Kit & Herman Year 2

[Kitsafari]

103/SG103: Little Spiderhunter, Dairy Farm Nature Park

 

Looking almost like the female olive-backed sunbirds, the little spiderhunter is slightly larger and has a much longer bill. This is an uncommon seen bird but the species seems to be doing well in Dairy Farm Nature Park. It can be found in India, China and Southeast Asia. 

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

Thanks @Soukous - we had a good laugh when we saw how plump it was. good stores ahead of its long flight home. 

 

104/SG104; Asian Glossy Starlings, Lorong Halus/Changi Business Park

 

A native bird that at a quick glance would have you think it was a myna. The Asian glossy starlings are just as gregarious and noisy birds as the myna, but they are marked by their black glossy plumage, which sometimes look like green dark blue and purple depending the light, and their distinctive red eyes. the juveniles are striped but lose the strips on reaching adulthood. The asian glossy starlings, which were previously called Philippine glossy starlings, are the only native among the five starling species that have been seen in Singapore.  They are distributed from India through east to the Philippines and down south to Sulawesi.

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

Sunbirds next! 

 

105/SG105: Brown-throated Sunbird, Eastwood/Satay By the Bay

 

There are seven species of sunbirds in Singapore, of which brown-throated and olive-backed sunbirds  (#21 in my list) are the most common. we used to have a few of the brown-throated sunbirds targeting our bottle brush tree but they have been absent the best part of the year. I wonder if the two very dry months of Feb-March had affected them. the females of both brown-throated and olive-backed are almost indistinguishable, except that the former has a faint white ring around its eyes. the male looks almost like the olive-backed as well, but its throat is brown instead of the iridescent blue that the olive-backed has. Both are native to Singapore and are found in the rest of Southeast Asia. 

 

Brown-Throated, Male: 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

106/SG106: Copper-throated Sunbird, Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve

 

This is a uncommon resident breeder, and lurks in mangroves and wooded areas. It looks like the Van Hasselt's Sunbird, another tough bird to shoot, except that it is larger and does not have the red breast. its throat is reddish-copper and upper breast, with purple underparts and greenish upperparts. It is distributed in Southeast Asia. 

 

 

[Soukous]

nice sunbirds too

[Kitsafari]

107/SG107: Crimson Sunbird, Dairy Farm Nature Park

 

The bright crimson sunbird was unofficially voted by the Nature Society members as the national bird of Singapore, and you can clearly see why people love it. The brilliant red male sunbird shimmers in the sunlight, and for the Chinese, red symbolises good luck and good fortune. It is distributed in INdia, China and SoutheastAsia. 

 

 

male: 

 

 

female: 

 

[xelas]

Male Crimson Sunbird is a stunning bird for itself, but your photo makes it even more dazzling!

[Kitsafari]

@xelas My OH says thank you for the kind words!

Edited May 10, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

108/SG108: Barn Swallow, Lorong Halus

 

The barn swallow, so common in Europe and northern Asia, is a very common migrant and winter visitor to our shores. flocks of them like to sit on the hot tarred road to heat up and we would have to slowly drive up to them. They looks almost like our resident pacific swallow except that their underbelly is much cleaner and clearer.

[Kitsafari]

109/SG109: Pacific Swallow, Pasir Ris Park/Lorong Halus

 

The only resident swallow/swift in Singapore. It has dark glossy underparts with a red face and throat, pale underparts and sort of streakish breast and belly. The pacific swallow is distributed in India, SOutheast Asia, East Asia and New Guinea. 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

110/SG110: Mute Swan, Singapore Botanic Gardens

 

Found only in the Botanic Gardens, the mute swan is not native to Singapore but was brought here from Amsterdam. 

 

[Kitsafari]

111/SG111: Arctic Warbler, Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserves

 

Honestly the warblers all look so alike. Like the larks, the pipits, and waders.  

 

This is one of 10 species of warblers seen in Singapore, but is one of two most commonly found warblers here. It is a winter visitor to Singapore and SOutheast Asia from northern Eurasia, Siberia, northeast China, Japan and Alaska. It is a leaf warbler  (warblers having been split into Leaf warblers, reed warblers and grass warblers). It has a long yellowish-white superilium, an olive greenish crown and upperparts, two narrow bars on its wing, whitish grey underparts with a dark tip of its lower mandible and skinny yellowish-orange legs.well they're all skinny legs anyway, not that you can see here. 

 

[Kitsafari]

112/SG112: Oriental Reed Warbler, Satay by the Bay

 

This is the other more commonly found warbler, and as its name denotes, is one of those warblers who like to hide in the reedbeds and enjoy the marshes more than the others. It is one of the larger warblers, and is a winter visitor from eastern Asian countries. It has a prominent whitish supercilium, olive-brown upperparts while its underparts are pale. 

[Kitsafari]

113/SG113: Common Waxbill, Kranji Marshes

 

Waxbills are lumped under finches and munias in the estrildidae family. They are not native to Singapore, hail from Africa and are introduced to Singapore via the caged bird trade. They are doing fairly well here. 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

114/SG114: Golden-backed Weaver, Lorong Halus

 

Another introduced species to Singapore, the golden-backed weavers are thriving at Kranji Marshes. 

 

[Kitsafari]

115/SG115: Rufous Woodpecker, Kranji Marshes

 

A resident species but not commonly seen in Singapore. It is quite distinct from the other seven woodpecker species we have here. Also distributed in Indian sub-continent, China and Southeast asia and the greater Sunda Islands. 

 

[Kitsafari]

116/SG116: Banded Woodpecker, Dairy Farm Nature Park

 

An EBC! it was hiding in the shadows and decided to get behind the palm tree once we sighted it. 

Another resident woodpecker, this is quite a lovely woodpecker with bands on its underpart, a bright red crest with yellowish tinge at the ends, and red upperparts and wings. Distributed from Thailand down to Malaysia and Singapore to Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

 

[Kitsafari]

This wraps up part one of the local bird scene. I'll move to the Botswana next when I get to organise the list! 

 

[xelas]

1 hour ago, Kitsafari said:

Honestly the warblers all look so alike. Like the larks, the pipits, and waders.  

And the gulls! Do not foget the gulls ! More of great birds, excellent. And it will be interesting to compare the two Botswana bird lists.

 

 

[Dave Williams]

Some great birds as  always , well done on the first ton , I'm sure you are about to tear off towards the next one and beyond too. The Spiderhunter is to me a special bird, not sure why, maybe it's the name. I have only ever seen one once and that was very briefly.

 

[Kitsafari]

@xelas No competition at all! Michael has a far more comprehensive bird list and far more superior shots as well. I wouldn't deign to compare with one of the bird gods!

 

@Dave WilliamsThanks much, yes eyeing the second ton but hopefully without any wrong IDs, which will be inevitable....

agree with you that the name "Spiderhunter" has such an allure to it. 

[Kitsafari]

My trip to Botswana was with a few veteran ST-ers and a newbie and the main target was the world's longest (some 300 miles) land migration of the zebras which brought us into the Central Kalahari  Game Reserve, Nxai Pans, Makgadikgadi Pans, and onward to Khwai for some wetlands comparison. Of course I took the opportunity for some desert birds and was very pleasantly surprised at the number of birds! since my companions were not birders, I minimised the number of stops for each LBJ but fortunately for me, our guide is a serious birder so he would stop for major/special species. and being the slow hand, I missed photo opportunities or stumbled at chances for good shots. So please bear with my (lack of) quality!

African species are so familiar with the ST BY community that I won't go into details. 

 

117/BW1: African Darter, Meno A Kwena/Khwai, Feb 2019

 

Sometimes called a snakebird, the African Darter hangs around wetlands and water areas, which meant we saw none in the semi-arid areas. Meno A Kwena is a camp along the Boteti River, which was a full stream when we were there, hence the African darter. 

 

Meno A Kwena hide on the Boteti River

 

 

Khwai: 

[Kitsafari]

118/BW2: LIttle Bee-eater, Khwai Reserve

 

Couldn't resist putting up a few shots of this very active beautiful tiny gem hunting for insects. I was a bit confused by the lack of brown chests so I'm speculating this was an immature. 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

119/BW3: Southern Carmine Bee-Eater, Khwai Reserve

 

It was lovely to meet the southern carmine bee-eater again - one of the more beautiful and graceful bee-eaters I have seen. We saw only a couple of them in Khwai. A migratory bird, it summers in Southern Afica and winters in Equatorial and Africa.  

 

 

[Kitsafari]

120/BW4: African Red-Eyed Bulbul, Nxai Pans

 

Also known as black-fronted bulbul, the African red-eyed bulbul in Botswana is one of two sub-species called Pycnonotus nigricans nigricans, found mainly in southern Africa.The other sub-species is found in central South Africa. 

Not a great shot, I'm afraid, just enough to make it out.