Raptor Watching in Singapore

November is an exciting month for birders in Singapore. It is migrating season for raptors passing through Singapore. We can see many uncommon birds of prey during this time, so bird watching is really fun. These big birds are very majestic and beautiful. Strangely, we also saw many of our good ol' resident raptors building nests during this time too!

White-bellied Sea Eagle

This is the biggest and most common raptor in Singapore. It always gets me excited to see it because it is sooo big and flies very low!!

 

Brahminy Kite

Brahminy Kite is the other common raptor in Singapore. We usually see him soaring high up in the sky, so it was super cool to spot him perched on a branch. We even got to see him in action getting his lunch!

 

He swooped down and grabbed a mouse in his claws!

Then, we were walking along the road when we spied a nest high up in a tree. I looked more closely and saw a clump of feathers. Hmm....could it be??

Something there??

We started grabbing our binocs in excitment. It was a mummy Changeable Hawk Eagle! This eagle was super sharp and smart. She spied us from a million miles away looking at her and hid behind the tree trunk. She peeped at us with one eye and half her body hidden behind the tree trunk. We looked at her with our spotting scope and she just looked back at us. She never came out from her spot!

Can you see the Changeable Hawk Eagle?

Maybe I will go back again and see little baby eagles in the nest next time!
Next, we saw something black moving up in the tree. When we looked through our spotting scope, we were amazed. There was a whole flock of more than 15 Black Bazas up in the tree.

Now you see me, now you don't!

Black Baza

Black Bazas are very cute with their crests and black bands on their chests. Suddenly, they seem to be everywhere I look.

And now, for my mystery bird.....

I couldn't figure this guy out for the longest time. I looked through all our Field Guides and through all the pictures on the internet. But nothing quite fit...

Mystery eagle in flight

Mystery eagle up close

Mystery eagle looking at me!

What is he????!!!

I thought I found a cool, new raptor.
Mum now says it is probably a juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle :(  What an anti-climax!
Do you think so??

3 Really Cool Singapore Life Birds!

The hardest part about birding in Singapore is the heat.... and the humidity.... and the mosquitoes. So, imagine our luck when Dad spotted 3 awesome birds from the car with his super-sharp eyes, just driving along. We got out our spotting scope and .....OMG!OMG!OMG!!! Sadly, we didn't have our cameras with us and had to take the pics with my iPhone through the spotting scope!

2 Raptors on a tree in the distance.
What luck!

We looked through the spotting scope and *gulp*...!!!



Grey-headed Fish Eagle

This is supposed to be a near-endangered raptor in Singapore, so seeing 2 birds together is really, really cool. We watched them for some time, fishing in the river and preening themselves. And they are married! We even saw them .....mating!

The second raptor, we saw a dark "ball" in a faraway tree.

We took a good look through our spotting scope and .....



Changeable Hawk-eagle

Another life birdie for me! So happy and excited! Too bad my iPhone could not take a better pic.

Sometimes, bird-watching happens by accident. I was looking at an Ashy Minivet in a shrub with my binocs. Suddenly, a colourful bird landed on a branch just next to it. Wow! It's so pretty!

Coppersmith Barbet

  3 not-so-common birds. If we only look close enough.

Now, for some random birds which we also saw along the way:

Purple Heron

  

Raptor-watching in the UK!

It's the June school hols! Dad took sis & I on a vacation to the UK where he spent his school days. It was one of my most memorable holidays. Best of all, we got to go bird-watching. And we got to see lots and lots of raptors, my greatest love!

UK's many birding trails

Barn Owl - in broad daylight!

Great Horned Owl
- we were amazed to see him standing on the ground!

...but even more amazed to see him run off!!

Black Kite
- soaring in the air. Majestic!

Scops Owl
- so adorable!!

Tawny Owl

Tawny Owl

Honey Buzzard

Life Birds of Everglades National Park (Florida)

Before our trip to Florida, we went to the library to borrow books and Field Guides. There were 2 life birds that I really, really wanted to see. The Magnificent Frigatebird and the Snail Kite.

I had seen many pictures of the Magnificent Frigatebird and couldn't wait to see it in real life! The male has this strange red throat pouch that can be inflated like a balloon when it is breeding. I read that its wingspan is 200cm and longer than its body! It can fly for days and days before landing.

...so I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it!!! I was so excited!

                                                          Male Magnificent Frigatebird

                                                        Female Magnificent Frigatebird

                                                    Immature Magnificent Frigatebird

The other bird I really wanted to see was the Snail Kite. It is a raptor that feeds only on apple snails. It has a very deeply hooked beak, so as to dig into the snails to feed. It was already the last day of our trip and we still had not seen any Snail Kites. We decided to stop our car behind a large field and eat lunch before moving off. We were munching on our sandwiches and looking out into the field when suddenly, a large black raptor with an orange bill swooped down into the field. We couldn't believe our eyes! The snail kite!!! Dad took out his spotting scope and we all had a good look. We actually saw it feeding on the snails.

Snail kite

This is truly one of my favourite birding trips! Besides Yellowstone NP, of course!

Birding Florida (Trip report 1 year late!)

Exams are over (did I say that already?) and I finally have some time to sit down and reminisce about the wonderful time spent in USA. It was never hot or humid in America and we could hike for hours. Bird watching was so fun! How I miss America!

Anyway, it was almost spring last year when dad decided to visit Everglades National Park. Before it got too hot. It is the must-see place for all birders. I was so excited! We flew into Florida and drove to the National Park. Everglades NP is a wetland reserve, just like Sungei Buloh, except that it was a hundred times bigger.

There are many different ecosystems in Everglades NP. There are fresh water sloughs where all the wading birds are. There are mangrove swamps which we kayaked around and there are hardwood hammocks and pineland which we drove around, birding from the car until the sun went down or walking in the trails.        

The most common wildlife there is the alligator. And there were lots! They even laid lazily across the roads that people had to walk or drive around them.

Here are some of the birds we saw on the first day. And that was only the beginning. It just got better and better!

Double crested cormorants



Mummy Anhiga



Anhiga Nestlings

                    

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron

Tricoloured Heron

Immature Tricoloured Heron

Tricoloured Heron

Green Heron

Little blue heron

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Great Egret

White Ibis

Roseatte Spoonbill (such a strange and big beautiful bird!)

Woodstock

Least Sandpipers (can you spot them?)

                                                                   Semipalmated Plover

Spotted Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Common Moorhen 

Purple Gallinule

                                                                    Pied billed Grebe

Black Vulture (scary!)

Turkey Vulture (eww!!)

American Kestrel

Osprey

                                                                Red Shouldered Hawk

                                                                 Broad Winged Hawk

                                                                        Northern Harrier

Tree Swallows

                                                                   Belted Kingfisher

                                                     Northern Cardinal (my old friend!)

Northern Mockingbird (something looks wrong with its bill)

                                                                   Eastern Kingbird

But the best was yet to come....Stay tuned!