Monthly Roundups
November 24, 2023 / November 24, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
Shorebirds at our raptor watch sites and better seabirds from land than from sea made for a slightly offbeat October, but the month still brought lots of expected migrants too.
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October 22, 2023 / October 22, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
A good variety of species made this the best season for rare migratory shorebirds in recent years, with Asian Dowitcher, Eurasian Curlew, and Broad-billed Sandpiper all being recorded. September is also the month for Swinhoe's Storm Petrels in the Singapore Strait, with a lucky group encountering three birds on the last day of the month.
Birding Starter Pack ID Articles
October 20, 2023 / October 29, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
Our new, comprehensive Visual Guide to Singapore Raptors will be your best friend as you scan the skies. In this guide, we have plates individually capturing each of Singapore’s 25 (as of writing) non-vagrant raptors, meaning every raptor species which appears more or less annually has its own page, including all residents. The remaining species are also illustrated on a smaller page. We also highlight the other migratory birds which are often seen from raptor watch sites like Henderson Waves on a separate panel.
September 22, 2023 / September 22, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
August saw the return of the shorebirds and first passerine migrants to our shores.
August 24, 2023 / August 24, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
The Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo was a lifer for many birders this July, as it has not been recorded in several years, and for those who missed the Great Slaty Woodpecker earlier this year, the one at Ulu Sembawang seems to be sticking around a lot longer. Unfortunately, the Black-thighed Falconet and White-chested Babbler were less obliging.
Checklist Revisions
July 31, 2023 / August 10, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
The latest update of our checklist, version 2023-3, has been published. It can be accessed at our Downloads page.
ID Articles Science
July 29, 2023 / July 29, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 2 Comments on Sand plovers in Singapore: two species or three?
Might Singapore have three species of sand plover? It might seem an odd question – we usually only mention the Lesser Sand Plovers, which are pretty common, with the rare Greater sometimes turning up. What’s the third one then?
July 22, 2023 / August 3, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
A quiet June, as is typical, with continuing sightings of the White-crowned Hornbill and some other uncommon residents.
June 23, 2023 / August 3, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
Many birders in Singapore will remember the two flocks of Pied Stilt from this month, appearing almost at the same time, and even landing themselves a spot in the news!
Science
May 26, 2023 / May 26, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 1 Comment on Status of the Stripe-throated Bulbul in Singapore
Singapore has seen two Stripe-throated Bulbuls over the last one year or so. Here's what the Singapore Bird Records Committee had to say about their possible status in the country.
May 20, 2023 / May 20, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
Birders were glued to Chek Jawa this April, and with its selection of rarities it's not hard to see why!
May 9, 2023 / October 4, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 3 Comments on Singapore’s first wild White-crowned Hornbill
The Singapore Bird Checklist just got its 429th species! This article explores how the Records Committee's discussions led us to the conclusion the White-crowned Hornbill was likely a wild bird.
Birders' Stories
May 8, 2023 / May 8, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 2 Comments on The discovery of the White-crowned Hornbill in Singapore
Shubo (Kiri) Zhang was one of the first observers to find and report the White-crowned Hornbill at Chek Jawa. In this contribution to our blog, he brings us through the journey of making this remarkable discovery.
April 22, 2023 / April 22, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
March is normally when migrants are starting to return north, but it wasn't a quiet month by any stretch!
March 22, 2023 / April 15, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
A relatively quiet February 2023, with the highlight being a Grey-headed Lapwing at Holland Plain.
February 21, 2023 / February 21, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
The New Year started off with a group of four stilts at Marina East Drive – unfortunately, all turned out to be Black-winged in the end. Apart from that, the usual suspects kept us busy through the month, along with some rarities.
February 5, 2023 / February 6, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 1 Comment on Checklist Revision for February 2023
The latest update of our checklist, version 2023-1, has been published. It can be accessed at our Downloads page.
January 23, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 3 Comments on A Student’s Big Year
By Kaeden Sim Twitching and dipping, words I have never heard before. Now, during my Big Year (a personal challenge to see as many species of birds as possible in one calendar year), I would never be more familiar with those two words. I remember seeing Jen Wei’s Facebook post summarising his epic 2021 Big […]
January 16, 2023 / January 16, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
A rather quiet December, but the first widely-twitched Red-billed Starling kept us busy this month.
December 22, 2022 / December 22, 2022 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
Always among the busiest months of the migratory season, November this year didn't disappoint, with records of several rare species through the month.
November 5, 2022 / November 5, 2022 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
An action packed October saw several mega-rarities, including a potential national first record!
October 21, 2022 / October 21, 2022 by raghavnarayanswamy | 1 Comment on How our migrant bar charts work
In a recent post, we covered the 'why' of our migrant bar charts – what motivated us to design a new way to present migration data? In this post, we will try to explain how our methodology works, and look at some examples of the algorithm in action.
October 19, 2022 / October 19, 2022 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
This September brought seabirds, some scarce shorebirds, and of course, the ever-faithful B5 Terek Sandpiper.
October 16, 2022 / August 25, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | 1 Comment on Why we designed our migrant bar charts
I’m sure many of us have used eBird bar charts in the past, and they’ve certainly helped me in deciding where to go birding or what to look for. So why did we make our own migrant bar charts here at SBP?
