What We Learned From Our First Singapore Bird Race
Hazel (left) and Natasha (right) looking for birds and definitely not just posing for the camera.
Every year, bird lovers travel across the country for the Singapore Bird Race (SBR), where they compete in teams to spot the most number of birds within a certain period of time (depending on your race category). Last year, the marketing team at Playlogue went for our first ever bird race! It was a chaotic day filled with many wholesome moments, and one we’ll remember for a long time.
Our team
Natasha – Marketing Assistant, round-bird enthusiast, hiking newbie
Hazel – Marketing Executive, tree-hugger type, loves animals
Oon Hong a.k.a. Mao – Creative Director, avid bird photographer, unofficial bird mentor
Hazel: Our meeting time was 7am, which meant waking up at 5:30am, the earliest I’d been up in years due to the pandemic. Even then, Mao said we’d be considered “late” because ideally, we should have arrived before the birds woke up at dawn.
Natasha: I could barely open my eyes! We were so short on time we even had to suit up quickly, Clarke Kent style, in the back of Mao’s car.
Hazel: We were thankful to have Mao pick us up in her four-wheel drive and lend us her binoculars! We didn’t otherwise have equipment since Natasha and I are noobs. We decided to go to Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve, one of Singapore’s birding hotspots.
Within 3 minutes of entering the forested part of Sungei Buloh, we spotted a Buffy Fish Owl eating a fish! There was a couple decked out in serious birding attire pointing their binos up into the foliage, and they were very friendly in helping us spot the owl. We later recognised them as the sweet couple we interviewed for that year’s SBR social media posts.
The Buffy Fish Owl was halfway through breakfast when we spotted it. (Shot from handphone.)
For a beginner like me, owls are rare, exciting and super cute to boot. It was such an amazing first spot to start the race and really made me hopeful for the day! (Okay, strictly speaking, our first spots were a bunch of pigeons and mynahs, and some egrets out on the field in front of Sungei Buloh’s parking lot.)
Natasha: That spot soon turned into the biggest hotspot at the opening of the park, since birders never spot birds alone! Newcomers could see the commotion we were making and were so excited to come and catch a glimpse alongside us that we ended up amassing a bit of a crowd.
Hazel: We stayed at Sungei Buloh pretty much the whole time because we were also shooting content for social media. Fortunately, it’s a spot with many wetland birds! Unfortunately, the shorebirds all look very similar, and we had trouble telling them apart, even with the pictures on the informational signs to help us.
One of the signs we referenced. Telling shorebirds apart is especially difficult when they’re all feeding in a large cluster, as they were when we spotted them.
Natasha: With Hazel and I running back and forth between viewing areas and the informational ‘How-To-Identify-Birds’ signs (put up all over Sungei Buloh to help newbies like us), it's a wonder that we didn’t tire ourselves out.
Hazel: Mao told us to pay attention to things like the colour of their legs or the shape and length of their beaks, since most of the wetland birds were of a similar shape and size.
Natasha: We couldn’t really spot anything from so far away though! The other birders made it look so easy too…
Hazel: One of my favourite moments was in the late morning, when we were leaving Sungei Buloh via the bridge. It was full of birders, nature lovers and children on their parents’ shoulders, many of them in matching SBR shirts. They were all looking in one direction and, to find out what they were looking at, we employed the oldest trick in the book – we asked the person with the most impressive camera set-up. Like many birders, they were very friendly and showed us the beautiful shots they’d taken of a Stork-Billed Kingfisher. With their help, we soon managed to spot it!
The crocodile is hanging out with its wooden friend.
Natasha: We also saw the Sungei Buloh crocodile, which terrified me! I’m not going down to the water’s edge ever again!
Hazel: I was excited to see it! It has eluded me for years.
Despite our better judgement, in the final hour of the race, we suddenly decided that we wanted to win. We had what we thought was an impressive bird count on eBird (spoiler alert: it wasn’t), and despite our earlier declarations that we were just here for a casual day out in nature, our competitive spirit took over.
And so commenced a frantic attempt to spot as many birds as possible in the remaining hour. We did manage to rack up our bird count – the methods of which we will reveal at the bottom of this post!
Natasha: One of Mao’s friends, highly acclaimed experienced bird watcher extraordinaire (Ding Li), recommended we continue our bird watching journey at another park. However, me and Hazel, the newbies that we are, were far too tired to take up his advice.
Hazel: We were driving to lunch on one of the roads leading off the highway, when I declared that I saw a bird. There it was – a wide-winged raptor soaring in the sky. Mao, who was driving, started slowing down and, in trying to get a glimpse of the raptor, was no longer focusing on the road. The car lurched. Images of a brutal car accident flashed in my mind.
Natasha: I was seated in the back seat, and although I could’ve leaned forward to try to catch a glimpse myself through the dashboard window, I was gripped with fear at the car’s lurching and spent my time quietly gripping the leather seats instead.
Hazel: Thankfully, we made it out unscathed! With this final bird (Oriental Honey Buzzard), I submitted our list on eBird two minutes short of the deadline, my hands shaking violently as I triple-checked the details. We ended the day with a satisfyingly greasy lunch of hot dogs and fries at A&W.
All in all, we were glad to join the race, even if we didn’t win. After all, the Singapore Bird Race is about connecting with nature and appreciating birds in their natural habitat. In the face of this, winning takes a back seat. (Until the next race, which we’re definitely going to win.)
Mao (second from left), Hazel (second from right) and Natasha (far right) trying to identify a pigeon, probably.
Our tips
Although we lost by a pretty large margin (congratulations to the winners, who had very impressive bird counts!), we learned a lot that will prepare us for our next race:
1. Don’t underestimate common birds!
We got so caught up trying to spot rare star birds that we overlooked more common ones. A single tree can be teeming with small, common birds that will pad your bird count! This is how we racked up our points in the final hour of the race.
2. Don’t be afraid to approach other birders.
The magic of the bird race is that most birders in Singapore are out for a shared purpose – and there’ll be many other birders who can help you! Thanks to their help, we saw more bird species in a single morning than we’d seen over multiple hikes with friends.
3. It’s better to get your own transport.
Waiting for the bus can take up precious bird watching time! Not to mention, birding hotspots like Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve can be a little hard to get to through public transport alone.
4. Don’t forget your mosquito repellent.
While you’re focusing on spotting a bird, you might not even notice a sneaky little mosquito buzzing up your leg. Take extra precautions and keep yourself protected!
Want a fun day out in nature with your family and friends? Registration for this year’s Singapore Bird Race is open! Sign up here by 16 Oct.
If you’re not in Singapore, do you have a similar race where you’re from? We’d love to hear about your birding experiences in the comments!
