Telok Blangah Residents Irritated By Crowds Gathering For Glimpse Of Cute Sunda Owls

On Sunday (May 5), it was reported that a pair of baby Sunda owls have recently made a gigantic tree within the Telok Blangah estate their home.

The Sunda owl is included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species as a “least concern species”.

According to a netizen, such a visible nest was “rare” and about 50 ‘birders’ aka bird watchers were already gathered around the tree when he arrived on Sunday.

Since news of the owlets making the tree their home broke, the crowds have gotten bigger.

However, it seems there is a growing number of people who are displeased with the crowd gathering at the sleepy residential area.

Yesterday, a netizen posted a picture of the crowd to the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook group with the caption, “Can we give some space for the birds”.

“The parent bird may be scared of the crowd [and] may lead [it] to abandon their chicks,” he added.

Another netizen commented that from the picture, he felt some people were standing too close to the nest.

A friend of this writer who lives nearby and on a low floor exasperatedly said, “It is very disturbing to see that many people near my home”.

“This morning I woke up at 4am to use the loo and saw the crowd peering for a glimpse of the owls,” he added.

Honestly, can we blame the residents (and the owls) for feeling like their privacy is being invaded?

Photos: Andy Chew/Facebook, Alvin Lim/Facebook, Mervyn Soon/Facebook