2016 Birding

2016 has been a challenging year to say the least, meeting all the assessment deadlines, completing the extended essay, finishing university applications and much more. But in the midst of all this, somehow I still managed to get the time to go birding. Surprisingly this year has been a really good year for birding for me.

This year I have been birding mainly in Singapore, but I have also gone birding in Bali and India as well as taken a small trip to the US.  In Singapore alone I have seen 143 species of Birds, both migratory and native and have had many adventures on the way. In total I have seen a modest 270 species around the world. In Singapore, the current highest bird seen in 1 year only in Singapore  was 265. Compared to 265, my 143 looks very insignificant.

It will take me a long time to write about all the birds that I have  seen and upload all of the ones I photographed, that is whyI will upload my entire bird list for this year here.

One place that I have been to quite often in Singapore was Satay By the Bay and Marina Barrage. I have seen a Significant number of Birds in these areas alone.  One bird in particular which I enjoyed taking a picture of was the Common Kingfisher.

The above photograph was taken in the 2nd Consecutive Season that this Kingfisher had stayed at the SBTB pond. I had seen it again in Aug, but I could not get a picture. I really enjoyed this kingfisher because it gave me good viewings of itself and allowed me to go very close to it, sometimes within 5m.

Another migrant which popped up at the same pond was 3 black bitterns. It was quite surprising to see them stay here for so long. They were first sighted in Dec of 2015 and stayed till about June of the next year.

Another two bird which I had added in SBTB were the Thick Billed Pigeon, Large Tailed Nightjar and Ruddy Breasted Crake.
The Nightjar is very difficult to photograph is the day time as they are very well camouflaged in the trees during the day. I had managed to come within 2 meters of the bird and I just needed to use 370mm to get a full frame shoot.


When I did not want to go to SBTB, I went to Marina Barrage. I had a blast in Marina Barrage, by seeing many shore bird species which I had never previously seen. Some of them include, the Masked Lapwing, Lesser Sandplover, Malaysian Plover, White faced plover, Kentish plover, Greater Sand Plover and many more. Some of the images are below: 

These were just some of the birds I saw in Singapore. Hopefully in the next few days I will be able to upload all the images I took at Bali, Us and India. Please follow my flicker and Facebook.