Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
The most seen bird in Bangalore during our childhood was easily the sparrow. They’d be all over the backyard, bathing in the open tank, picking at the sun-dried grain and nesting right in our house in-between the roof tiles. It seems that sparrows have vanished from our homes in Bangalore, so whenever I see them in other places, I always stop to watch (though I still have the pleasure of seeing them in Mumbai where I now live).
House Sparrow
The sparrows we saw in Denmark and Norway were much fluffier than the ones we have in India, overweight by our sparrow standards, and better equipped to tackle the low temperatures they encounter.
In Flam, it was a delight to watch them picking up sticks, straw, feathers and other material that would make their nests comfortable, and in-between getting distracted by food droppings.
White Wagtail
Giving the sparrows competition for the food in Flam were the White Wagtails. Sprinting around, they were quick to appear and disappear in a wink.
Common/Eurasian Blackbird
We were walking to get to the Viking Museum in Roskilde, Denmark and I was sure that I had spotted a jungle myna… just looked different from the Indian species. It turned out that this jet black bird with a bright yellow beak and eye-ring was a Common Blackbird.
Fieldfare
While is Oslo, there was another unfamiliar bird. Walking on the grass in the company of a Blackbird was a brownish-grey heavily spotted bird with yellow bill. It took some effort to ID the bird as a Fieldfare, belonging to the thrush family.
More birds soon!
arathimy 