In June I travelled from Sydney to Sabah via Singapore to join the Birdtour Asia Sabah and Sarawak trip. I opportunistically seized the chance to do an afternoons birding in Singapore on my return journey. I contacted Lim Kim Seng (ibisbill@yahoo.com) who is a very experienced Singaporean bird guide. He picked me up from the airport at around 12 noon on 25 June 2022 and we spent the afternoon birding before he dropped me back at the airport at around 6:00 pm.
We visited Dairy Farm Park, Bukit Bartok Park, Garden by the Bay and Changi Village. The primary target was Straw-headed Bulbul which we saw beside the pond at Bukit Bartok Park. I was surprised at how large and handsome this bird is. It has been decimated in many parts of Asia due to the cage bird trade. In Singapore it seems too be doing quite well. We then went to the sea wall on the south side of Garden by the Bay where we picked up White-throated Kingfisher and Malaysian Plover. We ended the afternoon at Changi Village where we found the introduced parrots Tanimbar Corella and Yellow-crested Cockatoo which are attracted to the large trees lining the main street of the village.
Kim Seng is a most competent and pleasant guide who really knows his patch. We were lucky with the weather with heavy cloud but no rain. In all I saw 27 species in the afternoon of which 5 were new.
- Malaysian Plover
- White-throated Kingfisher
- Yellow-crested Cockatoo
- Tanimbar Corella
- Straw-headed Bulbul
