If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and YouTube to get the latest updates.Īng Xin is a final year Life Sciences student at National University of Singapore. Always wear a mask except when you are engaged in strenuous exercise or when consuming food, drink or medication.ĭo check out the visitorship levels of our parks using our safe distancing portal before you head down and avoid the ones with high visitorship.įor more information about the flora and fauna found in Singapore, please visit NParks Flora and Fauna Web. Maintain a safe distance from other park goers and keep to not more than five persons in a group. If you are heading to our green spaces, do the right thing and be socially responsible. It also provides you a platform for existing and future digital outreach including DIY gardening and related crafts, virtual tours of our green spaces, and livestream events. Visit NParksSG, our refreshed YouTube Channel that serves as a one-stop repository for close to 300 video resources. Want to learn more on identifying garden birds? During this period, you can do so even without leaving your house! Learn more about our common birds through our interactive e-learning module, accessible via Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox browser. Its best identification feature is the aforementioned small chicken-like head in proportion to its body. Its plumage is highly variable depending on its age and gender but is generally brownish with a combination of streaks and barrings. This medium-sized raptor, that measures about 60 cm, is a winter visitor to Singapore and can be observed in a wide variety of habitats, including the roofs of apartment blocks. The Oriental Honey Buzzard ( Pernis ptilorhyncus) is an excellent hunter that specialises in dismantling the nests of bees and wasps to feed on their larvae.
Who knows, you may be able to spot one or two of these majestic beasts out hunting for its lunch!ĭon’t be fooled by its small chicken-like head. The next time you are out in our green spaces, look up to the sky. The female, on the other hand, is larger in size so that it can incubate eggs more efficiently. It is believed that it is more advantageous for the male to remain smaller as this provides higher agility, allowing it to hunt better. Additionally, various raptors display sexual dimorphism whereby the male and female of the same species look different. Male raptors are typically smaller in size compared to their female counterparts. These birds then use their powerful curved beaks to tear flesh apart. Their strong feet are armed with sharp talons, or hooked claws, that they use to grasp prey easily. They have keen eyesight that enables them to detect prey from a great distance while in flight. Such birds include eagles, ospreys, kites, buzzards and falcons. You would not want to mess with these winged beasts!īirds of prey, also known as raptors, often hunt and feed on other vertebrates.