Flock of Grey Necked Buntings!

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.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Common hawk-cuckoo / Papiya

Image
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.
Read more

Hoopoe in Jaipur

Image
On a cold winter morning, I spotted a  Hoopoe in my garden.  I happened to look at the zebra wings, laid out like a fan on the ground. It got up to forage on the insects and then laid down again. It was basking sun.  The beak was sharp and hooked, almost like that of the woodpecker.  I noticed that it only foraged near the vegetable garden near my lawn. It kept knocking its beak in the soil, the action reminding of a woodpecker. It was later that I came to know of the Hoopoe species. The Hoopoe has distinctive crown of feathers. From it's 'Upupidae' family, the hoopoe is the only existing species today, all of the rest are extinct.  Hoopoes generally forage on insects and seeds. The hoopoe is widespread in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar.   They have been seen at high altitudes during migration across the  Himalayas . One was recorded at about 6,400 m (21,000 ft) by the first Mount Everest expedition. 
Read more

White Wagtail spotted in September

Image
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).
Read more