Watercock at Singapore Botanic Gardens

Most people with any interest in Singapore birds would know about the ubiquitous White-breasted Waterhen. The waterhen, also known in Malay as Burung Ruak-ruak, is a rather bold bird that thrives in most of our non-forested nature areas.

It stand to reason that if there is such a bird called waterhen, then there must be a species of bird called watercock too. And in reality there is! The Watercock (Gallicrex cinerea) is a waterbird that is a distant relative of the waterhen. It is a widely found species throughout Asia. Unfortunately in Singapore, it is listed as an uncommon winter visitor presently. In the past, it was a very common bird but drainage of many areas, and development of suitable habitat made for much reduced numbers.

The male in breeding plumage is a striking black bird with yellow bill, red frontal shield and legs. The female and the juvenile looks a lot duller with dark brown upperside and buff below with wavy greyish brown bars.

Behaviourally, they are more secretive, and they like to stay around freshwater and brackish wetlands. In normal circumstances they are more likely to be flushed out from the tall grasses or bushes where they normally resides

In February 2012, a non-breeding plumaged Watercock was spotted around the edges of Eco-Lake at Singapore Botanic Gardens. It was an opportunity for many to get a closer look of this normally secretive waterbird. From our observation, it was usually seen around the bushes at the edge of the lake. Occasionally it will come out in the open to forage, like the waterhens. Perhaps this specimen was habituated by the constant human traffic, so it did not seem as shy. Nonetheless, it quickly went back to the bushes once its foray outside attracted any attention.

As it stayed around for a while, there were many occasions to observe and get better photographs. On a few instances, it decided to fly from one side of the lake to another. And it was also seen swimming around like a duck in a covered part of the lake. Although sometimes the light level was not ideal, having a bird swimming like a duck, walking around like a chicken and flying around was something I wanted to complete, and with this Watercock, I managed all three.

Below are some of the pictures of this bird engaging in activities around the lake.

 

Photo Gallery

One of the first pictures I took of this bird out in the open. I was crouching low and did not move while it carefully came out from behind the bushes to look for food.

Seen here walking about on a covered part of the lake where two Lesser Whistling Ducks were also resting.

The Watercock takes to water readily, and here it was wading through a covered part of the lake.

A Watercock pretending to be a duck, in a covered part of the lake.

We observed the Watercock standing up at a bush, ready to fly off and positioned ourselves to capture the moment where it flew to the other side of the lake.

The spread of the wing is captured. It was flying very low and the legs were touching the water as it prepared to land.

A landing shot with water sprayed out, and the seldom seen underwing showing. Unfortunately the scene was dark. But I managed to capture this as well as a blue dragonfly at the right edge of the photo.