Its a new passion. Bird spotting.

I spotted this bird in the middle of the afternoon when I heard a unique (kinda metallic) bird call. It moved with the celerity of a tailor bird; vanishing, appearing and then vanishing again.  Hence, I could hardly see the bird just knew that it was a new one.  I noticed it's bill only after I reviewed the pictures that I clicked.  The purple sunbird  is a small  sunbird .  A sunbird typically has a long thin down-curved beak.  Like other sunbirds, purple sunbirds feed mainly on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Their fast and direct flight makes clicking their photographs quite a challenge.  They  can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird but often perch at the base of flowers. The males appear all black except in some lighting when the purple iridescence becomes visible. Females are olive above and yellowish below.

Hello to all the viewers! I am moving from Calcutta. Calcutta will remain special since my passion for bird spotting started here and so did this blog. All the birds that I would spot and read about would periodically go into this blog. I must have spotted and clicked some 30 species of birds by now. I have learnt much about the birds. Whenever there is an oriole or a bulbul or barbet singing outside my window, I know without looking that it's an oriole or some other bird for that matter. I recognize bird calls. I hope Jaipur is as exciting as Calcutta was. Chirping trees to all.. :)

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.