White bellied Drongo





The white-bellied drongo (Dicrurus caerulescens) is a species of drongo found only on the Indian Subcontinent in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. 

 It was my first bird watching trip with a group of bird watchers. The forest was in the outskirts of the city of Jaipur. My father's colleague, his wife and a few others accompanied us for the trip. 

 It must be 6 am. The forest was scanty in the beginning with only dried trees. There was a Neel Gai which is a completely harmless, docile animal. After some 10 mins of trekking we found a small pond with twigs and branches of wood half submerged in the water. This is where we first halted. We sat down around the pond. Our camera's ready and set for any bird.  We spotted a white throated kingfisher, rufus treepies, and black drongos. Then after waiting some more, we started to trek. some 10 mins towards the interior of the jungle. On the way I spotted green pigeons perched on the topmost branches of the tallest trees. I couldn't have spotted them if it wasn't for my camera's super zooming power and the veteran co-birdwatchers. There were many other birds they named, which they had spotted, but I don't remember any of them. 

 Another pond. We sat around it. Sparrows that had a yellow spot on their throat and red-vented bulbuls were all that came there. Yellow spotted sparrows was not a known species in the 19th century. They were discovered fairly later by a guy named Salim Ali. 

 After some time, golden oriole flew over the pond and sat on a far branch. A long tailed shrike perched to drink water. Then sat upon a branch right over my head. So I got some great shots of the long tailed Shrike. 

 A White bellied Drongo visited to drink some water. Squirrels drank water. Bees drank water.

And then we were tired and headed back to the city.


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