Birds in our backyard

One of my earlier posts was about some of the purple and pink flowers currently seen in our Whispering Palms Complex. Where there are trees and flowers, there will be birds and other living creatures!

Over the last few weeks we’ve been trying to catch some afternoon sun between the rains, and in the process, we’ve become more aware of the presence of the birds in the campus. The silence during lockdown has made the bird sounds more audible and we try to search them out in the direction of their calls. Many of the birds have their favourite trees and branches, so these days, we look out for them at the same spots, and usually they’re somewhere around there. [Now we know how the guides on jungle safaris know exactly where to stop to show you certain animals.]

Some of the birds sit still for extended periods of time, and even if they fly off, they return to the same place. Like the Coppersmith Barbet that allowed me to go all the way back home to pick up my camera.

Apart from the birds we’ve managed to photograph, there are many others. Egrets and kites can be seen high up in the sky. Coucals, koels are some of the bigger-sized birds around. Tailorbirds, sunbirds, kingfishers are tiny. Dusky crag-martins are also small but they’re un-missable as they dart around the air and quickly change direction.

Black and white bird Oriental Magpie Robin — Oriental magpie-robin

25 Alexandrine Parakeets perched on a cable — 25 Alexandrine parakeets perched on a cable, 3rd Aug 2021 (photographed by my friend Jayashri Sahoo)

Rose-ringed parakeets at my friend Bina Praharaj’s window

Brown and white and black and yellow Mynah bird — Common mynah

fan of the spot-breasted fantail — This is why it’s called a fantail!

Baby House Crow — Baby crow, displaced by tree pruning. (It was left at the bird rescue centre in Ashoknagar Kandivali.)

Red vented bulbul on peepal — Red-vented bulbul

Ice apple fruit on spike — The ice apple fruit (tata ningo) that fell off the tree straight on to the spike, could well be mistaken for a bird!

Great to see this pair of Rock pigeons on a tree rather than in buildings

Indian palm Squirrel — Indian palm squirrel is no bird, but just as noisy as the sparrows

Edit: 11th August

Today we managed to see and observe the Greater Coucal quite closely. There are a couple that live in our park area. With a characteristic heavy call, we waited for them to show themselves.

I recently downloaded the Merlin app from Cornell (thanks to advice from my conservationist friend Dipti), and it has been a good resource to identify birds through their features and sounds. It shortlists birds to your current location so it makes IDing easier. To help you keep a record of, and to track the different species, I’ve been using e-bird. Hope to capture them more of them on camera sometime.

With our limited knowledge, we have identified over 20 species of perennial birds. The seasoned birders would have more on their lists, and come winter there will be the migratory birds to add.