Our Friends of Nature: Kerala

Showing posts with label Kerala. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 April 2014

Long-tailed Shrike or Rufous-backed Shrike - Lanius Schach

The evening sun was flaunting splendid hues. After a day's work, birds were returning home. They sat on branches of trees to have one look of their neighbourhood, and then they disappeared in to their homes. One such bird that we sighted at Munnar was the Long-tailed Shrike.

We found the Long-tailed Shrike perched on a broken branch of a tree. This bird has a long and narrow tail (usually Black), a Black patch around the eyes, rufous rump and flanks, and grey mantle and back. These birds can be sighted at open habitats. They feed on insects, small birds, and rodents. Both sexes are alike in plumage.

Please see the list of birds sighted during our Kerala trip.

Long-tailed Shrike

Regards,
Asha

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo - Dicrurus Paradiseus

During our recent visit to Thekkady, we saw a variety of birds. The list of birds is available in the article, Thekkady-Munnar Trip Report, March 2014.

One of the birds that interested us was the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo. We saw more than 7 of these birds at a time. Population seems good! How they manage to fly or sit with that beautiful tail is worth watching. :-)

The Racket-tailed Drongo has a distinctive tail rackets, and the crest of curled feather that begin in front of the face above the beak and extends till the crown. The entire bird is Black in color. These birds eat insects and also feed on fruits and nectar. We saw them sucking nectar from the flowers. These birds have varied calls; they can mimic other birds. One can hear their calls early in the morning, throughout day during mating season, and early evenings.

Racket-tailed Drongo sitting on 'Flame of the Forest' tree.

Regards,
Asha

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Thekkady-Munnar Trip Report, March 2014

Please read our travelogue about Thekkady-Munnar.

Trip: Drive from Bangalore to Thekkady and to Munnar, 5 days during third week of March, 2014
Bird Watching: Self-planned; Ram (my spouse) and I
Camera and Lens: Nikon d90, Nikkor 70-300mm

We drove out of Bangalore early morning. At Hosur, the highway road is under expansion work. Due to noise and to traffic commotion, we didn't find birds at the lake. We continued our drive towards Krishnagiri. One can sight several Drongos, Indian Rollers, Green Bee-eaters, and Kingfishers at Tamil Nadu. After a point, I stopped counting the number of birds we saw.

When we reached Thekkady, we enquired at the resort's travel desk if they had bird watching tours or a guide. They had none, and therefore, we decided to walk around the place to sight birds. And we did! Our dear guide was a book about birds; whenever we sighted a bird, we clicked a photo (even if the photo was blur), and later referred to the book to identify the bird. We hadn't see most of these birds in the wild; some being endemics. We were thrilled to see them.

List of birds sighted during the trip:

1) Indian Roller
2) Black Drongo
3) Paddyfield Pipit
4) Black Kite
5) Spot-billed Duck
6) Little Egret
7) Indian Pond Heron
8) Common Kingfisher
9) White-bellied Kingfisher
10) House Crow
11) Jungle Crow
12) Rock Pigeon
13) Nilgiri Wood Pigeon
14) Spotted Dove
15) Mountain Imperial Pigeon
16) Vernal Hanging Parrot
17) Malabar Blue-winged Parakeet
18) Asian Koel
19) Greater Coucal
20) Blue-bearded Bee-eater
21) Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
22) Green Bee-eater
23) Malabar Grey Hornbill
24) White-cheeked Barbet
25) Heart-spotted Woodpecker
26) Common Flameback
27) Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker
28) Dusky Crag Martin
29) House Swallow
30) White Wagtail
31) Grey Wagtail
32) Orange Minivet
33) Common Tailorbird
34) Asian Paradise Flycatcher
35) Red-whiskered Bulbul
36) Yellow-browed Bulbul
37) Black Bulbul
38) Jerdon's Leafbird
39) Golden-fronted Leafbird
40) Rufous-backed Shrike
41) Blue Rock Thrush
42) Malabar Whistling Thrush
43) Nilgiri Blue Robin
44) Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher
45) Common Moorhen
46) Nilgiri Flycatcher
47) Pied Bush Chat
48) Kerala Laughingthrush
49) Indian Rufous Babbler
50) Jungle Babbler
51) Quaker Babbler
52) Little Spiderhunter
53) Oriental White-eye
54) Indian Golden Oriole
55) Asian Fairy-bluebird
56) Racket-tailed Drongo
57) Rufous Treepie
58) White-bellied Treepie
59) Jungle Myna
60) Common Myna
61) Southern Hill Myna
62) House Sparrow
63) Grey Jungle Fowl
64) Cormorant
65) Great Tit
66) Long-tailed Shrike