Monday, 23 March 2020
8-3-2020 THATTEKAD, INDIA - CHESTNUT HEADED BEE-EATER (Merops leschenaulti)
The chestnut-headed bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti), or bay-headed bee-eater, is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging from India east to Southeast Asia.
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green, with blue on the rump and lower belly. Its face and throat are yellow with a black eye stripe, and the crown and nape are rich chestnut. The thin curved bill is black. Sexes are alike, but young birds are duller.
This species is 18–20 cm long; it lacks the two elongated central tail feathers possessed by most of its relatives.
8-3-2020 THATTEKAD, INDIA - BRAHMINY STARLING (Sturnia pagodarum)
The brahminy starling or brahminy myna (Sturnia pagodarum) is a member of the starling family of birds. It is usually seen in pairs or small flocks in open habitats on the plains of the Indian subcontinent.
It is a resident breeder in Nepal and India, a winter visitor to Sri Lanka and a summer visitor in parts of the western and northeastern Himalayas. They are spotted in the plains of Pakistan as well. They have musical call notes that are long, made up of a series of slurred notes that end abruptly. Although mainly seen on the plains, there are a few records from above 3,000m, mainly from Ladakh.
This passerine is typically found in dry forest, scrub jungle and cultivation and is often found close to human habitations. They especially favour areas with waterlogged or marshy lands.
8-3-2020 THATTEKAD, INDIA - COMMON IORA (Aegithina tiphia)
The common iora (Aegithina tiphia) is a small passerine bird found across the tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with populations showing plumage variations, some of which are designated as subspecies. A species found in scrub and forest, it is easily detected from its loud whistles and the bright colours. During the breeding season, males display by fluffing up their feathers and spiral in the air appearing like a green, black, yellow, and white ball.
Ioras have a pointed and notched beak with a culmen that is straight. The common iora is sexually dimorphic, males in the breeding season have a black cap and back adding to a black wing and tail at all seasons. Females have greenish wings and an olive tail. The undersides of both are yellow and the two white bars on the wings of the male are particularly prominent in their breeding plumage. The males in breeding plumage have a very variable distribution of the black on the upperparts and can be confused with Marshall's iora, however, the latter always has white tips to the tail. The nominate subspecies is found along the Himalayas and males of this population are very similar to females or have only a small amount of black on the crown. In northwestern India, septentrionalis is brighter yellow than others and in the northern plains of India humei males in breeding plumage have a black cap and olive on the upper mantle. In southwestern India and Sri Lanka multicolor has the breeding males with a jet black cap and mantle. The forms in the rest of southern India are intermediate between multicolor and humei with more grey-green on the rump (formerly considered as deignani but now used for the Burmese population).
Ioras forage in trees in small groups, gleaning among the branches for insects. They sometimes join mixed species feeding flocks. The call is a mixture of churrs, chattering and whistles, and the song is a trilled wheeeee-tee. They may sometimes imitate the calls of other birds such as drongos.
During the breeding season, mainly after the monsoons, the male performs an acrobatic courtship display, darting up into the air fluffing up all his feathers, especially those on the pale green rump, then spiralling down to the original perch. Once he lands, he spreads his tail and droops his wings. Two to four greenish white eggs are laid in a small and compact cup-shaped nest made out of grass and bound with cobwebs and placed in the fork of a tree. Both male and female incubate and eggs hatch after about 14 days. Nests predators include snakes, lizards, crow-pheasant and crows. Nests may also be brood-parasitized by the banded bay cuckoo.
Ioras moult twice in a year and the plumage variation makes them somewhat complicated for plumage based separation of the populations.
7-3-2020 THATTEKAD, INDIA - WHITE CHEEKED BARBET (Psilopogon viridis)
The white-cheeked barbet or small green barbet (Psilopogon viridis) is a species of Asian barbet found in southern India. It is very similar to the more widespread brown-headed barbet (or large green barbet, Psilopogon zeylanicus), but this species has a distinctive supercilium and a broad white cheek stripe below the eye and is found in the forest areas of the Western Ghats, parts of the Eastern Ghats and adjoining hills. The brown-headed barbet has an orange eye-ring but the calls are very similar and the two species occur together in some of the drier forests to the east of the Western Ghats. Like all other Asian barbets, they are mainly frugivorous (although they may sometimes eat insects), and use their bills to excavate nest cavities in trees.
7-3-2020 THATTEKAD, INDIA - YELLOW BROWED BULBUL (Iole indica)
The yellow-browed bulbul (Acritillas indica), or golden-browed bulbul, is a species of songbird in the bulbul family, Pycnonotidae. It is found in the forests of southern India and Sri Lanka. The yellow-browed bulbul is mainly yellow on the underside and olive above with a distinct yellow brow. They are easily located by their loud calls but tend to skulk within foliage below the forest canopy. While its taxonomic classification has changed over time, it is currently the sole species within the monotypic genus Acritillas which is closely related to Hemixos.
The yellow-browed bulbul has been considered as the wet-zone counterpart of the dry-zone white-browed bulbul. It is found mainly below the forest canopy of the hill forests and plantations in the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. They also occur in parts of the Eastern Ghats including the Kolli hills, Nallamalas and parts of Tirupathi and Mamandur regions in Andhra Pradesh.
Behaviour and ecology
Yellow-browed bulbuls are found in pairs or small groups and call loudly. They feed mainly on berries and insects. The breeding season is during the dry spell before the monsoons, mainly January to May. The nest is a cup built in a low fork covered with moss and cobwebs on the outside, giving the appearance of a large white-eye nest, and lined with fine root fibres. The typical clutch size in India is three eggs and in Sri Lanka two. A study of 153 nests in Silent Valley National Park of India found 92% of nests had two eggs. Peak breeding in the Silent Valley National Park of Kerala was found in January and February. About a week is taken for building the nest and the eggs are incubated for about 13 days. The eggs are pale pink or white with reddish brown speckling. The eggs hatch synchronously and the nestlings fledge after about 13 days. Nestlings are fed with caterpillars, soft insects and berries.
Sunday, 22 March 2020
9-3-2020 THATTEKAD BIRD SANCTUARY, INDIA - GREAT HORNBILL (Buceros bicornis)
The great hornbill is native to the forests of India, Bhutan, Nepal, mainland Southeast Asia and Sumatra. Its distribution is fragmented in the Western Ghats and in the foothills of the Himalayas. Deforestation has reduced its range in many parts of India such as in the Kolli hills where it was recorded in the 1860s.
It prefers dense old growth unlogged forests in hilly regions. It appears to be dependent on large stretches of rain forests.
In Thailand, the home range of males was found to be about 3.7 km (2.3 mi) during the breeding season and about 14.7 km (9.1 mi) during the non-breeding season. Molecular approaches to the study of its population diversity have been attempted.
Great hornbills are usually seen in small parties, with larger groups sometimes aggregating at fruit trees. A congregation of 150 to 200 birds has been recorded in southeastern Bhutan. In the wild, the great hornbill's diet consists mainly of fruit. Figs are particularly important as a food source. Vitex altissima has been noted as another important food source. Great hornbills also forage on lipid-rich fruits of the families Lauraceae and Myristicaceae such as Persea, Alseodaphne and Myristica. They obtain water entirely from their diet of fruits. They are important dispersers of many forest tree species. They will also eat small mammals, birds, small reptiles and insects. Lion-tailed macaques have been seen to forage alongside these hornbills.
They forage along branches, moving along by hopping, looking for insects, nestling birds and small lizards, tearing up bark and examining them. Prey are caught, tossed in the air and swallowed. A rare squirrel, the Travancore flying squirrel (Petinomys fuscocapillus) has been eaten, and Indian scops owl (Otus bakkamoena), jungle owlet (Glaucidium radiatum) and Sri Lanka green pigeon (Treron pompadora) have been taken as prey in the Western Ghats.
9-3-2020 PERIYAR RIVER LODGE, INDIA - ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN (Copsychus saularis)
This species is 19 centimetres (7.5 in) long, including the long tail, which is usually held cocked upright when hopping on the ground. When they are singing a song the tail is normal like other birds. It is similar in shape to the smaller European robin, but is longer-tailed. The male has black upperparts, head and throat apart from a white shoulder patch. The underparts and the sides of the long tail are white. Females are greyish black above and greyish white under. Young birds have scaly brown upperparts and head.
The nominate race is found on the Indian subcontinent and the females of this race are the palest. The females of the Andaman Islands race andamanensis are darker, heavier-billed and shorter-tailed. The Sri Lankan race ceylonensis (formerly included with the peninsular Indian populations south of the Kaveri River) and southern nominate individuals have the females nearly identical to the males in shade. The eastern populations, the ones in Bangladesh and Bhutan, have more black on the tail and were formerly named erimelas. The populations in Myanmar (Burma) and further south are named as the race musicus. A number of other races have been named across the range, including prosthopellus (Hong Kong), nesiotes, zacnecus, nesiarchus, masculus, pagiensis, javensis, problematicus, amoenus, adamsi, pluto, deuteronymus and mindanensis. However, many of these are not well-marked and the status of some of them is disputed. Some, like mindanensis, have now been usually recognized as full species (the Philippine magpie-robin). There is more geographic variation in the plumage of females than in that of the males.
It is mostly seen close to the ground, hopping along branches or foraging in leaf-litter on the ground with a cocked tail. Males sing loudly from the top of trees or other high perches during the breeding season.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)