Me and my family were going to Maldives for a few days (from 17th -26th of December 2024, though -3 days from travel), before stopping over in Singapore. Although there was not much birds in Maldives, we did hire a guide in Singapore for a day.
Day 1-5 : 17th to 22nd December (Maldives)
We arrived late at night in Male on the 17th of December, and we stayed there for one night. In the morning, I had an interesting find of Maldives' first record of Blue Rock Thrush. I got great views of it through my binoculars, though the moment I tried to shoot it flew away. I only managed a blurry record pic of it inflight.
Blue Rock Thrush
Our resort name was Six Senses Maldives, located on the island of Olhuveli, in the Laamu Atoll. There weren't much birds there, but through the few days that we spent there, we got a few birds which I got photos of including common sandpiper, striated heron and house crow.
Common Sandpiper
Striated Heron - old world
House Crow
Other than the birds, there was of course lots of exotic fish, of which I won't identify or put any photos, as I am no fish enthusiast. Something more exciting is the underwater megafauna, in which we saw quite a few during our stay. This included cowtail rays, green sea turtles (seen only), hawksbill turtles and black tip reef sharks.
Cowtail Ray
Hawksbill Turtle
Black Tip Reef Shark
Other animals of note include a pod of confiding spinner dolphin seen on a boat trip, they get their name by jumping clear out of the water and spinning. I was able to capture a few of those. In addition, there were flying foxes were all over the place, and I managed a record shot.
Flying Fox
Day 6 : 22nd December (Singapore)
Me and my family spent one whole day traveling from Maldives to Singapore, so when we got to our hotel it was already midnight. We had a late start the next day, and we decided to head to the nearby Gardens By the Bay. After a brief taxi ride, we arrived there at 11AM. The first thing that I noticed was that there were lots of sunbirds, of which included Ornate and Brown throated Sunbird.
Ornate Sunbird - male
Brown Throated Sunbird - male
Gardens by the Bay is famous for their supertree grove, and just above I spotted a white bellied sea eagle soaring. Other birds in the area include blue tailed bee eater, and a flock of white nest/black nest swiftlets (apparently no one can separate them from which species).
Supertree Grove
White Bellied Sea Eagle
Blue-tailed Bee Eater
White nest/ black nest swiftlet
There was suddenly a torrential downpour, and me and my family took the time to visit the cloud forest dome, which was pretty interesting. After the rain had slowed, I went out to take a brief walk, while my family stayed inside. Some birds that I got included a pair of Pink- necked Green Pigeons, White-breasted Waterhen and Black naped Oriole.
Pink-necked Green Pigeon - male (bottom) and female (top)
White Breasted Waterhen
After a brief lunch at Starbucks, me and my dad took a walk around the Garden while the rest of my family went to another dome named floral fantasy. On the walk, we got birds such as Red Junglefowls (later really common), Zebra Dove, Ashy Tailorbird, Oriental Magpie Robin, Malaysian Pied Fantail and Arctic Warbler.
Zebra Dove
Ashy Tailorbird
Oriental Magpie Robin - male
Malaysian Pied Fantail
Arctic Warbler
We began head back, as the rain had started back up again. On the way back, we got Red whiskered Bulbul, Purple Heron and White throated Kingfisher. We headed back to our hotel after dinner and prepared for an early start the next day.
Red Whiskered Bulbul
White-throated Kingfisher - with black naped oriole
Day 7 : 24th December, Christmas Eve (Singapore)
We had booked a day of bird guiding Mr. Lim Kim Seng, from Birding Singapore. We had booked the tour prior, as it seems the tour was pretty popular, with bookings 3 days in a row before ours. We were down at the entrance of our hotel by 6:30AM. Our first stop was at Bukit Batok Nature Park, where we were going to try and find the Critically Endangered Straw headed Bulbul. The first bird that we saw when we got there was the beautiful white crested laughingthrush.
White Crested Laughingthrush
We soon got eyes on the Straw headed bulbuls, in which there were 5 birds in the same family. Though I only got some record shots, I was still very happy to see them. There was also a dollarbird and a common hill myna which perched high up.
Straw headed Bulbul
Dollarbird
Common Hill Myna
After that, we headed for an Indian breakfast, where we got a male common flameback in the carpark.
Common Flameback
Our next stop was at the north entrance of Jurong Lake Gardens, where we were looking for owls and cuckoos. The first few birds that we saw when we got there was a chestnut winged cuckoo along with a little bronze cuckoo, which were all surrounded by photographers.
Chestnut Winged Cuckoo
Little Bronze Cuckoo
As we were leaving, Lim found us a Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Large Hawk Cuckoo, Pied Trillers, Ashy Minivet and Black naped Oriole.
Square-tailed Drongo Cuckoo
Large Hawk Cuckoo
Pied Triller - male (male) and female (bottom)
Ashy Minivet
Black-naped Oriole
Next, we headed to the southern end of Jurong Lake Gardens, where our main target was for the trio of Buffy Fish Owls. One was a one-month old chick and the others were the parents.
Buffy Fish Owl - male and female
Other birds that we got in the area include Yellow and Black Bittern, Brown Shrike, Red Wattled Lapwing and Oriental Honey Buzzard.
Yellow Bittern
Black Bittern
Red-wattled Lapwing
Oriental Honey Buzzard
With that, we headed back to Mr. Lim's car and headed to lunch. It turns out that the lunchplace, named Changi Village, was a birding hotspot too! The first birds that we got when we got there was large numbers of Red breasted Parakeets and Red Junglefowls.
Red-breasted Parakeet
Red Junglefowl
Just as we were about to eat, Lim found us a beautiful male Oriental Pied Hornbill! We quickly rushed over and was rewarded with great views and decent pictures.
Oriental Pied Hornbill - male
As we were having lunch, additional species that we picked up included Yellow-crested Cockatoo and Tanimbar Cockatoo.
Yellow-crested Cockatoo
Tanimbar Cockatoo
Our next spot after lunch was at Pasir Ris Park, where we were going to look for Spotted Wood Owls. It was pretty straightforward after we arrived there, as there was a bunch of photographers surrounding the owl. There were the parents and a chick, still in the nest, making this the second trio of owls we had seen today.
Spotted Wood Owl - parents
Spotted Wood Owl - chick
Nearby, there was another nest, in the form of a crested goshawk sitting on it's eggs, though it never flew out for better views.
Crested Goshawk - on nest
With that, we headed to our final location for the day, which was Lorong Halus Wetland. As we got there, there was another rainshower, so we had to take cover temporarily. We spotted a few birds while we were taking cover, such as long tailed shrike and ornate sunbird.
Long Tailed Shrike
Ornate Sunbird - female
After the rain had slowed, we headed out to find some savannah nightjars. We couldn't sight the nightjars from the footpath, so Lim had to walk into the low brush to flush them out. In total, we got three individuals, but I only had record shots.
Savannah Nightjar - record shot
On our way back to the car, we got gray headed fish eagle, jerdon's baza, chestnut and white headed munia, swinhoe's/ pin tailed snipe, rose-ringed parakeet and brahminy kite.
Grey-headed Fish Eagle
Chestnut Munia
White-headed Munia
Swinhoe's/Pin tailed Snipe
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Brahminy Kite
With that, we wrapped up the day and headed back to our hotel for a rest and prepare do the last day of our holiday the next day.
Day 8 : 25th December, Christmas Day (Singapore)
Since there was nothing much for us to do today, me and my family decided to head to a birding spot near our hotel for plovers suggested by Lim yesterday. Once we got to the spot, I started to walk the breakwater in search of plovers. I soon got a pair of Malaysian Plovers, which showed nicely.
Malaysian Plover
Mixed in with the Malaysian Plovers was a single White Faced Plover, which was a lifer for me. Along with that, there was a single Tibetan Sand Plover.
Tibetan Sand Plover
We our targets all seen, we decided to head to somewhere else to spend the afternoon. As we were leaving, I got changeable hawk eagle, brown throated sunbird, white bellied sea eagle and pacific swallow.
Changeable Hawk Eagle - white morph
Brown Throated Sunbird
Pacific Swallow
I ended this trip with 113 species, mainly seen on Singapore, with 28 lifers for me, with the standout and best bird obviously being the Straw Headed Bulbul, due to it's conservation status. Thanks a lot to Mr. Lim Kim Seng, which without his help, we wouldn't have seen that many species. And this wraps up all of the nature and birding part of this trip, as we flew back to Hong Kong the next day.
Happy New Year!
