Jurong Bird Park presents... All about birds!

I started a little birding on my own after I started teaching LSM2251: Ecology and the Environment. It became intriguing for me as I like to observe their behaviour and wonder what are they doing. Birds, being so colourful and outstanding, it is difficult to not notice them at all...

Last 4 December, I brought along Alex (enrichment programme for him) to Jurong Bird Park (JBP) where they were holding a small session for birding enthusiasts and members of the public to join on for their talks.

The staff at JBP placed some of the stuffed birds on the table... Sweet! :) Here shows a Buffy Owl and the juvenile.

Outside the lounge, the Flamingos were parading around the ponds...

Interestingly, the Flamingos were 'in flight'... One individual began to attempt flying, then a few others followed. I think it's an escape behaviour where when one decides to fly off for a reason (not known to us), others start to follow or mimick. This helps increase the chances of survival in a group... I remember that some students attempted to study this 'security in groups' for birds at Sungei Buloh and Pulau Ubin. Sweet eh!

Some slides from the presentation that are interesting... The first three slides are about what JBP does to birds that were given to them or picked up by them... The procedures are similar: nurture and rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation is an important step for these wild birds as any human interactions and manhandling may result in learning to rely on us. Therefore, JBP simulates scenarios that allow these birds to emulate what they may find in the real environments. This component is especially more crucial for the young birds.

A rare visitor - the Himalayan Griffon Vulture! It was apparently highly dehydrated and once it was given sufficient liquids, the bird recovered and released back to continue its journey. :)

The next presentations were from NUS-DBS alumni, Yong Dingli! I have met with him once for a different collaboration and he's one of our well-known (and young!) birder in Singapore. Dingli shared with us about birds in general, anatomy and how to identify them efficiently. The other portion of his presentation focused on the conservation aspects of birds (with reference to Singapore). Dingli shared with us how our bird diversity has fared and what are the threats they faced.

Sadly, poaching (for food or sale) is still a big problem in Singapore, and happening in sensitive areas within Singapore. Alot of these birds are the uncommon and rare forest species, and Dingli emphasized the great need for more research and studies on bird ecology in Singapore.

He also shared a topic (that I could relate to well enough) on alien bird species. For my mini assignment, I decided to take up the topic of alien parrots in Singapore. With Dingli's help, I am currently refining my manuscript and hopefully publish in the next NiS issue (2012).


All in all, it was a fruitful session! The best thing - we got to visit the bird park after the talks too! It has changed so much since I last visited and I'll definitely visit it again. Cheerios!

Videos: Fishes on our shores

Last series - fishes... The more developed form of the marine realm, being the vertebrates. Here, I'm showcasing the juvenile fishes as they tend to be more interesting and cute!

Feathery filefish - an amazingly pretty fish. Filefish is known to stay very still with the substrate of their choice. Like this feathery filefish, their choice of camouflage includes flotsam or bunch of filamentous algae. My last trip to Cyrene, I spotted two adult feathery and boy are they BIG! And read about my observations of their camouflage methods - active camouflage I might add...



Blenny? - Until now, I still have not figured out this fish. I had assumed that it may be the bicolor blenny? No idea... I have better photos on my blog post. It has very interesting propping structures beneath its head.



Seamoth (juvenile) - FINALLY! My first seamoth sighting in Singapore and I found two of them on this trip! Unlike the streamline fishes, the seamoth is laterally flattened and its pectoral fins are modified to become a fan-shaped. So far, I haven't seen it swim actively before and it is described that they 'walk' on the sand. It's quite slow! haha... In this video, the fish barely moved. :P



Three-spot dascyllus (Dascyllus trimaculatus) - I had first encounter this name when I was studying in Bali on a genetics course. This fish was one of the study organism collected in Indonesia for genetic phylogeographic study. When I finally had the idea that what I was seeing was THE dascyllus fish, I was wowed! Our shores do not fail to surprise me and keep me wanting more... It's such a shy fish (and very black), it's so hard to photograph so I decided a video does more justice to its cuteness. :)



This marks my first series of organism videos! I shall be taking more videos and share more behavioural antics from our marine critters! :)

Videos: Slugs on our shores

Slug series is up! You may be wondering, isn't slugs generally slow and slimy? Well, not all slugs are like that!

Strawberry slug (Costasiella sp.) - This superbly tiny slug is usually very well-camouflaged against its home, the solitary fan seaweed (Avrainvillea sp.). This little one here must be rather adventurous to wander off its seaweed home. On the sandy background, you can see how fast it moves (over sand grains and barriers)!



Black-margined nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginatus) - This is one of the largest nudibranch found in Singapore. Its pale yellow body usually blends in well with the sandy bottom and coral rubbles. Note how its external gills 'wave' in the water!



Starry bornella (Bornella sp.) - Besides the usual manner of gliding motion, the starry bornella does twists! It wiggles its body left-right-left-right allowing it to propel itself in the water column to swim to another area. Just recently, I encountered another bornella species doing its twist! (Note that the clicking sounds were cameras flashing!)



So you see... Slugs are not only colourful and nice to look at, they exhibit interesting locomotive behaviour. A very short post for today... Next and final series: fish!