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Science
April 1, 2025 / April 1, 2025 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
AI is all around us now. In our search engines, image editing apps, and even in our phones. How will this affect the way we keep track of bird records?
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March 30, 2025 / March 30, 2025 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
The Asian Openbill Anastomus oscitans is a relatively new addition to the Singapore Bird Checklist. It was added to the list in 2013, when a small group of birds stayed briefly in January. Sightings have grown more frequent, suggesting it is no longer a "vagrant" in Singapore.
March 21, 2025 by richthebirder | Leave a Comment
By Richard White Recent events at Bukit Batok Nature Park have given many people the pleasure of seeing and photographing the scarce Van Hasselt’s Sunbird. This enigmatic species fascinates me. It’s not rare, but neither is it common so when it does appear regularly at a location it always attracts attention. It likely breeds in […]
Science Significant Records
February 28, 2025 / March 1, 2025 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
If you were birding in 2022, you might have seen the Ruby-cheeked Sunbirds that were frequenting the area near the Aerie Tower at Sungei Buloh. But did you know that during their stay they actually built not one, but two nests during their nearly three-month stay?
September 30, 2024 / December 2, 2024 by OkamotoKeitaSin | Leave a Comment
Dead birds can serve as very crucial data points for research. When you happen to encounter any in Singapore, we would like to request that you get in touch with the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum’s dead bird hotline at +65 84495023 (WhatsApp) or @deadbirdhotline (Telegram), or Dr. Tan Yen Yi, the Birds Curator, at yenyi.tan@nus.edu.sg for a quicker response.
September 15, 2024 / September 16, 2024 by Dillen Ng | Leave a Comment
First documented breeding attempt of ernesti Peregrine Falcons in Singapore.
June 13, 2024 / June 13, 2024 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
By Raghav Narayanswamy Thanks to CN Lee’s hard work and sharp eyes, as well as Vincent Ng’s follow-up, many of us were fortunate enough to twitch Singapore’s fourth Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola in January. I was lucky to have the opportunity to visit several(…!) times and observe its moult over the course of its 2.5-month […]
May 2, 2024 by OkamotoKeitaSin | Leave a Comment
Have you ever felt that the cicadas in the region's forests are just too loud? Well, you're not alone! Laura Berman's recent publication shows that many birds keep quiet as well when the cicadas are in full force because their friends are simply unable to hear their calls.
February 7, 2024 / February 7, 2024 by Francis Yap | 2 Comments on Top 10 most observed birds in Singapore and the region
Rare birds get the most attention these days. The rarer the bird is, and the more unique it is, the more birders and the general public want to flock to see, photograph and post about their encounters in social media. We are however curious about the complete opposite in this article. Have you ever wondered which bird species you will most likely encounter in your daily life?
ID Articles Science
January 25, 2024 / January 25, 2024 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
With the recent sighting of a Citrine Wagtail at Neo Tiew, the common migrant Eastern Yellow Wagtails have received more attention too. Despite some common misconceptions, current evidence suggests almost all wintering birds in Singapore are not identifiable to subspecies. Only taivana can be conclusively identified, and Manchurian/Amur-breeding macronyx is not separable from Arctic-breeding plexa and tschutschensis.
November 3, 2023 / November 3, 2023 by OkamotoKeitaSin | Leave a Comment
Short summary: There are some name changes in eBird that will be different from the Singapore Bird Checklist for a short period of time (Ornate Sunbird, Medium Egret and Western Hooded Pitta). This article briefly explains taxonomy in the bird world, introduces the rationale behind the species splits, and clarifies some misconceptions. The Oriental Dwarf […]
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 4, 2023 / August 9, 2023 by OkamotoKeitaSin | 2 Comments on Broadbills in Singapore
How many broadbills are there in Singapore? There are two ways to answer the question: there are multiple Black-and-red Broadbill individuals flying around, and there are two species currently on the Singapore Bird Checklist - Black-and-red and Green Broadbill. There actually also used to be three other species of Broadbills in Singapore historically.
April 27, 2023 / August 2, 2023 by OkamotoKeitaSin | 1 Comment on Lesser Adjutants apparently nest building at Sungei Buloh
A recent visit to Sungei Buloh by Richard White & Goh Yew Lin yielded an interesting observation: the Lesser Adjutants were seen carrying sticks around - a behaviour typically associated with breeding. They were locally extirpated about 80 years ago, could they be making a come back?
November 25, 2022 by OkamotoKeitaSin | Leave a Comment
Different bird in Singapore nest at different times of the year, but did you know that their nesting seasons actually differ according to sunshine hours and feeding guild? Laura from the NUS Avian Evolution Lab shares with us her findings based on a thorough analysis of a large dataset.
November 11, 2022 / November 11, 2022 by OkamotoKeitaSin | Leave a Comment
The Singapore Bird Database was launched on 11 November 2021. Here's a review of the work that we've carried out over the past year, as well as other improvements made to the database since then!
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 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?
October 6, 2022 / October 6, 2022 by OkamotoKeitaSin | 1 Comment on Truly Singaporean Parrots: Queueing for the Good Stuff
Regardless of where you come from, you're missing out on the Singaporean experience if have you never "queued long long" for food before. And it seems that our locally found parrots know that too! Here are some intriguing observations on the feeding behaviour of three parrot species - Tanimbar Corella, Coconut Lorikeet and Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot. Article contributed by Muhammad Nasry.
August 9, 2022 / August 15, 2022 by OkamotoKeitaSin | 1 Comment on Messages from the Cinereous and Streaked Bulbuls
The Cinereous Bulbul Hemixos cinereus and Streaked Bulbul Ixos malaccensis are both uncommon to rare species in Singapore. However, once in a while, they appear in numbers all across Singapore. What can we infer from these sightings?
May 17, 2022 / May 20, 2022 by OkamotoKeitaSin | 2 Comments on Soaring all over Singapore: Himalayan Vultures in the 2021/2022 season
During the 2021/2022 winter season, Singapore experienced a record breaking number of Himalayan Vulture sightings. Could they actually all have been the same few birds just flying around the area? Read on to find out!
December 25, 2021 / August 19, 2023 by yipjenwei | 2 Comments on First occurrence of an Ashy-headed Green Pigeon in Singapore
Written by Yip Jen Wei with input from the Singapore Birds Records Committee Editing by Keita Sin, Dillen Ng, Raghav Narayanswamy, Sandra Chia, & Geraldine Lee In October 2021 a series of national firsts made landfall in Singapore in quick succession, the first of which was a male Ashy-headed Green Pigeon Treron phayrei. But unlike […]
November 11, 2021 / August 31, 2022 by OkamotoKeitaSin | 3 Comments on Singapore Birds Database: A Digital Museum of Local Bird Information
~Record keeping with the future in mind~ By Sin Yong Chee Keita & Dillen Ng Summary The Singapore Birds Database contains an easy-to-use search interface that allows you to look up information on locally rare bird species More than 1000 records across over 160 species are now freely available to the public You can contribute […]
Tagged
October 15, 2021 / September 15, 2023 by raghavnarayanswamy | Leave a Comment
By Raghav Narayanswamy For much of my first few years of birding in Singapore, I wondered how the data from earlier eras in local ornithology could be made available for more to benefit; if early dates and late dates, major hotspots, past trends in the local avifauna, among other useful information, could be compiled in […]
