And our first dead bird of the new year is this female Watercock, which was found in a very weak state earlier today at the East Coast area before it succumbed to its injuries and died sometime in the evening.
My first dead bird of the new year, and it’s a migratory female Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea), which was found in an extremely weakened state earlier in the day before succumbing to its injuries later in the evening. Judging by its size it must be a really young bird.
Found myself back at Jervois Hill yet again with another dead bird from the exact same location. Last time it was a migrating Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (Ficedula zanthopygia), this time it’s a migrating female Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea).
Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea)
Bukit Gombak, 25th December 2013;
This photo of a female Watercock carcass was taken by David Tan from the Avian Genetics lab in NUS, who collected it after he was notified about the carcass by Flo Tang.
Blue-winged pitta casualty at National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Biological Sciences Block S2
(Photo by Laurence Gwee)
Siberian thrush casualty at National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Biological Sciences Block S4
(Photo by Marcus Chua)
The dead White-breasted Waterhen near Central Library (08 Nov 2013).
(Photo by Jude Yew)
Two birds die from crashing into windows at NUS Science today
By N. Sivasothi, 13th November 2013;
It is very sad to see a bird die because it crashed into a window, thinking it was flying into the sky. This has been happening for years, and we are likely to see more cases as more buildings are built, with shiny reflective surfaces and as we install more glass windows.
A bird with its fragile, light skull flies for the reflected sky or trees at high speeds and instead strikes a window and is killed.
This is all the more tragic when a northern-winter migrant like the Blue-winged Pitta (Pitta moluccensis), having survived the long journey south from Myanmar or Thailand, dies in Singapore from a window strike.
Several dead Blue-winged Pittas have tragically been reported in the last month in Singapore. This afternoon, we learnt that even our corridor window, in the present configuration of our landscape, is creating such a mirage. A Blue-winged Pitta crashed with enough force to scratch the window.
