31 Jan 2026 – Park Street

The quest for the Greater Painted Snipe.

So there’s this thing that I do every Fri night where I would scour all the latest bird sightings on eBird and local notification groups (Facebook and Telegram) to decide where to go birding on the weekend.

This eBird hotspot named “Park Street Pond and Field” caught my attention as the Greater Painted Snipe was spotted there just last week. There were only 6 eBird checklists (as of time of writing) but the place seemed promising. I started to wonder if I was about to uncover the next birding hidden gem of Singapore.

Arriving on Sat early morning, the place was very much alive with birds calling. Birding here felt more challenging as the birds were more skittish. Most of them will bolt the moment I had direct line of sight on them. Not surprising as this place is not a public park or one frequented by birders / photographers hence the birds are not used to human presence.

From afar, I spotted a bird flying in between some trees. Before I could take a shot, the bird took off toward my direction. There was no time to think. I reacted purely on instinct to shoot first, identify later. It turned out to be a Large Hawk-cuckoo. Not a bad find. Perhaps a sign of good things to come?

Over above, a pair of Brahminy Kites was seen perched on a tree. The Crows didn’t seem to like that though as they kept harassing and chasing the pair around.

As I continued to scan the thick reeds on the edge of the pond, something caught my eye – an odd looking shape in between an opening in the reeds. I wasn’t convinced it was a bird, maybe it was a rock or rotting vegetation. But I decided to take a photo to zoom in for a closer look anyway.

And there it was, staring back at me, the Greater Painted Snipe. I was elated. Unfortunately, it had already disappeared by the time I realized what I saw. I waited for awhile more hoping that it would come out into the open but alas it did not.

While waiting, I saw a Long-tailed Shrike out looking to catch it’s breakfast.

A flock of Lesser Whistling Ducks was seen resting on an island in the middle of the pond.

Thus, completes my quest for the Greater Painted Snipe. I continued on to explore the surrounding fields before making a stop at the Marina Grove pond (to be documented in the next blog post).

eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S297137104