Once in a Blue Moon

Do you know that the full moon on the 31st Dec. 2009 is known as a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve?

But, what is a Blue Moon?

As explained in the Science@NASA :
Most months have only one full Moon. The 29.5-day cadence of the lunar cycle matches up almost perfectly with the 28- to 31-day length of calendar months. Indeed, the word "month" comes from "Moon." Occasionally, however, the one-to-one correspondence breaks down when two full Moons squeeze into a single month. Dec. 2009 is such a month. The first full Moon appeared on Dec. 2nd; the second, a "Blue Moon," will come on Dec. 31st.

Blue moon on new year's eve could be a meaningful day for the stargazers and astronomers, perhaps, as for a birder, the blue birds are more attractive than a blue moon. Birds with the distinctive blue color on its feather are always attractive and enchanting.

Here are some of the blue bird pictures that I would like to share on this special New Year's Eve.

Let's start with the beautiful kingfisher. Most kingfishers have very attractive blue color on its feathers.

White-throated Kingfisher (Singapore Botanic Gardens):
Common Kingfisher (Singapore Botanic Gardens)White-collared Kingfisher (Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Singapore)
Black-capped Kingfisher (Pulau Burung, Penang)
Stork-billed Kingfisher (Kek Lok Toong, Ipoh, Perak)Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Sungai Ara, Penang) Blue-throated Bee-eater (Temengor, Perak)Dollarbird (Sungai Ara, Penang)
Purple Swamphen (Kinta Nature Park, Perak. Courtesy of Connie Khoo)
Asian Fairy Bluebird (Hindedhe Nature Park, Singapore. Courtesy of Khng Eu Meng)
Taiwan Blue Magpie (Wulai, Taiwan)Common Magpie (CKS Memorial Park, Taiwan)Blue Rock Thrush (Kek Lok Toong, Ipoh, Perak)

Blue Whistling Thrush (Kek Lok Toong, Ipoh, Perak)Taiwan Whistling Thrush (Taroko, Taiwan)Large Niltava (Cameron Highlands, Pahang)White-tailed Robin (Cameron Highlands, Pahang)
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher (Sungai Ara, Penang)
Mangrove Blue Flycatcher (Air Hitam Dalam, Penang)
Blue and White Flycatcher, female (Wulai, Taiwan)
Plumbeuous Water Redstart (Alishan, Taiwan)Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (Singapore Botanic Gardens)
All these blue bird pictures are digiscoped by me in 2009, except Purple Swamphen and Asian Fairy Bluebird, and I may also miss some of the blue birds in this blog. Anyway, I Hope you like both the blue moon and the bluish birds.

Happy New Year 2010!

Pheasant-tailed Jacana on Christmas Eve

Every year, there are thousands of migratory birds visit Pulau Burung, it is also known as the Mecca of migratory birds in Penang. The area has very unique bio diversified environment, it has a huge fresh water pond, river, mangrove coastal forest and peat swamp forest, which provides a wonderful and suitable living environment for the wild birds.

I visited Pulau Burung on Christmas eve, and spotted the Pheasant-tailed Jacana, a handsome Black-capped Kingfisher and many waders and waterbirds. Pheasant-tailed Jacana is my lifer, and I was lucky to spot this rare migrant there.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana, or simply Jacana, is one of the rare migratory waterbird in Malaysia, and this is the first sighted record of this species in Penang. It was first sighted by a young but experienced Penang birder, Terance Ang on 20th December 2009 in Pulau Burung, a great Christmas gift to birders and nature lovers of Penang state.

This picture shows the actual size of the bird as compared to the Little Grebe, it is slightly bigger than the grebe. If you know the size of the grebe, you will be able to estimate how big is the bird.
Let's take a look of the bird, especially that fascinating pheasant tail, but where is the pheasant tail?.
Actually, this visiting Jacana is a non-breeding adult. The long blackish pheasant tail is only appeared in the breeding adult, and can only be seen in Indo-china, South-west China, Taiwan and India. One of the best place to see this breeding adult plumage is in Guantian Jacana Conservation Area in Tainan county, Taiwan.

Look at the leg of the Jacana, it has huge and long toes to help the bird to balance itself when walking on the big leaf in the pond, especially the lily pond. Its nickname is a leaf-walker.

visit this LINK to learn more about Jacana (in Chinese only), or visit this LINK to find out more about Pheasant-tailed Jacana in Taiwan

Another fascinating bird I spotted was the Black-capped Kingfisher, it is one of my favorite Kingfisher, I managed to digiscope it for the first time, it is a handsome Kingfisher:

Other waterbirds that I digiscoped include a pair of Lesser Whistling Duck, juvenile common Moorhen and Black-winged Stilt. Glad to see the new generation of the Common Moorhen are living happily and healthy in Pulau Burung.


After visited Pulau Burung in the morning, I proceeded to Air Hitam Dalam Recreation Park in the afternoon.

Paddy field in Air Hitam Dalam:
Here are what I saw in Air Hitam Dalam. My old avian friend Mangrove Blue Flycatcher:

Green-billed Malkoha shows its enchating tail:

and on the way back, I saw this Black-shouldered Kite, my lifer:

Merry Christmas!

Birding in Singapore

You won't think that Singapore, home to the world class Changi airport, beautiful Marina Bay and water front with Singapore Flyer, the shopping paradise of Orchard Road and the world class recreation, entertainment resort of Sentosa Island and Formula One night race, that is also a good stop for bird watching.

This is due to the geographical location of Singapore in the East Asian-Australasian bird migration flyway and that is truly a very green garden city. Every year, during the Christmas season, thousands of migratory birds will visit or stop-by Singapore, some even spend their whole winter in the nature reserves, gardens and parks.

I visited Singapore during the Christmas season (8-14 Dec) not only for the world class entertainment, shopping, night life and museums. During the day, I bird watched in the following places and see what had I discovered:

Singapore Botanic Gardens. This garden is a Green Jewel of Singapore city, a must visit Botanic Gardens in South East Asia. The garden is just a walking distance from Orchard road. Check out this LINK to find out more about the garden.

I saw my four lifers in the garden, the Hooded Pitta (no picture), Orange-headed Thrush, Banded Woodpecker, and Green-naped Lorikeet (introduced species).

In fact, Singapore is one of the best place in this region to watch those introduced species of parots, parakeets and lorikeets.

I also have a very close distance view of Oriental Pied Hornbill (female),migratory Common Kingfisher,

A Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, I learned that this bird is a vanishing species in Singapore:

Common Flameback,

Hill Myna,Javan Myna,

Pink-necked Green Pigeon and etc.
You can see that resident, introduced and migratory birds are living together in harmony in Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, It is a treasure of Singapore and a must visit place for migratory and wetland birds, a wetland reserve well managed with good facillities. It is one of the important area recognized for the East Asian-Australasia Flyway and a good place to learn more about waders.

I saw many waders and egrets there, and also managed to digiscope Pacific Golden Plover and White-collared Kingfisher, they are really beautiful and easily spotted.

A newly published book by NPark's Publication entitles "Migratory Birds of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve", it is a good guide book for those who are interested to visit this wetland reserve and to learn more about migratory birds in Singapore. Thanks to Meng Meng for given me the book, it is my best Christmas gift. Check out this LINK to find out more about the wetland reserve and the book.

Bukit Timah and Central Nature Reserve and Parks, it is located at the central catchment of Singapore, and is an important area for water catchment. The parks include the nature parks around the Central Catchment, Bukit Timah Nature Park and Bukit Batok Nature Park, and do not miss the HSBC Tree top Walk. Check out this LINK to find out more about the nature reserves.

This whole area is a good for spotting lowland rainforest and garden birds. I had my lifer of Straw-Headed Bulbul at the Hindedhe Nature Park, they are very melodious birds.Besides that, I also saw Crimson Sunbird, Asian Fairy Bluebirds, Dollarbirds, Blue-tailed Bee eaters, Emerald Dove, bluish Asian Glossy Starling, Greater Raquet-tail drongo, Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, Hill Mynah, Javan Myna, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Olive-backed Bulbul and Common Flameback Woodpecker, etc.

Pulau Ubin, the offshore island off the northeast coast of Singapore, this island is a good place for spotting wetland, shore and sea birds. I didn't visit this island but have seen it from the Changi Park, it is really a beautiful green offshore islands, and it is also known as the Island of Hornbill. I will visit the island in my next visit to Singapore. Check out this LINK to find out more about the island.

Guides to Birding in Singapore

Here are the recommended guide books about birding places in Singapore:

1. Birds, A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, by M. Strange and A. Jeyarajasingam, was published in 1993, but still a good reference to find out birding places in Singapore.

2. An illustrated field guide of "Birds of South-East Asia", by Craig Robson.

Visit this LINK to find out more about birding in Singapore.