Malaysia Pied Fantails

This morning of May 19, 2024, I was attracted by the bright high pitched bird chirps at the boardwalk of Keppel wetland. Looking around, a small dark-brown and white bird perched on a small tree branch making calls. After the call it stayed there, preening, giving me plenty of time to take pictures. This was a Malaysia Pied Fantail.

The fantails are small insectivorous songbirds, common in southeast Asia. I saw them quite a few times before, but they typically foraging quietly, not making any noise. Fantails chirp frequently must mean they are making mating calls! 

So I lingered around a bit, hoping to see bird mating.

Malaysia Pied Fantail

Soon a fantail appeared on the floor of the boardwalk with a dragonfly in its beak, and in a blink of eyes, it disappeared. I walked over, the fantail now stood on the rail of the boardwalk.

I stood on the board walk quietly for a couple of minutes, a fantail started making calls again. The fantail perched on a tree branch making calls, pausing, changing directions, then making calls again. Another fantail flew by! It first stood on a branch above the singing bird (male), and soon, flew to the same branch, and then getting closer. Not ready yet, the male flew away from the female despite all the efforts to attract it. No opportunity to see Fantails mating. In fact there is not much to see,  except that the male mounts on the female's back, and they have a "cloacal kiss".

But we saw the outcome of some fantail's' mating, chicks in a fantails' nest, and we also saw both parent feeding their chicks,   at the foliage garden last March.

The fantail nest has a shape of a cup. The chicks hide inside, and raise their beaks when they sensed that their parents are back with food. Initially the parent birds took turn to feed the chicks, then they joined force to feed the chicks together, yes - chicks, in fact there were two chicks in the nest... quite an enchanting scene.

feeding the chick with a moth

see two opened mouths?