bird of the week – Don't hold your breath

Oriental Magpie-robin + Bird of the Week Invitation XIV

Among the backyard birds of India oriental magpie-robins (Copsychus saularis) must be the most common. You see them most commonly foraging among fallen leaves or hopping along branches looking for insects. I’ve seen them around Shanghai, which is about as far north as they range. On the west their range ends between Islamabad and Kabul. Their geography is constrained by mountains, deserts, and seas (you can see them in Borneo, but not in the Philippines). In the female the glossy black of the male is replaced by a dull brown. As always, sexual dimorphism indicates a difference in behaviour: although both sexes are involved in raising hatchlings, only the female incubates the eggs. During this time she needs the camouflage.

The photo you see above was perhaps my first close up of a bird, and I fortunately caught it with its tail characteristically erect. With the short lenses I had then, I would have to creep up close to a bird in order to take a photo like this. I’ve lost that craft now.

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. You don’t have to post a recent photo, nor do you have to post a photo of the same bird as mine. It would helpful to give as much information as you can: which bird it is, where and when you saw the bird, any behaviour you found interesting, for example. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” to help other search for old posts. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Eastern Spotbilled duck: Bird of the Week XII

That couldn’t possibly be an Indian spot-billed duck, could it? We were in the middle of Tokyo, after all. No, it was the Eastern spot-billed duck (Anas zonorhynchus) which does not have the orange splash at the top of the bill, near its nostril. Shinobazu pond inside Tokyo’s Ueno Park, where we saw it, is in the middle of the range of this species. To the west their range overlaps their Indian cousins’ along the foothills of the Himalayas, and in the north their range has been expanding well into Asian Russia, possibly as a result of global warming. The result is that it has begun to hybridize with the mallard in Russia. Interestingly, males of the spotbill are more likely to mate with female mallard than the other way around. A closer look at this phenomenon reveals that female ducks are fairly true to their breeding sites, while males range widely. This asymmetric dispersion results in the males having more out-breeding opportunity, if you can call it that, and produces the asymmetric hybridization that is observed. But such hybridization shows that speciation amongst dabbling ducks (the genus Anas) is fairly recent and could be ongoing. Who knows, perhaps the bird watchers of a hotter world could have new dabbling ducks to see!

An invitation

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. There is no compulsion to post a recent photo, but it would help others to know when and where you saw the bird. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” in case people search for old posts using it. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Clamorous Reed Warbler: bird of the week XI

A lifer! The brown bird chirped intermittently as it flitted through the base of reeds. Our boatman poled the skiff as quickly as he could to keep up. It was a clamorous reed warbler, recognizable by the white supercilium and round-head, a bird with the wonderful binomial Acrocephalus stentoreus. Looking at the distribution of this bird, also known as the Great Indian reed warbler, I’m puzzled. It is reported from a lot of disconnected patches across the world: as far west as the banks of the Nile, in the north Kazhak plains, southwards around the Java Sea, and eastwards in the Philippines. The thickest sightings are in India and the Philippines. Why is it so patchily distributed? Does that mean that the wetlands where it lives are drying up?

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. There is no compulsion to post a recent photo, but it would help others to know when and where you saw the bird. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” in case people search for old posts using it. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Common snipe: bird of the week X

Snipers are assassins who sit still in one place and pick off their targets when they make an appearance. The word comes from the habits a bird hunter had to adopt in order to “bag” one of these game birds which were once considered a delicacy. The skulking habits of the common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) make them hard to see when you are on land. That’s one of the advantages of birding in Mangalajodi. These birds are not equally wary when you approach them from water. These two stayed in place, feeding, even as our skiff drifted close. The spectacular markings on their back are camouflage when they are in the reeds, but here, at the water’s edge, they are as visible as a tiger’s stripes.

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. There is no compulsion to post a recent photo, but it would help others to know when and where you saw the bird. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” in case people search for old posts using it. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Please bear with my delays in responding to your comments this week. I’m still travelling outside my usual time zone, and things remain somewhat topsy turvy.

Whiskered Tern: bird of the week VIII

Another victim of whimsical naming, identifying the whiskered tern (Chlidonias hybrida) seemed impossible to me. I couldn’t see the whiskers at all. It turns out that in summer breeding plumage when its head turns black and its body becomes a dark ashy gray, a remaining white band across its face reminded some of human male facial fuzz. India is home to breeding populations of these terns, and also receives climate refugees from the north in winter. In principle I should have noticed the whiskers on the resident birds. But I do most of my birding in winter. So I’d missed the colour change that had just set in between my two visits to Mangalajodi. The featured photo is from early February, the one below from mid-March. You can see the darkening of the feathers. This will continue for another month, I think. It’s too hot to get go back and check.

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. There is no compulsion to post a recent photo, but it would help others to know when and where you saw the bird. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” in case people search for old posts using it. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Oriental Pratincole: bird of the week VII

Misidentification of pratincoles is common. The Oriental pratincole (Glareola maldivarum) and the collared pratincole (G. pratincola) are both visible in India. They are notoriously difficult to tell apart, and I’ve read a long article about the differences in their appearance. I think the photo that you see below is very likely to be the Oriental pratincole. I’d taken this in mid-March 2022 in Bhigwan, close to Pune in Maharashtra. This place has both kinds of pratincoles, the collared being winter visitors from Central Asia. The lack of white on its secondaries (wing feathers) was one criterion, but I also looked at the black around the eyes, and the extent of orange-buff colour down its front. I took the featured photo early in February 2023 in Mangalajodi in Odisha. I was very surprised by the bird, and just managed to take this one shot. I couldn’t see its tail or back. Based on the colour of its neck and chest I guess that it is an Oriental pratincole. They are also known to breed in Odisha, but it was rather early in the year for a breeder. It should have still been wintering in Australia.

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. There is no compulsion to post a recent photo, but it would help others to know when and where you saw the bird. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” in case people search for old posts using it. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Intermediate Egret, bird of the week

Was it an Intermediate egret (Ardea intermedia) that had just given me that aggressive look? Egrets are always confusing. An expert might look at the size of its bill and identify it. I had to look at its feet to make sure. It had black legs for sure, and when it took a step, I saw that its feet were also black. So A. intermedia it was. Early spring, and it was into its breeding season already. Its bill, normally yellow in winter, had turned black, and it had the long neck feathers that it wears when it is in search of a mate. You can tell why I was confused when you see the photo of a Little egret (Egretta garzetta) which was foraging nearby. In breeding season you can only tell the difference by observing that its feet are yellow.

There aren’t many places on WordPress where bird watchers can share posts. If you post any photos of birds this week (starting today and up to next Monday), it would be great if you could leave a link in the comments, or a pingback, for others to follow. There is no compulsion to post a recent photo, but it would help others to know when and where you saw the bird. You might consider using the tag “Bird of the Week” in case people search for old posts using it. I hope you’ve had the time to look at what others have added this week and in the previous weeks.

Ruddy Shelduck, bird of the week

My eyes kept closing on that warm March afternoon as our skiff poled along the shallows of Mangalajodi in Odisha. The weather has got warm really fast this year, and it looked like the winter migrants have all decamped for their breeding grounds. Then we saw the Ruddy shelducks (Tadorna ferruginea). They were bathing and dabbling in pairs, bonded for life, in the channel ahead of us, giving us lovely photos. I love these winter visitors. They are usually late to depart; I’d once seen them high up on the Tibetan plateau in May (where they took the lack of oxygen better than me), on their way back to their breeding grounds in eastern China and Mongolia.

Gadwall, bird of the week

A typical brown duck, the Gadwall (Mareca strepera) barely draws your eye when you see it in a crowd of ducks. I noticed this one as I drifted past in a skiff on the shallows of Mangalajodi because it looked so plump. I could recognize it by the orange legs, and the noticeably black beak and rear. The shallow waters at the edge of Chilika lake must be wonderful for these dabbling ducks, the ones which feed on leaves and shoots of water plants. This one was clearly getting ready to fly to its breeding grounds in central Asia. Across the northern hemisphere, wintering Gadwalls have begun to fly north. In India, and many places near the tropics, the major sign of spring is of birds leaving for their breeding grounds. I was surprised to find that breeding populations have only recently established themselves in the UK (most Gadwalls there are winter visitors!) and the USA.

Pacific golden plover: bird of the week

Pluvialis fulva, the Pacific golden plover, is quite a remarkable bird. I’d never given it much attention, thinking of it as just another of the brown climate refugees that you find in Indian wetlands during winters. But just a little thought would have told me that it must be a remarkable flyer, crossing from its summer breeding grounds on the shorelines of the northern Pacific to its wintering grounds in the eastern Indian Ocean. In fact, it is among the more remarkable flyers in the world, with some individuals logging well over 12,000 kms in each season.

In February when I saw a group of them in Mangalajodi I realized that they begin to develop the magnificent breeding colours before setting off. You can see in the photo above that the individual at the back has begun to develop the spectacular gold and black plumage that gives the species its name. They are not drab and brown any longer. When I went back last weekend, in the middle of March, they were gone. Good luck with sightings, those of you who are waiting for its return half a world away.