Oriental Pied Hornbills Anthracoceros albirostris@ Changi by wong1979

Thanks to Wong1979 from clubsnap for graciously allowing me to reproduce his excellent pictures of the Oriental Pied Hornbills [ Anthracoceros albirostris ] here on this blog. Thanks to Sharkspin for id of the birds. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the

Hornbill Project Singapore you CAN make a difference. Read all about
our own hornbills and how you can help with your sightings on the
bird ecology blog http://besgroup.blogspot.com

Be Watchful for poachers though when admiring these birds. It would be sad if they were caught by poachers (like the colugo incident) or the nests were disturbed.

Links:

Oriental pied hornbill on the Forest Department, Sarawak website: brief fact sheet

Fact sheet with photos on flora and fauna of Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin

Picture of a Male from the Oriental Bird Club.

Wonder about the name in Chinese, Japanese and vietnamese?

Rat catching White-bellied Fish-Eagles? @ changi boardwalk by wong1979

LOL I stared at the screen for 5 mins to think of a title for this post. Firstly I didn't know that rats can swim out to sea until the owner of these pics did a bit of research(see original thread). Can anyone id the eagle and also comment on this behaviour? text in italics belong to the pic owner

UPDATE: Thanks to Dr Wee and Mr Subaraj, the identity mystery is somewhat solved. They should be juvenile White-bellied Fish-Eagles Haliaeetus leucogaster

here's rest of Subaraj's reply
Though somewhat dark, they appear to be juvenile White-bellied Fish-Eagles Haliaeetus leucogaster. Fish Eagles are known to take anything swimming in open water. Besides fish, they are also known to take sea snakes and turtles. A rat swimming should be no exception. This rat could have been swimming across somewhere or may have come off a boat.

I saw some eagles hovering above the sea and thought they must be fishing for fish until on closer inspection ...huh? Fish got tail meh?




I thought it could be some kind of monitor lizard or sea creature with a tail, but from the vague shape I can make out of, it looks like a rat. So I went googling and found out that indeed, a rat can swim half a mile out into the sea.

After which, I saw another eagle sparring with it, as if to snatch the food:
hmm the pic looks brighter with another computer but its too dark to see anything on this one.. uploading new edited for brightness