Little Bronze Cuckoo | June 2020 | Singapore

Yeah it’s another day of birding at the island. Today it was 8ish when I reached Kranji Carpark A in pursuit of the Little Bronze Cuckoo, as soon as I set up my gears, one of the fellow birders said it had visited some 10 mins back and flew off. As usual its very natural for the birders, wait and wait till you get the perfect moment. Sun was becoming harsh, at around 9ish we saw it fly into the scrubby bushes, too much of foliage to get a clean focus. Chirpy birds constantly jumping from one twig to the other and pecking its beak in the bushes. The beauty of the Bronze Back is its eyes and the multicoloured sunbeam back. Similar to the size of an emerald cuckoo I would say. We were focused around a stretch of 250 mtrs where it comes for the caterpillar hunt. I did not have a single shot of a bird with caterpillar so my anxiousness was increasing, so was the heat & sweat. Suddenly we heard it perched on the tree opposite to the grass land. All focus locked got some beautiful shots with the blue sky behind. However we were still focused on the grassland hunt of caterpillars or worms. Next 15mins were photographers delight, the call of the cuckoo was suppressed under the shutterbugs clicking sound. It please all of us there with plenty shot however, I still did not get the dream shot of the “Eye” and the “back” together. Then came the moment, it flew in the thick foliage branches and was head banging. Focusing on the sense gave me my dream shot of a caterpillar , the eye and the bronze back. Satisfied after clicking this unique species, came back home after a 4 hour of pure adventure.