A woman spent over three hours of her weekday evening after work tending to a tired blue-winged pitta in Woodlands and keeping it out of harm's way.

A rare visitor sighted

The Good Samaritan, Loh Wei, documented her experience and shared them on the Bird Sightings and Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook groups on Nov. 17, 2023.

Loh told Mothership that a birder and fellow Woodlands resident, Tan Lu San, alerted her to the blue-winged pitta on Nov. 15 morning.

Tan caught sight of the bird just as he was heading for work, while Loh was already at work.

Perhaps eager to see the bird for herself, the wildlife lover dashed home as soon as she could. The blue-winged pitta is quite rare in Singapore.

Not only is the bird not native to Singapore, but it also only visits in winter, popping over to our shores as part of its migratory passage during the cold season.

The Bird Ecology Study Group described the bird as a "rare winter visitor" whereas Birds of Singapore classified it as a common migrant and resident.

Bird looked really tired

Luckily for Loh, she managed to see the blue-winged pitta when she arrived back in Woodlands.

However, the bird appeared worse for wear, cutting a lonely figure with its eyes closed under the pelting rain.

She observed from a distance away that it looked "really tired" and suspected that it was "probably 'jet-lagged' from its long flight here".

Loh decided to call the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) for help and was waiting for their response when passers-by noticed her and in turn, the bird, and began approaching them.

Loh told the passers-by to keep their distance, but it was too late and the bird got startled and flew away.

Loh knew the bird would not have flown too far away, so she searched for it in the vicinity and located it at a void deck two blocks away.

Determined not to let it get away a second time, Loh got a paper bag from a nearby cobbler and approached the bird.

"This time the blue-winged pitta looked more alert and awake. It flew away as I approached and knocked so hard into the wall that ... I thought it had died and I was almost in tears."

Busy migratory season

Nevertheless, Loh picked the bird up to keep it off the pathway and away from pedestrians.

Thankfully, the bird was just concussed and it stood up immediately after Loh put it in the paper bag.

Loh left the bird in the bag to rest and called Acres and the National Parks Board (NParks) but neither responded, she said.

"As it was near car park and roads, I didn’t want to leave it there as there were neighbourhood cats around, it was definitely not safe. I was also contemplating if I should bring it to Acres. But it was raining and hard to get a cab," Loh added.

However, Loh said she did not blame them.

"It was almost close to 7pm, drizzling and peak hour, you think Acres and Nparks drive an ambulance? From past experience, I can’t blame them."

More such cases

Acres co-chief executive officer Kalai Vanan told Mothership that the Acres wildlife rescue hotline is getting an increased number of calls for birds like blue-winged pittas and bitterns as it is currently the birds' migratory season.

These migrant birds often suffer from fatigue or fall sick after flying a long distance, impairing their ability to navigate through landscapes like Singapore's concrete jungle, resulting in them flying into tall buildings with glass windows.

In fact, the Acres team were attending to another case near JW Marriott Hotel Singapore South Beach, where another blue-winged pitta had similarly collided with a building around the same time that Loh found the blue-winged pitta at Woodlands.

Acres has since returned the bird to the wild after it had recovered.

Bird just needed to rest

The bird in Woodlands did not appear to be wounded, based on Loh's and Tan's observations and assessments.

She said: "To be honest, if it has no visible injury and can still fly, it just needs one to two days to recover before it moves on."

As it turned out, all the blue-winged pitta needed was a little rest away from members of the public.

The blue-winged pitta started moving around in the paper bag, but Loh stopped it from flying out as they were in an area busy with people and vehicles.

Loh and Tan, who had arrived by then to join in the rescue effort, decided to go to a nearby neighbourhood park where it would be safer to release the bird.

It also helped that the pair loved nature and wildlife and knew a thing or two about the blue-winged pitta.

Aware that the bird forages for food on the ground, Loh and Tan released the bird near some bushes instead of on trees or branches above ground at around 7pm that day.

"It stayed like this and did not move anymore, taking its night rest there," Loh said.

The whole effort took Loh around three hours from start to finish.

Be free, little birdie

The bird was nowhere to be seen by the next morning.

Loh said she and Tan "searched the whole park, even the surrounding HDB void deck areas", but to no avail.

She said: "We believe it has moved on successfully. Good luck blue-winged pitta!"

According to Loh, there were two more sightings of a blue-winged pitta in the area in the subsequent days.

Tan saw the bird foraging on Nov. 17 afternoon, while another individual saw a blue-winged pitta two days later on Nov. 19, in the area where it was originally found.

Loh said she and Tan believe that the blue-winged pitta sighted is the same bird that they rescued.

"It was at the exact area where we released it. Hence, we are certain. Also, the chance of a different pitta appearing in the same area is almost one per cent, unlike mynas."

How to approach a wild bird in shock

As Kalai pointed out, it is not uncommon for migratory birds to collide into buildings.

In such instances, how the public responds is important, because the birds can recover if they are given the proper care.

Minimise handling

One thing that people should avoid doing when sighting a wild bird in distress is to carry and pet it like they would a pet bird.

This handling would make the situation worse, as the bird may be trying to cope with stress and shock.

Prepare a safe, enclosed space first

People might also feel inclined to prepare and provide food and water immediately, but this is not necessary nor urgent when the bird is in shock, Kalai said.

What is more crucial, however, is to ensure that the bird is in a safe, confined space and is not exposed to the elements like rain or direct sunlight.

Call Acres

Kalai recommended that members of the public call Acres' 24-hour hotline (9783 7782) for injured wildlife, and Acres will advise them on what to do.

Members of the public can also call NParks' helpline at 1800 476 1600.

Some of the basic steps are to coax the bird into a cardboard box with holes for ventilation, with as little handling as possible, and to close the box.

The box's dark and quiet environment will aid in its recovery and provide some protection against cold weather.

Keeping the wild bird as a pet is an offence

He also urged the public to refrain from self-medicating the wild bird or keeping them as a pet, the latter of which is illegal.

About the blue-winged pitta

The blue-winged pitta (Pitta moluccensis) breeds in the southern parts of China, Indochina and the Thai-Malay Peninsula.

According to NParks, the pitta is a winter visitor and passage migrant and is widespread throughout Singapore during the winter months and can be found foraging in the quiet wooded areas of parks and large gardens.

It is usually found at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve freshwater pond area or the visitor centre where they hop and forage among the leaf litter in the undergrowth.

More dazed and confused birds

Top image by Sim