November is smack in the middle of the autumn migration season for Singapore. Whether trying to look for raptors at Mt Faber, or trying our luck for waders at Sungei Buloh, birders have every excuse to get out and look for rarities. Who knows, we may get lucky and stumble upon a national first bird species for Singapore. If not, we can always hope to improve our bird count with any of the rarities that invariably turn up around this time of the year.
Having taken a break from actively listing my sightings at eBird for a while, I recently started again soon after Bird Society of Singapore (BirdSoc SG) was appointed as the regional partner of eBird for Singapore. It was more a show of support for the organisation than any pressing need to list.
The Rhinoceros Hornbill appeared at Sungei Buloh on 28 October. The fact that this species was a national first somehow changed the dynamic of listing for me. I spent a few days in November trying to get some better photographs of it and decided that it’s only appropriate to start using the eBird app on my phone. Who knows what else I can find, and I might as well start a list if I am out birding instead of only submitting one through the website later in the day.
I attended BirdSoc SG’s second Raptor Watch event on 2 November and the highlight of the day was the appearance of a juvenile Steppe Eagle, a species we have not encountered since 1999. Of course I had to do an eBird list for that, as it was my first SG tick for the month. And so the list submissions went on and on thereafter. As a side note, interestingly the eagle made its journey to Indonesia and was photographed 1,200km away near Mount Merapi, in Jawa.
By around the 10th of the month, I noticed from the eBird website that I have a measly year count so far (157 at the start of November), and thought to myself that I ought to aim to get to 200 bird species by the end of the year (I had 201 in 2024). It was also the day we discovered that there was a new national first sighted, a Rustic Bunting, at a site I have yet to explore called Marina Grove. Unfortunately we all dipped on the bunting, but such is birding. Marina Grove as a site still had more to give, but more about that later.
On 17 November, I had a very good listing day at Neo Tiew area, and Dairy Farm Nature Park where a few nice flycatchers I have yet to see for the year appeared, like the Mugimaki, Dark-sided and Zappey’s. The next day, needing one more bird, I went there again and knew exactly where to find bird 200, the Rufous-tailed Tailorbird and got it in no time. So challenge completed. What’s next then? I ruminated over this for a while.
By the 20th, I knew what exactly I wanted. I wanted to end the month with the highest possible number of birds listed. In other words, by a series of connected but unlikely events, I ended up embarking on a Big Month quest, with two-thirds of the month already ended. What foolishness!
Why a Big Month, not a Big Year, or a Big Day? For me personally, a Big Year is too long a time to compete and complete, too taxing, too stressful, and ultimately I am not so dedicated to go out every day to look for birds. A Big Day is challenging, but too short a time, where the outcome is more influenced by a big amount of randomness and chance. A Big Week is a good amount of time. Something I may challenge myself one of these days, but a Big Month is what I ultimately ended up pursuing.
The goal was 180 birds for November. With this new goal came new focus. Instead of the 2-3 hours of daily birding, it meant more walking to more sites for more opportunities and birding hours extending to the afternoon. I ended up walking anywhere between 12K-20K steps daily instead of the normal 8-10K steps.
When the news came about the presence of a Caspian Tern at Pulau Ubin, I extended my birding hours to evening time as well. I took a ferry and then a taxi to Chek Jawa in Pulau Ubin, and promptly dipped again… No luck after all these years. A consolation prize of a Black-headed Gull (a rarity in Singapore) was on offer together with 5 other wader monthly ticks. Life goes on.
However, on any other non-twitching days, what I actively avoided was to go to a site for just one specific bird. Instead, more often than not, I was keen to explore different habitats that I normally don’t focus on.
It meant going to West Coast Park, a place I have not visited for years. I managed to see the Dusky Warbler and Black Bittern but was too impatient to wait for the Black-capped Kingfisher to appear. It’s no wonder that I won’t do another Big Year!
It also meant going to Sungei Buloh more often than usual to check for rare waders and ended up scanning the sky in boredom and ended up with a distant Greater Spotted Eagle instead.
On the second last day of the month (29 November), I started the morning visiting my old stomping ground in Lorong Halus, where I stumbled on a Pheasant-tailed Jacana, positioned at the same buoys as a previous bird did in 2013. With that lucky start, I extended my count at that location by managing to find the Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Rufous Woodpecker and hearing the Greater Coucal. All at the expected places. It reminded me that overall, the place hasn’t changed much since my early birding days, and I am grateful that my birding ability hasn’t deteriorated all that much either.
A planned quick detour to Punggol Park quickly yielded 2 pittas, and finally a quick stopover for a drink and then a brisk walk at the Healing Garden at SBG to end my day. Sharp-eyed friends helped me in seeing the Green-backed Flycatcher and the Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo. On my way out, I spotted my Malaysian Hawk-Cuckoo. In total I got 9 month-ticks. That pushed my total to 190.
And then finally on the last day of the month (30 November), my plan was to complete my birding by noon time and then relax. A trip to Jurong Lake Gardens unfortunately was not too productive, as by 9:30am, the crakes and rails I was hoping to see were nowhere to be found. There was only one last place to go. I had not visited Bidadari Park for about a year. And was quite frankly lost there. A chat with some birding “kakis” guided me to the correct location of the Ruddy Kingfisher. A few photographers were waiting to see the bird. I had my binos ready and soon enough I managed to locate the bird and took some quick, record shots. I went around the place hoping to find other birds. An Acrocephalus warbler “chucked” away at the marsh area but refused to show itself. By then I heard some loud commotion at the Ruddy Kingfisher site. I looked at the watch, thought about not wanting to be in the presence of any birding drama, and decided that it was time to head back for lunch and call it a day. I was happy ending the month with 191 birds.
I’m old enough to know that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. I had my lunch, took a bath and promptly went for a nap. When I woke up and still feeling a bit groggy, I saw a flurry of WhatsApp messages regarding a certain warbler my Dutch friend JJ Brinkman saw at Marina Grove. Looking at the photos, being unable to ID, but convinced I have never seen this species before, the twitcher in me took about 1-2 minutes to decide to hurriedly drive there in the hopes of getting a look. I did not take into account that roasting in the sun was a prerequisite for seeing this bird and waited a good while before a few of us saw 2 birds, and one of them looked sufficiently warbler-like against the sun. The sound of shutter clicks by the thousands or tens of thousands soon filled the air and the birders finally had a good reason to celebrate. With better photos and more information, it looks good for a Willow Warbler, a potential national first for Singapore. It was a great bird to end my Big Month. Oh yeah, while waiting there, I had my Ruddy-breasted Crake and Monk Parakeet for the month too.
So how did it all go in the end? I ended up the month with 194 birds seen/heard, 51 checklists submitted. I lost 2.9 kg (On a certain twitcher doctor’s order). I wanted to say I am more tan as well, but that’s not true. I learned from previous years that November is a good month to use sunscreen. Overall, I didn’t lose sleep over this quest. It wasn’t stressful, I wasn’t competing with anyone and I found myself reacquainted with some birding sites I have not been to in years. The two Singapore ticks certainly lifted up my spirits as well.
How does it compare to what others have done previously? Direct comparison is hard to find, but I did a quick and dirty analysis for the January count for those who have done Big Years previously. The highest scoring “Big Month” that I am aware of is by the great Martin Kennewell back in January 2020 where he had an estimated 211 birds. He has done more than 200 birds for January for a few years when he was active in Singapore. Of course a close second would be the current Big Year repeat champion CN Lee who I think did a high 200+ species for January 2025. For context, I looked back to my first Big Year back in 2012, where I photographed 61 birds in total for January.
So a good result for me, but far away from the Big Year specialists. I missed some crazily easy birds (Golden-bellied Gerygone and its brood parasite Little Bronze Cuckoo, Slaty-breasted Rail, Plaintive Cuckoo, Sunda Brush Cuckoo and many others), dipped on some harder ones (Caspian Tern, Black-capped Kingfisher, Booted Eagle and others), and knowingly forgo some others (Daurian Redstart, Red-billed Starling, Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, Spotted Wood Owl and whatever else at Pasir Ris). In the end, I exceeded whatever changing targets I had throughout the month, ended the last eBird submission for the month with a valuable local tick, and had fun doing the whole quest and writing about it.
For now I think I hold the November Big Month record, until some birder decides that’s a record worthy of breaking. I look forward to that. Records are meant to be broken. I certainly look forward to more active birders in the field, willing to put in the hours to achieve their goals. Hopefully their rare bird finds become the community’s rare bird finds as well. Have a good birding day, week, month and year everyone!
Postscript 1: eBird November 2025 Bird List (CSV format)
Postscript 2: It will not be complete if I didn’t show some of the more noteworthy photographs I took during this time period. So here it goes:
