds.

Feeding on the ground, this is the most abundant pigeon of open country and cultivation.

Description: Brown above, mottled darker brown; vinous pink head and underparts, with white-spotted black half-collar joined round sides and back of neck. Taking off, conspicuously whitish sides to tail and pale grey panel on carpal joint of each wing. Singly or in pairs on ground, feeding on seeds and other bits of vegetation, or perched on wires or low trees; not large flocks. Call a three- or four-note coo.

source: Davidson & Chew (2007); Strange & Jeyarajasingam (1999); Photographic Society of Singapore (2010)

Pinked-necked Green Pigeon

PIGEONS are mainly arboreal birds while DOVES usually feed on the ground in more open habitats. Together they form the family Columbidae.

NUS Kent Ridge

The Pinked-necked Green Pigeon is a widespread and common garden bird throughout South-east Asia. This chubby pigeon can be enormously common in coastal scrub when fruits are abundant. From a distance, the birds look predominantly green. While this is true for the female, the male is more colorful, wearing a light pink neck and splashed with an orange spot on the breast.

Description: It can be distinguished from other green pigeons by grey tail with black band and grey tip. Male has grey head passing through pink to orange lower breast; green back and wings. Female dull green without markedly pale throat, best identified by tail pattern and association with distinctive male.

Calling a lilting coo, varied and prolonged. This pigeon usually forages in flocks, especially near coast in mangroves, scrub, secondary forest, forest edge, feeding on a variety of fruiting trees. It is particularly fond of figs (as shown in the photos above).

source: Davidson... ; Y.K. Chew (2007); K.S. Ong (2008); PSS (2010)