Following my adventure in Malaysia’s Panti Forest and the sighting of the barely-known “White-faced Plover” on Singapore’s Changi Beach on March 22nd, I still had the morning of the 23rd available before flying down to Sydney, Australia (and the 27th when I’d be back in Singapore before flying to the UK). Normally I may well have spent an extra few hours in bed recovering from the lack of sleep of the night before, but this year is a “Big Year” - and available time means birding time and more birds…

Though much of Singapore’s 699km² landmass is now buried under highways and skyscrapers there are still some excellent places to go birding (I’ve written a number of times on this blog about visits I’ve made to this equatorial island eg here and here). In March many migrants are heading back to breeding grounds in northern Asia and Siberia from eg neighbouring Indonesia, and it’s a great time to head to the remnant areas of forest to see what’s around. One site that has been well-covered by local birders in the last few weeks - and where consequently some very interesting birds have been found - is Sime Forest and the newly-named Macritchie Forest Trails.

Sime Forest has undergone many changes in the almost twenty years I’ve been flying, most of them - I’m heartened to say - for the better. Poaching and bird-trapping was rife in some of the more secluded parts of the forest, the army regularly trained and blew things up here, and the threat of development seemed to hang over the trees as heavily as the thick, humid air. In the last few years though the forest has been more clearly protected, trails and boardwalks established, and the importance of its ecology to the island (and islanders) has been better explained. It does mean that there are more people wandering around than ever before, but given the choice between keeping the forest intact so that it can be used for recreation or broken up so that it can be built on I know which option I would go for (I’d much prefer it to be fenced off and made only accessible to birders of course, but that’s just one of those little fantasies I get when I’m hot and bothered…)

One area of the forest that has been receiving plenty of attention lately is a narrow 400m-long boardwalk that leads from the western edge of Macritchie Reservoir into the forest towards the Jelutong observation tower. To one side of the boardwalk is a thin strip of tangled secondary cover bordering part of the Singapore Island Country Club (a large chunk of the forest was cleared and turned into a golf course between 1920 and 1924), to the other a marshy area at the head of the Reservoir. I’ve usually treated the boardwalk as little more than a way to access the forest beyond, but as local birders have found at least four Red-legged Crake, a male Green-backed/Chinese Flycatcher (Ficedula elisae, a relatively recent split from Narcissus Flycatcher F. narcissina), and Grey Nightjar here recently it seemed to merit more than a cursory glance!

Birding from the boardwalk and the nearby trails is not all that easy: the ground cover is dense and a warren of tangled roots and clumps of shrubs with a thick layer of leaf litter that terrestrial birds seem to disappear into as easily as predominantly green or buff arboreal birds blend into the canopy above. You get the feeling that all around the eyes of wonderful and rare migrants are steadily fixed on you as you huff and puff past, leaving a trail of sweat and bootprints behind. For some reason, too, many birds here just don’t seem to call very much: in Europe or North America warblers and thrushes ‘ticc’ or ’sipp’ - in Sime Forest they mostly sidle around the nearest thick branch and sit in total silence as you stomp past. There are very vocal birds of course (and some of the loudest cicadas on the planet), but these usually turn out to be mostly residents like Greater Racket-tailed Drongo and the diminutive but vocally exuberant Striped Tit-babbler (interesting and exotic in their own right, of course - especially to an overseas birder like me - but neither scarce nor especially sought after).

Striped Tit-babbler Macronous gularis

To listen to a short recording of a Striped Tit-babbler (with a drongo calling in the background) made in Sime Forest on March 23rd 2008 please click the mp3 icon below:

  Mp3 soundfile, 550kb

So having set the scene, what did I actually see (the following is an amalgamation of two visits I made incidentally - the mornings of the 23rd and the 27th)?

Undoubted highlight (for me anyway) was a relatively confiding Hooded Pitta I found in secondary forest between the boardwalk and the Jelutong Tower on the 27th. Any views of pittas are to be treasured as far I’m concerned (if it’s not been said before then let me be the first - “When a birder is tired of seeing pittas, they’re tired of birding”) and kneeling down in the leaf-litter at the boundary between trail and jungle watching a Hooded Pitta slip absolutely silently in and out of the shadows, a blazing mix of green, red, and electric-blue one second a motionless shadow the next, defines tropical birding to my mind.

Hooded Pitta Pitta sordida

My only other encounter with this extraordinary species was in Singapore a few years ago when I saw just enough of a flying bird to be able to identify it positively: more typically I never saw it again, so views like this one - spread over twenty minutes, while the occasional bemused jogger thudded past oblivious to the jewel just ten metres or so away from them - will live with me forever. Yes, I may be keeping a “Big Year” list in 2008, but it’s sightings like these that a list consists of, and this year so far has already been one of richness beyond my expectations…

Other masterly proponents of the “Here a moment ago, gone now” mode of existence I found were one each of White-rumped Shama, Forest Wagtail, and an unusually unwary Emerald Dove. The dove in particular seems to be normally blessed with such an acute radar for picking up birders that however quiet you are it will see you before you see it and toddle off under a pile of leaves never to be seen again, but on this occasion I had the best views I’ve ever had - perhaps the glow of the pitta was surrounding me in such a way that it was obvious there wasn’t a malevolent bone in my body and the beautiful and aptly-named Emerald felt safe. Or it just didn’t see me…What a gorgeous bird though: try telling me that there’s no natural selection after you’ve seen a bird as otherwise colourful as this one melt into the background of a jungle as if it didn’t exist.

White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus

Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica

Another interesting ’sighting’ was a small bird wave that I found that contained two Blue-winged Leafbirds (an exotic name for an essentially green bird the size of a sparrow), an Arctic Warbler, my only Short-tailed Babbler of the trip, and a Chestnut-bellied Malkoha (taxonomically a relative of cuckoos) that flew up from the ground by a small stream carrying the most orange insect I’ve ever seen: if anyone can ID this odd little cricket-like beast from the photo below I’d be grateful to hear from them…

Chestnut-bellied Malkoha Phaenicophaeus sumatranus

So far I’ve hardly mentioned the boardwalk: mainly because I have to admit to being less successful here than in the rest of the area. Red-legged Crakes can be depressingly hard to see sometimes - and these were definitely some of those times. Despite hearing them, recording them, and playing back to them I couldn’t get even a glimpse of a movement that could perhaps have been one, let alone actually seeing one. I spent at least an hour prowling the boardwalk on both mornings without any luck. However I did disturb a Yellow Bittern, watch a Collared Kingfisher dip in and out of the water, and had my first ever views of the rather attractive Rufous-tailed Tailorbird (I don’t think I’ve seen one before anyway).

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird Orthotomus sericeus

I did eventually get just brief views of the (singing!) male Chinese Flycatcher - which is a shame since this is a species I’ve wanted to see properly for some time - and actually had even briefer views of a female too (a basically lemony-yellow all over with a very thin wingbar formed by narrow covert tips). Singapore appears to perhaps be one of the easier places to this taxon in winter…if it does turn out to be the case that ’staked-out’ birds are easily twitched here I can see birders who are transiting through south-east Asia diverting to see them: they’re a pretty tough species to find elsewhere…[for an excellent article on elisae and other members of the ‘Narcissus’ complex please go to the Birds Korea website].

I had no luck at all with the Grey Nightjar - an uncommon (or perhaps overlooked?) visitor to Singapore - but I did come across a number of the much more common Large-tailed Nightjar, lovely wide-eyed, cryptically-coloured nocturnal birds, one of which fluttered up to a bare branch and posed beautifully (and which I’m happy to report I backed away from after taking a few photographs, leaving it in situ to sleep away the day until it could begin looking for moths again after dark).

Large-tailed Nightjar Caprimulgus macrurus

Pretty worthwhile then I reckon. I added a few other locally common species to the “Big Year” list for my efforts too (eg White-vented Myna, Asian Glossy Starling, Olive-backed Sunbird) - and believe you me the efforts in such an incredibly humid forest are strenuous - but if I’d seen just one bird, and that bird had been a Hooded Pitta I’d still be saying all the walking and the blisters were worthwhile. Add in some lovely butterflies, ants the size of 4×4s, and a continual background soundtrack of whistles, clicks, and buzzing cicadas and I’d recommend any birder “passing through” Singapore to consider spending a morning in Sime Forest…

Access to Sime Forest: Few overseas birders will have their own car and will probably be getting around in taxis (which are plentiful and affordable). Most taxi-drivers will only know the main car-park at Macritchie Reservoir - which is where most jogging trails start from - but going here will add almost an hour’s unnecessary walking if you’re planning to go into the forest proper (if you want to bird the Reservoir - which is fairly pointless - then start here). A better bet is to be asked to be dropped off at the entrance to the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) on Lornie Road. Walk another 100m down Lornie Road (following the golf course) until you come to a rough trail on your left which goes downhill alongside the golf course towards the Reservoir. Simply stay on this trail and it will track the golf course on your left and the reservoir on your right until you reach the boardwalk.
When you want to get back to Singapore follow your route back to the main road and the SICC entrance. There is a road-bridge next to the SICC going over Lornie Road which has a bus-stop right by it - taxis will pull in here (or if you’ve the time and can face sitting on a bus with sweat dripping down your back you could always catch the bus…)

Day List Highlights: 23rd March (new for the year underlined):
Peregrine Falco peregrinus 1; Pink-necked Green Pigeon Treron vernans c)20; Chestnut-bellied Malkoha Phaenicophaeus sumatranus 1; Large-tailed Nightjar Caprimulgus macrurus 4; Black-capped Kingfisher Halcyon pileata 1; Blue-throated Bee-eater Merops philippinus ; Laced Woodpecker Picus vittatus 1; Pacific Swallow Hirundo tahitica 3; Forest Wagtail Dendronanthus indicus 1; Yellow-vented Bulbul Pycnonotus goiavier c)10; Chinese Flycatcher Ficedula elisae 2; Oriental Magpie-robin Copsychus saularis 1; Striped Tit-babbler Macronous gularis 2; Asian Fairy-bluebird Irena puella 1; Greater Racket-tailed Drongo Dicrurus paradiseus 4-5; White-vented Myna Acridotheres javanicus 30+; Asian Glossy Starling Aplonis panayensis 20+

Day List Highlights: 27th March (new for the year underlined):
Yellow Bittern Ixobrychus sinensis 1; White-bellied Sea Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster 2; Emerald Dove Chalcophaps indica 1; Chestnut-bellied Malkoha Phaenicophaeus sumatranus 1; Collared Kingfisher Todirhamphus chloris 1; Blue-throated Bee-eater Merops viridis 3; Banded Woodpecker Picus miniaceus 2; Hooded Pitta Pitta sordida 1; Olive-winged Bulbul Pycnonotus plumosus 3-4; Blue-winged Leafbird Chloropsis cochinchinensis 2; Common Iora Aegithina tiphia 1; Rufous-tailed Tailorbird Orthotomus sericeus 1; Asian Brown Flycatcher Muscicapa dauurica 1; White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus 1; Short-tailed Babbler Malacocincla malaccensis 1; Striped Tit-babbler Macronous gularis 2; Olive-backed Sunbird Nectarinia jugularis 2-3