Deaf 'bird whisperer' forms rare bond with feathered friends

April 24, 2018

'Bird whisperer' Razali Bin Mohamad Habidin checks a salmon-crested cockatoo at Jurong Bird Park in Singapore, where he is deputy head avian keeper

Deaf since childhood, Razali Bin Mohamad Habidin has developed a closer bond with the creatures under his care than any other keeper at Singapore's Jurong Bird Park, where other staff refer to him simply as the "bird whisperer".

Razali, who lost 80 percent of his hearing after falling ill as a baby, started working at the park over two decades ago, and has risen to the position of deputy head avian keeper.

He communicates with the birds through grunts, gestures and body languages and told AFP that he recognises the birds by their "behaviours and personalities".

"All of them are my friends," he added, communicating through a mix of gestures and Malay.

Other staff at the park have dubbed the 48-year-old "the bird whisperer"—after Hollywood film "The Horse Whisperer", starring Robert Redford as a trainer with a gift for understanding horses.

"He has a way of communicating with the birds that very few of us can," said assistant curator Angelin Lim. "Just by a look, he knows whether or not the bird is well."

Communication with his colleagues can be more challenging than with the birds.

Razali leads about a dozen staff and giving them instructions usually involves him making various complex hand gestures, and then reading the lips of his colleagues when they respond.

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Bird whisperer demonstrates technique at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

Posted: April 20, 2014 - 12:16am

By Mary Landers

912-652-0337 mary.landers@savannahnow.com

Peter Range banded his first bird, an evening grosbeak, when he was just a kid in eastern Tennessee. The feisty finch put its mark on him, too.

“Some birds peck,” he said. “An evening grosbeak grabs the skin and takes a divot out of it.”

Still, Range was hooked on banding when he discovered one of the grosbeaks he recaptured in 1968 had been banded six years before in Lincoln, Maine.

On Tuesday morning, more than 45,000 banded birds later, Range demonstrated his technique to interested birders at the Visitors’ Center of the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.

Just prior to the demo, Range and several volunteers caught a half dozen birds in mist nets in the nearby woods and held them in mesh produce bags to await their tags.

First up was a hooded warbler, a local nester that comes back to the area in the spring. This one was a female, in its second year and on the skinny side, Range said, holding it gently but firmly in his right fist. With pliers and a practiced touch, Range fitted onto the bird’s leg a metal band stamped with a unique identifying number.

Continued