Bidadari Cemetery Revisited 2018
When: September 2018 Weather : hot 28C
Nikon P900
Bidadari cemetery has always been one of the most popular birding locations in singapore with regular appearances by migrants. A few years ago however, to the consternation of nature lovers here, the Singapore government decided to build condominiums, apartments and a new flyover on this forested area. It was promised that a small pocket of green would remain and so I headed there to see what little there was left behind and if there were indeed any birds left… the approach was not encouraging..the old roads were different, new roads were present, new vulgar apartment blocks, cranes etc…..took me a while to find the way through to the Mount Vernon Crematorium which is the best access route to the forest.
The first bird we saw from the crematorium carpark was the back of the white throated kingfisher. The zinc hoardings in the background are from the adjacent construction site…
There was a bare tree that entertained us for a while….this lovely little coppersmith barbet posed
a rather handsome fellow, the coppersmith barbet
an adult asian glossy starling with three juveniles
of course the common javan mynah was everywehre
this interesting bird then appeared
A lineated barbet in resplendent green
lineated barbet
the dollar bird is ever present in Bidadari
Dollar bird
Here having his breakfast of a very big beetle
yum
and down the hatch
the lovely Daurian starlings then appeared
as did the blue throated bee eaters
blue throated bee eater with its bee breakfast
blue throated bee eater
thankfully there is still some green left in Bidadari
from afar I saw this little flycatcher…prbable an Asian Brown FC according to KC but the orangy gold flash on the wing is unusual…
anothe r view of the flycatcher….if anyone knows what that golden orangy wing patch is, please enlighten me!
male olive backed sunbird taking flight
Red whiskered bulbul
and a lovely juvenile tiger shrike showed up
juvenile tiger shrike
some activity on the bare tree brought out this tiny blue rumped parrot
the lovely blue rumped parrot; here the bluish vent feathers can be easily seen in the rump area
and then walking along the path to the left led is to an elevated part of Bidadari overlooking huge construction building, fences and cranes…such an eye sore that even this spotted dove failed to lighten up.
but in the distance, something soared overhead
and then he made a pass at us…
a wonderful white bellied sea eagle ….
and glided in between the trees to perch
And then presumably his mate with much more coloration appeared
and as if to show off, Mrs white bellied sea eagle flashed us with her brilliant wings
a pair of scaly breasted munias
scaly breasted munia
yellow vented bulbul
the tiger shrike made another appearance
Some really loud squawking attracted us to this large rain tree where several oriental pied hornbills were agitating….
I saw this little fellow from afar…
the always delightful ecarlet backed flower pecker
and then unmistakeable ‘tok tok tok’ of a woodpecker’s beak on tree trunk attracted us to this tree where the woodpecker played hid and seek with us…
a glimpse of the beautiful scarlet wings and yellow nape…
a beautiful Banded Woodpecker! What a lovely way to end the morning
Banded woodpecker
Two hours in Bidadari yielded so many sightings it was a little unreal….I hastened to tell my new birding pal whom I was with that birding isn’t always as productive as this….he must be a lucky charm! Bidadari cemetery has shrunk significantly, but it seems that the birds are now concentrated in a smaller area and easier to spot! Highly recommended!!
A wealth of birds! Thank you for the photos.
Thanks for visitng my blog
Oh my gosh! Such terrific sightings! I miss Singapore / Asia 🙂
I genuinely, actually, wished to like these 5ay61s2 http://5ay61s2.ml/! They’re adorable, I liked them when I saw them.