My garden birds - II

Wicked conspiracy, that is the answer. I ended the first part of My garden birds wondering why I don't get House Crows (HC) in my garden. I started writing that as I included Large-billed Crow (or Indian Jungle Crow)(LbC) in my list. After I wrote about the LbC I realised I don't have a picture of LbC. So I removed the write up on the LbC but retained the note on HCs. Then started the wait on the terrace to get a good picture of LbC. I got more than I bargained for.

The day I decided to try for a picture I witnessed a strange phenomenon. There were about forty crows, half on the eucalyptus tree just behind my garden and the other half on another a little away. They were flying around, cawing loudly, in a circle for a few seconds and perching on the tress for some time, then again flying. This was repeating for a few mins. I took a few pictures of the birds when they were perching and tried to take some in flight. I took a crow in flight and then I got a doubt whether it was really a LbC or HC. 

The House Crow being chased around by the Large-billed Crows

I checked the picture and found that to be a HC, and there were two of them. I saw that the HCs were being chased around by the LbCs. So the whole phenomenon of the forty LbCs cawing and flying around looked like a way to keep the HCs out. The ruckus continued for almost 15 minutes. Then I saw the two harassed and dejected HCs flying away. So the question is answered, there is a wicked conspiracy among the LbCs to keep the HCs away. I have seen LbCs and HCs together. So I don't understand why the conspiracy here (And no, I don't want an answer to that next time I go up on my terrace, it is a rhetoric question). 

Large-billed Crow

I have two big bird nests on the rain tree in front of my house. I haven't seen any bird using them. But I see Large-billed  crows on that tree every day and I think those are possibly Large-billed crow nests, now abandoned. 

Large-billed Crow on the Eucalyptus tree (in between harassing the House Crow)

Visible throughout the year.

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Red-whiskered Bulbul

One of the very early visitors to my birdbath, these birds can be noisy or musical based on their mood, but will always make their presence known. Usually they visit the birdbath as a couple, together with the Cinereous Tits and the Oriental White-eyes. At times the birdbath gets really busy with all these taking turns in taking dips and preening on the trees and then coming back for the next dip.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Visible throughout the year.

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White-cheeked Barbet

I first noticed this bird when I heard a constant pecking sound coming from the rain tree and thought that I might be having a Woodpecker in my garden. When searching around for the source of the sound I was surprised to see a round hole on a dry branch of the rain tree and this beauty pecking away to  round perfection. Every year after that I see a new hole on the same branch and we are on the fourth one this year, and possibly running out of space there. Their kutroos become background music in the garden through most of the day.

Towards perfect round. White-cheeked Barbet working on the 4th hole on the rain tree.

Visible throughout the year.

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Ashy Drongo

During winters Ashy Drongos either join the Black Drongos or take over from them the leading of bird waves. I see more Ashy Drongos during winter and lesser Black Drongos. Their calls sound like there are two different birds calling, the musical call followed by a sound like the bird is clearing it's throat. These aggressive birds are seen chasing Shikras and even Black Kites above my terrace.

Ashy Drongo on silver oak.

Winter visitor.
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Asian Koel

A lot of us have grown up responding to these very musical birds, calling back to them in the same tone and rhythm. When we call back, we find them singing back with even more vigour. I really don't know whether that extra vigour was imagined or real. At my layout gate there is a ficus tree full of berries at this time of the year and almost every day we count up to 6 Koels on the tree.

Male Asian Koel on silver oak

Female Asian Koel on silver oak

Visible throughout the year.

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Shikra

After I started getting a lot of small birds in my garden, one day I spotted a slightly bigger one attacking couple of birds sitting on the electric line. It was quite fast and I couldn't get a good look at it to identify it. Next day early morning at my terrace I was pleasantly surprised to see this guy sitting on the (now famous) rain tree. I spot this beautiful bird once in a while on the neem tree and the eucalyptus. I hear the Drongos imitating the Shikra call also once in a while.

Visible throughout the year.

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Oriental Magpie Robin

Last winter two Oriental Magpie Robins adopted my neighbor's birdhouse as their nest. After that they were continuously in my garden whistling their high frequency, long whistles. I didn't see their chicks, but I assume that they were there and they flew away with the parents a few weeks after they were born. This winter they have come back, but they are not using the birdhouse next door. I don't know where they have nested, but I guess it is quite far away enough to be not seen very often in my garden this season.

Female Magpie Robin at my birdbath
(I have special love for pics of birds on my birdbath)

Male Magpie Robin on reed

Winter visitor.
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Brown-breasted Flycatcher

I wrote about how I moved from butterflies to birds; I have a strong feeling that this was the guy who caused it. Last winter a Brown-breasted flycatcher was seen quite often in the garden, I have seen it some previous winters too, but this year it has given a slip to my garden. Not just my garden, I haven't seen this little fellow at all this winter till now.

Brown-breasted Flycatcher on a dry silver oak branch

Seen last, last winter 
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Red-vented Bulbul

The otherwise common bird is not so common in my garden. If I go to the lantana bushes near the railway line just 400 metres away from my house, I see at least one of these birds every time. But they visit my garden very infrequently. I don't know whether these Red-vented and Red-whiskered Bulbuls have similar rivalry like the Crows which makes these stay away from my garden.

Red-vented Bulbul on my pomegranate tree

Vagrant visitor
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Blue-capped Rock Thrush

This colourful bird has been seen earlier also in my garden, the same year when we saw the Indian Pitta for the first time. This winter Blue-capped Rock Thrush was spotted only twice in my garden; I don't know where it disappeared after that. I am still waiting for it and I need a much better picture of it.

Blue-capped Rock Thrush on my Sapota tree

Winter visitor
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I have more birds in my garden. Writing my story about them, together with finding a presentable picture is turning out to be more taxing than I have expected. But I am going to be at it till I finish.
All pictures are taken by me in my garden.

First part of this blog is here - My garden birds - I

My garden birds - I

I have a garden, in my Bangalore home, which I call my mini forest. I have a grass land too, which is my un-manicured lawn (it was never meant to be a lawn though) growing wild and up to almost knee height. This grass fosters huge amount of small insects. I have put up a birdbath inside the mini forest. With all these, together with supporting gardens of my neighbors, and trees along the streets, I get a lot of birds in my garden. These birds have become a passion to the level of obsession. With neighbors who are similarly obsessed with birds, I spend a lot of time watching and photographing them.

Some time back I had posted about the butterflies in my garden. Earlier I was behind butterflies and once while trying to photograph a butterfly, a small bird swooped down on it and caught it. While this drama was happening my focus changed from the butterfly to the bird. That was a funny way to change from lepidopterology to ornithology.

Here I present my garden birds.

Tickell's or Pale-billed flowerpecker

Tickell's flowerpecker on my lychee tree

This is the smallest bird you can find in India and is seen in the southern part of India and Srilanka. Possibly the earliest visitors to my garden were sunbirds. At some point in time pale-billed flowerpeckers joined them during their visits. But due to their tiny size and fidgety nature, I didn't manage to get a decent picture till recently. Now a days I count up to about six flowerpeckers within the foraging party.

Visible throughout the year.

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Verditer Flycatcher

Verditer Flycatcher on silver oak tree

I first saw this beauty in Eaglenest wildlife sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh. So later that year when I found it in my garden I was pleasantly surprised. But when I first spotted it this year a couple of days back, I can tell that I was sort of expecting it. First day I didn't manage to get even a record picture. Two days back one afternoon when I and B went for our afternoon bird walk we took binoculars, but not camera. We landed up at a spot where we had not spotted any birds earlier and found quite a ruckus. There it was sitting in the clear, posing for a camera which we didn't have with us. I ran back home and returned with the camera to find all others still present except for the Verditer. Luckily yesterday morning's bird watching on my terrace yielded me with a passable record shot.

Winter visitor.

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Indian Pitta

Indian Pitta

This colourful bird which breeds in the Himalayan foothills migrates during winter time to peninsular India and Srilanka. Since Pitta is seen only for a few days in a year in my garden, I am assuming that these birds are using this area as a stopover site before going further to their migratory destination. This winter two Pittas were spotted together for 3-4 days in the garden. Once they were seen we watched them from inside the house and didn't go out, lest we disturb them, as they were hopping around the ground foraging for food. About 3 weeks after these two went missing, we found one more very briefly. I think this was a different one which was a little late in the migration path.

Winter stopover visitor.

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Loten's Sunbird

Loten's Sunbird on silver oak tree

Arguably the first bird I have noticed in my garden years back. Once I had a couple building a nest near my kitchen window and became fodder to an earlier blog here: Love story by my kitchen window. They go missing for a few months in the year and are not a constant presence like the Purple rumped sunbird or even the Purple Sunbird. 

Sporadic visitor.

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Black Drongo

Black Drongo on silver oak tree

These birds have made my morning alarm redundant. Their screechy calls wake me up and possibly the whole neighborhood.  They chase a lot of the other birds and generally seem very quarrelsome. Apparently they imitate the calls of other birds and start the mixed species feeding flock. In my garden I do see them first when a bird wave visits and therefore their quarrelsomeness and general misbehavior are forgiven.

Visible throughout the year.

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Ashy Prinia

Ashy Prinia

These noisy visitors are seen rarely in the garden, but they make sure that we know it loud and clear when they do. Very rarely they have been seen as part of a bird wave, but it could be that they just landed up in the garden at the same time as the others, unintentionally.

Sporadic visitor.

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Black Kite

Black Kite on Eucalyptus tree

Black Kites being the most common of raptors, are abundant in my neighborhood. Till four days back I would have called Black Kite my neighborhood bird and not my garden bird. But then I saw one sitting on a coconut frond in my garden. I was concerned that the smaller birds will disappear with a raptor landing amidst them. But the other birds looked quite unconcerned and were flying around and perching quite close to the Black Kite. 

Visible throughout the year.

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Spotted Dove

Spotted Dove on silver oak tree

Spotted doves watch me watching birds, standing quite close to me on the terrace, especially if I am immobile for some time. I notice them only when they fly away when I start moving. Recently they have increased in numbers and at times when I am out walking I spot one each on every terrace I pass by.

Visible throughout the year.

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White Breasted Kingfisher

White-breasted Kingfisher on silver oak tree

There used to be one very small pond just outside our layout wall when I started living here. It dried up on its own or was filled up and then encroached by someone. Now there are no water bodies around. So it was a surprise to me when I found the White-breasted Kingfisher in our layout clubhouse first. Apparently it is not a surprise and these kingfishers are seen much away from water bodies. It is not a daily visitor to my garden, but it makes a pretty sight when it is seen sitting on the reed shoot which has grown above all the trees in front of the house.

Visible throughout the year.

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Cinereous Tit

Cinereous Tit on the birdbath

These birds head for the birdbath straight, once in the garden. Sometimes up to three of them can be seen together dipping into the water. They announce their visit with a lot of chirping. Usually they visit with Oriental White-eyes and their flying around the birdbath and preening their feathers afterwards in the pomegranate tree are a pleasure to watch.

Visible throughout the year.

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The one bird which is conspicuous by its absence is the House Crow. I have never seen one in my garden or in the neighborhood. I wonder why!

There are some more birds to cover, which I will post in another two posts.

Note: All pictures are taken by me and all birds are seen in my garden. Some pictures are not exactly from my garden, but in the neighborhood,  as the thick foliage and the forest like shade makes photography quite an impossible endeavor.