Its a new passion. Bird spotting.

The  Indian pond heron  or  paddy bird  is a small heron.  They are common in India and usually forage alone. Their camouflage is great due to their  cryptic streaked olive and brown body. They are, however, distinctive when they take off as they flash bright white wings. I spotted it searching food in the bushes near my house. It was singular and shy. I was able to spot it only when it moved.  Indian pond herons primarily feed on aquatic insects, fishes, tadpoles and sometimes leeches.  Outside wetlands, these herons feed on  insects  (including crickets, dragonflies   and bees   ). 

The Wagtails are back! It was last year's October when I spotted the wagtail for the first time. Wagtails migrate to the West Bengal and Orissa region in October. The most conspicuous habit of the wagtail is a near-constant tail wagging. Some studies suggest that the tail wagging  is a signal of vigilance to potential predators.  It has a distinct call of a  sharp ' chisick'. In urban areas the wagtails have adapted to foraging on paved areas such as car parks. They nest in crevices in stone walls and similar natural and man-made structures.  The white wagtail is the national bird of  Latvia  (a country in Northern Europe).

The trip to Sunderbans wasn't long. Just a night stay in a village cottage and then head back to Calcutta. The early morning ride in a ferry had me click a few shots of the birds.  The common sandpiper has grayish brown upper parts and wings, while the under parts are white. By nature they are very social and usually move around in flocks. They fly low over water and can forage on ground as well as on shallow water.  In winters, the sandpipers migrate from Europe and northern Asia to Africa, southern Asia and Australia. On the migration route, hundreds of birds gather in Micronesia for a stop-over.

The mangrove had this bird perched silently on a wooden pole in water. The adult has a purple-blue back, black head and shoulders, white neck collar and throat, and rufous underparts. The large bill and legs are bright red. They are mainly found in the mangroves.

A distinctive bird call from a tree drew my gaze towards it to see the bird. But as it was camouflaged among the leaves so well, it took me a long to time to fix my eye on this one.

While my visit to the Sunderbans, I spotted this bird in a paddy field of a village.  The common Kingfisher has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill.   It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptions to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank.

I was gazing out of the window of my drawing room when I noticed some white moving animal. At first I thought it must be the puppy that roams around the driveway all day. But then it struck me that this creature was much whiter than any puppy. I went outside to see it and I saw two white egrets or herons. The eastern great egret is a large heron with all-white plumage.  Its bill is yellow in the breeding season and black at other times, and its long legs are red or black. The Asian species can be distinguished from the Australian species by the size of their necks. The Australian species have necks almost one and half times as long as its own body.  These white herons live a few kilometers away from here. The Sunderbans. The last time I visited the Sunderbans there were flocks of white herons flying over the mangroves. These birds travelled from there in search for food.

As the photographs of various birds around Calcutta are placed in this blog, there is a short film that I created of all the bird videos I could record on my camera. Thanks for watching and do share if you like it. :) 

This bird with an abstruse name is no misnomer. To find about it was equally difficult. The bird looks very similar to the red bellied woodpecker which is a native bird of North America. So the first time I saw this bird, it got me thinking how could a native north american bird reach India? Later I found that this bird has a slight variation- a red vent and a pattern on the breast, and that counted for a different species altogether!

I always wondered, Is this bird a duck? No its skinnier. So it's a heron! Nopes, herons look different. A lapwing then?  I confounded this bird with a lapwing for a long time. Finally a bird website helped me. And they told me which bird it was. Eureka! A Waterhen!

Solitary and reclusive, the Papiya didn't like it so much to be clicked. It watched me for a while, then flew and perched upon a branch hidden behind leaves. Surely it needed some alone time and I was intruding!

Rudyard Kipling's Jungle book happened in my garden. A tailorbird flew over a bonsai cherry tree and sat upon one of its branches. It's distinctive upright tail and small body reminded me of Darzee. This passerine bird has white underparts, an olive green body and an rufous or reddish brown head. Known for its unique way of constructing nests, the bird sews leaves with plant fibre or spider silk, just like a tailor, and builds a cradle shaped nest.

This is perhaps the most rare shot I've taken till now. The male Koel (bluish black with crimson eyes) and the female Koel (dark brown with white spots and heavily striped tail) were perched on a tree. The female was chatty while the male was mostly defensive and looked around as if a human couple.

It took me a while to figure out which species it belonged. There are innumerable passerine birds that have the same colour. The Pipits, Sparrows, Warblers, and so on. They all look so much alike. My perseverance paid off eventually. The Bunting has a pink beak, a small and thin frame and are usually spotted in a group, which matched exactly with the bird that I spotted.

I spotted this bird about a month back in my backyard in India. The red bellied woodpecker is not a native bird of the asian subcontinent. In fact, its primarily found in northern America and Canada. I'm sure this is quite a unique sighting. The Red Bellied Woodpecker is medium sized woodpecker that has a red nape, pale body and barred back. The bird was swift and kept hiding behind the branches. So, that's the best shot I managed to take.

Early on, when I was new to the bird, it would feel like I had conquered the day clicking a kingfisher. Today, I know this bird well and clicking its picture feels rewarding but the feeling is much more refined. For a long time, this bird sat on the cable wire in my driveway, swinging a bit with sporadic calls now and then. So I got ample time to take its snaps albeit it was far. To my surprise, it then flew and sat on my nearest tree.  Happiness.

The enchanted tree is gradually turning into a parrots' paradise. Too many parrots reside on this tree now. There is never a single parrot. They are always four or more at a time. Here are four!

It had been a while since I came across a new bird. After a leisurely brunch on a Sunday, and thereafter while everyone went for a nap, I sat in my room working on my project. Just then, I heard an unusual bird call. I went out to see the bird and there it was right in front of me, perched on the nearest tree.  The bird 'Papiya' is often mentioned in Indian cinema songs and poems. I was well aware of the bird but had never seen it. When I searched on google, I found out that the common hawk was known as "papaya' in Hindi.  The common hawk is light brownish and white. The flying shot.

There were two eagles, hovering over the driveway in the morning. Few hours later, they were roosting on the enchanted tree (I call this tree enchanted for various reasons). Perched there in silence, sporadically alerting at sounds, the eagle sisters spent hours on that branch.

Watching the enchanted tree has become a habit now. I wake up in the morning to see the birds. I spend my evenings mostly around the enchanted tree because you never know when you spot a new bird. Sometimes, I hear an unfamiliar bird call and I scuttle outside to see the bird. But it is not always that I spot it. Recently I saw a blue black bird. It was just a glimpse, on the same enchanted tree but hidden in the leaves. As yet I have not been able to spot it. This one afternoon, sipping tea on my verandah chair, my camera around my neck, I gazed over the tree. For one second, I thought it was a Greater Coucal. But then, this was white in the wings! It was a Treepie . The treepie seldom joins mixed hunting parties along with species such as Drongos and Babblers. I came across a drongo yesterday afternoon. The treepie is known to eat certain fruits that are toxic for the mammals. Henceforth, proving beneficial for crop cultivation.

The Oriental Magpie Robin looks a lot like the Wagtail . For a long time I confounded Magpie with the Wagtail. It was later in July (the breeding season of Magpies, when they are most active), that I noticed the difference in their tail and the overall colour distribution.  The male magpie robin usually displays to the females by fanning its tail. They are often active late at dusk. They sometimes bathe in the rainwater collected in leaves. It is the national bird of Bangladesh.

I clicked a Red-vented bulbul. Thereafter, when I saw the picture, there was a Coppersmith Barbet, camouflaged in the branch behind. The two cavity nesting rivals in one frame! The Red vented Bulbul and Coppersmith Barbet are competitors. Apparently, Bulbul is the bad guy. It's known for its kleptoparasitic nature, wherein it steals food collected by other birds from their nests. The male Barbet collects berries for its female but Bulbul pilfers those berries.

A barren tree No branches, no leaves Solitary and distinct My eyes halted on its bare branch, a beautiful green bird with a fluorescent orange crest and throat, was perched upon it. It was ostensibly small for a parrot. Soon I found out, it was the Coppersmith Barbet. It also has a Hindi name, 'Chota vasant'. The Red vented Bulbul and Coppersmith Barbet are competitors. Apparently, Bulbul is the bad guy. It's known for its kleptoparasitic nature, wherein it steals food collected by other birds from their nests. The male Barbet collects berries for its female but Bulbul pilfers those berries.

The Black-rumped Woodpecker is perhaps the swiftest birds I have come across till now (apart from the small passerine birds). Out of nowhere, orange wings perch upon the tree trunk, then very quickly move upwards, pecking its beak in the wood. 

The magnificence of this bird is beyond definition. I was perturbed by a bird call which prompted me to look towards the tree. Hidden behind the branches, was a blue yellow red bird. It looked like a kingfisher. And it was! I grabbed my camera to click its picture. The stork billed Kingfisher is found primarily in the Asian sub-continent, near river, coastal areas. The Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean is near my city.

This bird has a white face, yellow feet and black body. 

The Black-hooded Oriole is a vibrant bird.  It has a bright yellow color, a black head and a melodious call.  They hail from South East Asia. It is the most common bird in Singapore. I first noticed this bird in June, when a pair of Oriole sat on the enchanted tree and played for a long time. Their nests are often built in the vicinity of the nest of a  black drongo .

I was fiddling with my laptop in the balcony of my house when I saw this bird perched right under the fence.  It seemed like a Mynah at first but then I noticed that it had a different head. The head is black square crest-like shaped, while the rest of the body is brown.  Later I googled and read about the Red-vented Bulbul. The red-vented Bulbul was well known in the 19th century Indian culture. Locals used it as pets and for trade. It is included in the list of world's 100 worst invasive alien species.