Long Tail Parakeets at Coney Island

Coney Island is located northeast to Singapore and between the mainland and Pulau Ubin. This is a small island, about 2.3 km long, 0.55 km  wide, separated from mainland by a narrow channel, and connected by pedestrian bridges. It is about 1km across Johor Strait from Pulau Ubin, a likely good location to kayak to the river Sugai Teris on Pulau Ubin!

It is acclaimed to be rustic with 80 species of birds. Many people bike there. We chose to hike on the island to be more immersive in nature and have a better chance to watch birds. The trails are mostly shaded, small sandy beaches are hidden behind trees and dense bushes from hikers and bikers. We got off trails every time we spotted a beach.

The main trail is in the woods

Beaches are hidden 

 

Pulau Ubin across Johor Strait

There were wild flowers here and there, and some uniquely patterned butterflies. We heard bird chirping here and there, the only birds we could see clearly were the ubiquitous  Javan Myna. I spotted the silhouettes of parakeets over the canopies of trees.  "The resident male Baya Weavers weaving their large and intricate nests from flowering Acacia trees" as claimed by Singapore National Park website was nowhere to see. 

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Due to construction, we turned around before reaching eastern end of the island, and hiked on the southwest side of the island, from mile marker 6 on. That was when my bird watching luck changed.

I saw some movement in a tree, and looked at the direction more, and did not see anything. But a hiker behind us looked at the tree for a while after us. We returned to the spot, and saw a parakeet. It had green feathers, red beak, brownish breast.  After a minute or so, it flew away. We moved on. 

We saw more parakeets in the trees by the trail. This time the parakeets a bit different from the first one we saw. They have red beaks, green feathers but their breasts were green as well. One was eating some red fruit on bare branch, gave us perfect views of its every move! 

It held the fruit with claws of one foot, and stood on one foot. It noticed us, but continued eating at the same spot. It looked at us again, and somehow lost the remaining fruit. Another parakeet was nearby focusing on eating as well. I managed to record its actions. We were thrilled and enjoyed watching the long tailed parakeets.