MY REVELATION was born from a photo I saw on Twitter of a large bird with a long beak standing on skinny legs on the bank of a lake.
The photo was posted by a young friend who spotted the bird at Taal. He didn’t know what it was, except that he was told that the bird ate fish from the numerous fish cages in the lake.
I tagged another friend who is a Makati-based birdwatcher, and right away he identified the bird as a kadangho—purple heron. This is a “resident species,” he said, while the “gray heron aka talabong is the migratory one.” He says he’s seen the purple heron only a couple of times before at Sampaloc Lake in San Pablo, Laguna, and twice in Tambo, but the gray heron is “common during amihan along with great, intermediate, and little egrets.”
I was intrigued, so my birdwatcher friend told me more. There were plovers in Tambo but that mudflat is now where Okada stands. He sent me a photo of a white bird, a bit smaller than a chicken, perched on a rock in a muddy stream. “Here is a little egret in the Amorsolo Canal just off the Makati Medical Center.”
Now that blew my mind. Makati Med is near our house. I’ve only ever seen mayas—those common brown sparrows—in the city, but I realize now that I just haven’t been observant, didn’t know where to look and what to look for.
“The white or grayish birds you see in flocks over the Pasig [River] or Manila Bay are kanaway, migratory terns,” my birdwatcher friend said. “Some will be white by mid-spring: whiskered terns. Others will turn black with white wings: white-winged black terns. Only gulls alight on the surface.”
He sent more pictures. Of a charcoal-gray bird with white chest feathers, he said, “This is a white-breasted waterhen. Lots around UP [University of the Philippines] Diliman and Ateneo [de Manila University] campus.”
Of two darkish birds perched on a wood piling, he explained, “These are not crows. These are Asian glossy starlings. Quite common in Cebu City. In Manila, you’ll spot them where the balete and aratiles are with fruit.”
A beautiful turquoise and red-orange bird, smallish with a long dark beak, was a “migratory kasay-kasay or common kingfisher. You might see one around ponds. The common inland kingfisher is the collared kingfisher [sasala]. Lots in the American War Cemetery along with barred rails or tikling.”
Other species that may be seen in the city, he says, are the payugyog, similar to the yellow wagtail, “a common visitor to Manila during amihan;” the peregrine falcon, some of which have been spotted in Makati, the Mall of Asia area, and España Avenue near the University of Santo Tomas; as well as the Eurasian tree sparrow, crested mynah, zebra dove, large-billed crown, olive-backed sunbird, Pacific and barn swallows, red-keeled flowerpecker, yellow-vented bulbul (“more common than maya/tree sparrow”), shrikes, fantails, woodpeckers, pigeons, orioles, and many more.
There is at least one birdwatching club in the metro. The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (birdwatch.ph) was, according to material on their website, “established in July 2003 to promote bird watching as a hobby and the responsible enjoyment of nature.”
Their aim in the medium term is to “promote birdwatching not as an end in itself but as the means to influence public opinion. In the [time] that we have been birding around Metro Manila, we have seen rapid disturbance in bird habitats.
“We recognize that commercial development will have to take place sooner or later, but it is in the common interest to temper this development with environmental planning and protection and the maintenance of public free spaces and green areas.”
The WBCP maintains a list of Philippine birds and observation records, and engages in birding activities such as waterbird censuses in various sites in Luzon. They will be involved in the 12th Philippine Bird Festival set for May 12 to 13 in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.
It would be a sorry outcome for our environment to lose these species that contribute to the viability of biomes in the country. I had not realized the diversity of birds in the city until my birdwatcher friend enlightened me.
And it is such a lack of knowledge and awareness among many, if not most, urban Filipinos that might contribute to further unchecked real estate development that could destroy the natural habitats of many Philippine birds, insects, animals, and plants. We have to be vigilant and protective when it comes to our environment.
If there’s a takeaway to all this, it is to look up, look around, discover and responsibly explore your surroundings, educate yourself, and realize that we are all connected to and in nature.
Dr. Ortuoste is a writer and communication consultant. FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO