Biodiversity advocate aims to be resourceful, adaptable like the drongo bird

Mr Muhammad Nasry Abdul Nasir would like to be resourceful and adaptable like the greater racket-tailed drongo - a forest-dwelling bird with a pair of eye-catching pendant-like tail extensions.

- Ariel Yu

But it is not the bird's plumage that endears it to him. Instead, Mr Nasry appreciates the animal for its ability to mimic other birds' calls, which it uses to its advantage.

"The greater racket-tailed drongo learns the purpose of the calls of other birds. If it sees that another bird has food, it will mimic the call of a predator to make that other bird panic and drop its food, so it can swoop in instead," he said of his favourite animal in Singapore.

"I admire the drongo for its resourcefulness and adaptability, and I try to embody these traits as I work to conserve biodiversity." The 25-year-old Nanyang Technological University (NTU) environmental earth systems science student is one of two young Singaporeans who will attend COP16, the biennial UN biodiversity conference, which will be held in Cali, Colombia, from Oct 21 to Nov 1.

Governments, indigenous groups, businesses, youth groups and non-governmental organisations from almost 200 countries will be attending the conference to negotiate, among other things, ways of tracking progress at halting nature's loss and decline.