Curious crowd gathers around tree in Jurong West for glimpse of rare bird

It seems like birds of a feather really do flock together. 

On Thursday (Nov 18), TikToker flyingkukubird uploaded a video, showing a large crowd gathering around a tree along a road.  

In the 14-second-long clip, the TikToker sounds confused as he films the excited crowd and asks "What are they looking at?" He tries to get a response from a member of the crowd, who is armed with a camera with a telephoto lens, but gets waved away. 

"Uncle tell me got small owl in China," the TikToker explained in the video caption. 

@flyingkukubird

uncle tell me got small owl from china

♬ original sound - flyingkukubird

The video has amassed over 450,000 views and 18,700 likes in a day. 

It turns out, the crowd was trying to get a glimpse of a rare bird that had been spotted in the area. 

Facebook user Massuri Aini shared his encounter with the bird on Wednesday, explaining that he found the bird lying "on the floor [in front of] a shop". He also identified the location as Jurong West Street 51. 

Initially he thought the bird was dead, but it came to after he picked it up, opening its eyes and flying onto the road. To make sure that the owl was safe, the 36-year-old used a twig to guide it onto a tree. 

"Sorry if I might offend some people here cause I touched this little fella," he wrote in Facebook group Singapore Wildlife Sightings, which included a video of the unconscious owl. 

In two days, his post went viral, garnering almost 1,800 reactions and more than 200 comments — which may explain the large crowd forming around the tree.

Many commended him for saving the bird, some netizens identified the bird to be an Oriental Scoops Owl. 

According to NParks, the Oriental Scoops Owl is considered a rare bird, but is widespread around Singapore around November. 

ALSO READ: Crowd allegedly gathers around tree in Ang Mo Kio every morning for bird sighting

claudiatan@asiaone.com