A few months ago (actually it was Nov 4th, so only a week or so ago, it just feels much longer) I went to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR) in north-west Singapore - a protected area of mangroves just across the Johor(e) Strait from the Malayan mainland - and posted some ‘mood’ photos and a minimal text. As Jochen (a long-time visitor, good friend, and sardonic critic) pointed out, as a bird blog went it was long on ‘mood’ and very short on birds. So, to put matters right, here is an account of the birds I saw…

Singapore from the air, copyright Google Earth

First, though, a little background history and an explanation of what makes Sungei Buloh (pronounced - I think - “Suhn -guy Buh-low”) so important (at least in a local context). Quoting the Reserve’s excellent website (http://www.sbwr.org.sg/):

In 1986, a group of avid birdwatchers from the then Malayan Nature Society (Singapore Branch) stumbled upon this ecological jewel, and subsequently wrote a proposal to the government for its conservation. The 87 ha wetland site was consequently designated as a nature park in 1989. The then Parks & Recreation Department, a precursor to the National Parks Board, undertook the development of Sungei Buloh, in consultation with experts in the field, notably, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust from the United Kingdom and Worldwide Fund for Nature. On 6 Dec 1993, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong officially opened the Nature Park.

Over the years, the unique place that is Sungei Buloh charmed people from all strata of society to support its cause. It welcomed its 100,000th visitor in 1994. In 1997, the Park found its corporate sponsor in HSBC, which set up the Sungei Buloh Education Fund in support of its nature outreach programmes. In 1999, Woodlands Secondary School became the first school to adopt the park. It was followed by Commonwealth Secondary School in 2001 and Hillgrove Secondary in 2002.

On 10 November, 2001, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan announced that Sungei Buloh would be one of two parks to be gazetted as Nature Reserves. On 1 Jan 2002, 130-ha of Sungei Buloh was officially gazetted as a nature reserve and renamed as Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve to better reflect its status.

“Threats”: Information board at SBWR showing developments outside the Reserve

Looking at the Google Earth and the “Threats” photos above it doesn’t take a particularly skilled or knowledgeable biologist to work out why that “group of avid birdwatchers” back in 1989 rated the area that became Sungei Buloh so highly: apart from the undeniable atmosphere of the place, it’s the largest accessible patch of mangrove on mainland Singapore. And to understand why that matters, we need to reflect on recent history a little. When Singapore became a British colony in 1819 the island, outlying islands, and the adjacent Malayan coastline were cloaked in relatively undeveloped and extensive mangroves - hugely important for fish, crabs, and birds alike - which stretched all along the edge of the water (it’s estimated that 13% [7,800 ha] of the main island was originally covered in mangroves). Like so many other mangrove forests in this part of Asia, they are though all but cleared now - currently just 6% of the original mangrove habitat remains, of which the 130 ha at SBWR is the only formally protected area.

So what birds does SBWR still hold? While the mangroves themselves were once home to some scarce and specialist bird species, as they’ve been cleared breeding birds like Mangrove Pitta, Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, and Ruddy Kingfisher have inevitably disappeared with them. To see those birds you need to visit the smaller offshore islands - and you need a lot of luck to find them there too! In fact SBWR is now primarily important for the number of egrets and herons (which includes the smaller bitterns) and northern-breeding shorebirds that stage and winter on the mudflats here - some fifty-eight of Singapore’s recorded bird species are dependent on them, according to “The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (2007)”. Many of those shorebirds are very rare or accidental, but large numbers of eg Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva and Common Redshank Tringa totanus use Sungei Buloh’s tidal mudflats.

So, how come, you might reasonably ask, does my Day List (bottom of the page) contain so few shorebirds (or smaller herons)? I can explain that. The weather forecast for Singapore the day I went to SBWR was for heavy rain, but I went anyway and arrived in wall-to-wall sunshine with barely a cloud in sight. Barely able to disguise my contemptuous glee that I’d out-guessed the weathermen I figured I’d concentrate on the Reserve’s mangroves and excellent mangrove boardwalk in the morning while it was still quiet, and visit the more open mudflats and ponds in the afternoon after a pit-stop at the Reserve’s (fairly basic) restaurant around lunchtime.

It seemed like a really good plan - until, inevitably, the weathermen proved they know far more than any cocky birder without access to the world’s satellites and meteorological data. The sky turned a dark slate grey and dropped enough water in an hour to end the whole of Australia’s current drought. Much as I’d liked to have seen a few more birds, drowning seemed far more likely so I caught a cab back to the hotel. In other words, while I try to be as informative as possible don’t take the report that follows as especially representative of the birding at SBWR because it surely isn’t.

So - finally - some birds.

Species that you should more or less be guaranteed at SBWR in winter include hordes of the raucous and beautiful Collared Kingfisher Todiramphus chloris (they’re everywhere), Stork-billed Kingfisher Pelargopsis capensis (they’re supposed to be everywhere but I couldn’t find one), Little Egret Egretta garzetta, Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, the aforementioned Pacific Golden Plovers and Common Redshanks, Marsh and Common Sandpipers, Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans, Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier (some fruiting trees by the restaurant usually provide good views of this striking bulbul), and the fantastic little Ashy Tailorbird Orthotomus ruficeps (one of four species of Tailorbird found on Singapore).

Adult Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax

 

Banded Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos.

(Where was this bird banded? This particular Common Sandpiper carries the flag colour-combination (green over white) for birds banded in Singapore as agreed by a protocol accepted worldwide. For the various designated colour combinations have a look at the table on the Birds Korea website, and for more information on banding in Singapore there’s an interesting post on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog which suggests that 1,156 birds from 108 species have been banded at SBWR since 1990.)

Common Redshanks Tringa totanus in the rain
(look carefully and you can see that three of these birds were banded in Singapore)

 

Collared Kingfisher Todiramphus chloris

 

Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier

 

Ashy Tailorbird Orthotomus ruficeps

 

Indian Cuckoo Cuculus micropterus

It’s a little tricky sometimes to distinguish between genuine migrants and scarce residents whose numbers are boosted by migrants of course: the Black Baza in the photo below is certainly a migrant - the species breeds in large numbers in the lower Himalayas from Nepal to Szechwan and southern China (for some truly excellent photos have a look at http://www.pbase.com/wkcheah/black_baza) - the Black-winged Kite may be as though it breeds in small numbers they are also thought to be winter visitors.

Black Baza Aviceda leuphotes (left) and Black-winged Kite Elanus caerulus

The same goes for the two Eastern Broad-billed Rollers below. The species does breed on Singapore, but residents are augmented by winter visitors (mainly - like the lower one - young birds). Incidentally this distinctive species is also known as the Dollarbird because the silvery-white flashes on the primaries is supposed to resemble a silver American dollar. I don’t see it myself, but what do I know…

Eastern Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus orientalis

Finally how about a few residents? None of these three is especially common (indeed the dove and the woodpecker are listed as “Uncommon” in “The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (2007)”), but it just goes to show what you might find when you’re overlooking Stork-billed Kingfishers and Copper-throated Sunbirds, both of which are supposed to be ‘gimme’ birds at SBWR…Oh well, such is life. It would be extraordinarily churlish to complain after a morning like this one, after all, but I don’t suppose I’ll get another chance this year to add either to my Year List…

Immature Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus

 

Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica

 

Rufous Woodpecker Celeus brachyurus

One other bird worth mentioning is neither a resident, migrant, nor winter visitor to SBWR - but a free-flying ‘escape’: the Milky Stork Mycteria cinerea. Normally I wouldn’t be all that interested in ‘escapes’, but this lovely (and - apparently - so far harmless) introduction to Singapore’s avifauna does perhaps merit some discussion.

The Milky Stork has a very-restricted world-range and occurs only in Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sumbawa, Sulawesi and Buton, Indonesia. Its population is now estimated at less than 5,500 individuals and it’s listed as Vulnerable by BirdLife International because it has undergone a rapid population decline, with counts from Malaysia falling consistently from over 100 individuals in 1984, to less than 10 birds in 2005. Its status in Indonesia has received less study, but although good numbers can still be found at some sites in southern Sumatra there are reports that numbers have declined considerably there also.

Threats to the survival of the Milky Stork lie - as is almost inevitable - with us humans. Milky Storks are predominantly coastal residents in mangrove forests (and adjacent, less saline, swamps), which - as has already been mentioned in this post - have suffered hugely from clearance in the last decades of the 20th Century and the early part of this one. Up to five Milky Storks have apparently been seen at Sungei Buloh: is there any chance that a free-flying population in Singapore could become globally important in the light of the dwindling number of birds at traditional breeding sites (in much the way, say, as Mandarin Ducks in the south of England - which though derived from escapes/deliberate introductions, of course, now have a UK population similar in size to the declining numbers in the wild in eg Japan)?

It’s an interesting thought…For a lengthier discussion and more photos of this elegant bird please see a separate post: Milky Stork, Singapore

SBWR isn’t just good for birds of course, and one animal I can’t finish this post without mentioning is the Asian Water Monitor Varanus salvator. Whilst I may have hoped that I couldn’t miss a Stork-billed Kingfisher here but still did, it’s impossible to NOT see a monitor. They are so unmissable that if you’re concentrating too hard on what’s flying over the ponds or flitting through the mangroves there’s every chance you’ll end up standing on one! I’ve already posted a series of photos and text on this (relatively) huge lizard - at Asian Water Monitor: a close encounter of the Primeval kind, but no account of birding at SBWR would be complete without at least one photo of this muscly and ubiquitous beast…

And that just about wraps that up - though I have a feeling I’ve forgotten something I wanted to add. Oh well, if I remember I can always drop it in seamlessly later. So much better than sending an article into a magazine only to find you’ve missed out half the last page! How great is blogging eh…

I remember what I wanted to add! Every time I’ve been to Singapore I’ve met only helpful and very friendly birders. I try to a make it a point wherever I go to let local birders know what I’ve seen just in case the data will prove to be useful at a later date (or so that anyone so inclined can head out and follow up my sightings). If you do go to Singapore please consider submitting sighting records/data - either via the Nature Society (Singapore) birdgroup website or the Bird Ecology Study Group (though perhaps someone in Singapore reading this might be good enough to put a personal email address forward?). If you’re a regular visitor to Singapore it’s also worth joining the Wildbird Singapore Yahoo group which is very active and usually provides the most up-to-date info on what’s been seen and where.

Bird List, Sungei Buloh 04 November 2008 (New for the Year underlined):
Grey Heron Aredea cinerea 2-3; Purple Heron Ardea purpurea 1; Great Egret Egretta alba 2; Yellow-billed Egret Egretta intermedia 1; Little Egret Egretta garzetta 30+; Cattle Egret Bubulcus ibis 30+; Striated Heron Butorides striatus 3; Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax 3-4; (Milky Stork Mycteria cinerea 1 - escape/free-flying); Osprey Pandion haliaetus 1; Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus 1; Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus 2; White-bellied Sea Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster 1; Black Baza Aviceda leuphotes 1; White-breasted Waterhen Amaurornis phoenicurus 4-5; Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva 4; Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus 1; Common Redshank Tringa totanus 40+; Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis 20+; Common Sandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 3-4; Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica 1; Pink-necked Pigeon Treron vernans c)20; Indian Cuckoo Cuculus micropterus 1; Swiftlet sp Collocalia sp 10+; White-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis 1; Collared Kingfisher Todirhamphus chloris 10+; Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis 1; Eastern Broad-billed Roller Eurystomus orientalis 1; Rufous Woodpecker Celeus brachyurus 1; Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahiti 10+; Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier c)10; Olive-winged Bulbul Pycnonotus plumosus 1; Ashy Tailorbird Orthotomus ruficeps 3-4; Oriental Magpie-robin Copsychus saularis 2; Brown-throated Sunbird Anthreptes malacensis 3; Olive-backed Sunbird Nectarinia jugularis 2; Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker Dicaeum cruentatum 1; Black-naped Oriole Oriolus chinensis 1; Crow-billed Drongo Dicrurus annectans 1

All photos copyright Charlie Moores 2008 (except Google Earth photo of Singapore)