Spoon-billed Sandpipers in my Crosshairs

I must confess that I have joined the birding band-wagon and am mildly (extremely) obsessed with Spoon-billed Sandpipers. There are several species of birds (and other flaura & fauna) throughout the world that are similarly on the verge of extinction and many are in much more dire situations. But Spoon-bills are an enigmatic shorebird from the arctic that have the unique (to shorebirds) feature of a spoon-shaped bill. That coupled with photos such as:

Photo from BBC 

and this one are sure to add to the appeal!

Photo from SBSProject

Judging by current trends the species will become extinct near the end of the next decade - thus the "emergency mission to save the species" - and also my desire to see them by the end of the month! I will conveniently be visiting Thailand, and more specifically, Pak Thale - South East Asia's premiere shorebirding spot where I will (hopefully) enjoy the company of Spoon-billed Sandpipers - among several other species of shorebirds as well as my girlfriend, Mira :)

Along the route we hope to see Nordmann's Greenshank, the newly described "White-faced" Plover, wild elephants and many many more amazing species that adorn our Planet.


My obsession with birding really took a surge a few years ago while guiding an American birder in Newfoundland (NL). We were having a pretty average day in terms of birds, but for him the most exciting thing was the amazing coastline that he was taking in. I then realized that he nor I would never have seen this amazing area without the lure of birds - and then I think of all the other fun places I've been (Carden Alvar, Point Pelee, Pyrenees...) and I can only be thankful with this obsession!

Most people I know in NL haven't even heard of Mistaken Point, have never seen a sandy beach on the island nor had much experience of exploring the remarkable coastline of NL - and nor would I had it not been for birding.

That's why I am letting my travels be guided by the pursuit of birds - not only do I achieve a goal (of seeing lots of birds) but I take in an incredible journey to places few other tourists go! So bring it on Spoon-billed (and every other bird in the vicinity)!!

Warbler Haven

Interestingly within the last month 2 new areas have been found in Singapore that contain some otherwise hard to find species. One in particular is the grassland I've been to a few times near where I live. It seems that every time someone else goes another desirable species is found enticing everyone to return and yet again find another noteworthy species. It has been interesting watching that develop and reminds me of the "Patagonia Picnic Table Effect".

Anyway, that's not where I went yesterday. I was in search of marsh birds, Reed-warblers to be exact, and they didn't disappoint.

They were very difficult to photograph as they were constantly on the move. The most common warbler in the marsh was the Black-browed Reed-warbler:

Second most common was the Oriental Reed-warbler which I didn't manage to photograph. So here's one from Wikipedia:

And the rarest of them all was this skulking Pallas's Warbler (aka Pallas's Grasshopper-warbler or as the Rusty-rumped Warbler .... why can't we just settle on one name???) - it's an uncommon species in Singapore but more often heard than seen:

Other interesting birds in the area were a Yellow-bellied Prinia, 2 Stork-billed Kingfishers and a Common Kingfisher.

A distant Stork-billed Kingfisher:

Common Kingfisher:

Yellow-vented Bulbul is one of the 10 most common birds in Singapore:

Rose-ringed Parakeet:

 Pallas's Warbler again:

Digiscoping Sunbirds

Thanks, yet again, to the Big Year birders I heard about a tree that was "attracting hordes" of sunbirds. I was a bit skeptical but pleasantly surprised when I came across the tree and immediately saw several sunbirds.

In all 4 of the 5 species of sunbird of Singapore were in the one tree. Crimson Sunbird, Purple-throated Sunbird (aka Van Hasselt's Sunbird), Plain-throated Sunbird (aka Brown-throated Sunbird) and Olive-backed Sunbird. It was my first real opportunity to study and photograph them up close, which was much appreciated.

The most striking of all is the Crimson Sunbird:

The red head is the first thing that pops out on this bird. The black stripes on the throat are also equally conspicuous.

The male Brown-throated Sunbird is also very beautiful - this photo doesn't do it justice but you can at least see that it is colourful:

The aptly named Purple-throated Sunbird (aka Van Hasselt's) was my main target for this visit:

male Olive-backed Sunbird (actually this photo is from another day at a different location):

The female sunbirds are much more difficult to identify. I'll start with the easiest of the lot.

female Brown-throated Sunbird - notice the yellow eye-ring and red eyes:

I'm not entirely sure on this one. Olive-backed can be eliminated because it doesn't have a yellow eyebrow or a very yellow underside. Brown-throated is easy to eliminate if you compare with the previous image. That leaves Purple-throated and Crimson. I'm going to go with Purple-throated on this one based on comparisons with photos online... but I'm not confident about that. If you know/think otherwise please let me know!

Digiscoping these small birds was very difficult. I took about 200 photos in 30 minutes and these were the best ones I could manage. They're constantly on the move, very small and can hide behind the flowers very easily. But with patience it's possible to get something worth keeping. That's definitely the biggest disadvantage of digiscoping. Photographing these tiny birds would be so much easier with a proper camera and lens but I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages because it's possible to get a photo of a distant bird whereas with a traditional lens it's usually rather futile. The White-bellied Sea-Eagle photo I posted yesterday was from a distance of about 30 meters!

Crimson Sunbird:

 Purple-throated Sunbird:

I'll try to find time to return to this spot and spend more time digiscoping them.