These are phenomenal birds and crazy as far as the migration ability goes. They have three subspecies and one of them - the Bar-tailed Godwit are known to migrate 11,000 km from Alaska to New-Zealand in a single, non-stop, 8 day flight. I have never seen them - but hope to see them sometime. Meanwhile coming back to the bird at hand - the Black-tailed Godwit, it is a fairly large (42 cm), have orange head, neck and chest in breeding plumage and dull grey in winter with distinctive black and white wing bar at all times.
Perfect disagreement... Black-tailed Godwit
Showing off the Black Tail...
These birds have the breeding stretches from Iceland and Europe and areas of Central Asia. They spend their winters in areas as diverse as Indian Subcontinent, Australia, western Europe and Africa. Their migration stories are no less thrilling than the Bar-winged cousins. It is more commonly found in the in land freshwater bodies than the Bar-tailed Godwits. In flight the bold black and white wingbar and the white rump can be clearly seen.
Saw these birds for the first time and in their hundreds...
One more good picture that I had and wanted to share.
The world population is estimated to be around 6 lacs and is classified as 'Near Threatened'. I must add that I was lucky today to see almost hundred plus birds while birding today at Pochram Wildlife Sanctuary along with the Hyderabad Birding Pals. eBird also lists as this bird as 'Rare' in and around this area. A lifer and a memorable birding day....
Classified as a Sit-and-wait predator - the Verditer Flycatcher is a beautiful bird. Once again a fairly common bird at the foot hills of Himalays, and South India, where I came across this bird. The problem with catching this bird on camera is only one. It has a dark lores (the eye band) and the eye just does not stand out in the photographs making you to get mad, mad and mad... But then sometimes you do strike gold when the bird is in good sunlight and you do not have to photoshop it to show off your bird...
The range of this bird is huge... it covers almost the entire India baring some areas in central India and Western India, South China and all the way down to Indonesia. Though the BirdLife says that the exact number of the birds are not know and even in the area within the range the bird distribution is fragmented. If at all they say that the bird populations are stable.
Even in the places it regularly disappears - giving me a feeling that the bird movements even if not classified as migration is there - probably based on weather or food.
Verditer Flycatcher: the beauty !!
Coming back to the bird - this is a Old World Flycatcher - but slightly off the normal habits of a flycatcher. It has a habit of catching its prey mostly at the top canopy often sitting on tall poles, high trees. Most of the other flycatchers I have come across are generally at the lower canopy of the forest with them often perching under cover and in bushes.
Another beauty that decided to pose...
Like most of the birds the males are more brighter and females slightly duller with only a faint black lores.
At 33cm - it is one of the largest Barbets. These beautiful birds are fairly common - but hopping from one place to another - it is not so common to see till you decide to look out for them. They surely cannot be classified as shy by any means. Asia has tons of barbets and India has 11 of them. There are visits to Morni, Chakki Modh or the lower hills around Chandigarh and on some days you see so many of them that you stop counting and on the other days you keep your eyes glued to every move and fail to catch a single glimpse of these beautiful birds.
Great Barbet
I tried to do count the number of colours that I could pick up in the Great Barbet. Let's see - the colours counted may not appeal to ladies - but to me we have blue, black, green, yellow, red, brown. This bird seems fairly dull till you spare a little time to stare at it. Well this is not what I wanted to really share, it was a fight of superiority that I happened to witness. On one of our birding trips we saw this tree with these brown coloured berry like fruit where we saw not less than a dozen Great Barbets feasting. Suddenly one of them that flew and another one that was sitting near to it flew - following that bird. I found it interesting and followed those birds - some 100 yards further down the road. What I saw was clearly a fight amongst the two of them.
The first thing that was noticed was a lot of slow tap dance sort of steps with both swaying too and fro. The noises were also a little agressive. Infact I do remember almost taking it as a mating ritual. During this period some more birds flew in to perhaps withness the fight and the aggressiveness of both the bird grew - it was now that I told myself - mating ritual - no way !!
Battle stations.
Next without giving me a warning the birds had each other's beak and were now clearly struggling and trying to get each other's head down.
The Fight
The fight lasted full 15-20 seconds long and the winner was declared - or so I thought. One of the birds freed the beak and off it flew - there was a lot of ruckus created - akin to chest beating by the one that perhaps won the fight. No other bird did anything other than - fly back to the tree with the brown fruits and started the supper before the night fell and all became quite.
Their behaviour, the fight and the declaration of the winner was such a neat affair, no blood bath, no ruckus other than the bird that was proud of itself. I stood there transfixed for a long time before - packing my stuff and moving on - it was time for me to call off the birding - a long day came to an end with such action packed finale...
Here I am back at Hyderabad and here comes another birding opportunity. This time however the opportunity turned out to be like no other so far. Firstly, I had a number of free days and I was lucky to join two groups of highly active birdwatchers. And the birding knew no end thereafter.
SPOT NO 1: NEHRU ZOOLOGICAL PARK (HYDERABAD ZOO)
Let me start from the beginning. First two days of my visit at Hyderabad told me that I will have some free days in my hand. I looked up the 'birdseye' and 'hotspots', the two apps on ios that I use for homing on to the birding hotspots where ever I go and Nehru Zoological park (the Zoo) popped up. It was not a bad idea, the last I had visited was in 1997 and my daughter was just a laptop.
File Pic: 1997 visit of Hyderabad Zoo
So to the Zoo I went. Like I would have done anywhere else, I checked out on-line the timings and misc and - I was outside the gates as the gates opened.
At the entrance: Hyderabad Zoo
It turned out to be a brilliant idea. The day being 29th Nov 15 (a sunday) - the place was swarming with people by the time I left four hours later. I would not have got any birds worth a penny had I been so late. My experience with all the zoo in India is that the place provides wonderful area for the natural fauna to flourish as the place is safeguarded and has water bodies, empty pens and great forested areas around with local trees and plants. The birding did not disappoint at all. I saw a total of 33 species and the notables included India Thick-knee, White-bellied Drongo (my first good shot of the bird), Black-headed Cuckooshrike, Indian Cormorant (Indian Shag) and the Great Cormorants. Apart from them I did see the birds and animals in the pens too as I walked around the entire zoo (roughly 8 km in all) and took time to walk past, especially the birds of Australia. I also saw a huge gathering of Catfish in one of the ponds. I made a small movie that I am posting below. All in all it was a wonderful experience and did not regret at all my decision to start the season birding of Hyderabad in the Zoo.
The list of the birds that I saw in the Zoo are (like always) given at the end of this blog entry.
White-bellied Drongo
Great Cormorant
Indian Thick-knee
All in all that was a great finish to a great day and starting planning my next birding.
As it turned out - next spot that I picked was a tricky one. The Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park, Hyderabad. It was tricky as when I tried to find some information I hit road blocks. It had bird list listed on eBird as a hotspot but when I read travel review - it said - no cameras allowed inside. It sort of confused me. ALL THE SAME THE DECISION WAS TAKEN SPOT NO 2: KASU BRAHAMANANDA REDDY NATIONAL PARK HYDERABAD IT WAS I had some odd job trickling in here and there so I finally made it to the National park on 05th Dec. Second problem was that I reached the park almost at 0930. All the birders know that that is late as in late for birding. I went to the window at the entrance that said - tickets. I was surprised to find the booth empty. I asked the guard at the gate - he said the time was up and no entry was allowed. I had to trick him saying something inconsequential but look important enough to be allowed inside. I finally said that I wanted to meet the supervisor, to the supervisor I said that I wanted to meet DFO and finally I was in his office sitting across him. I introduced myself as a retired Col from Army and a Birdwatcher with all the sincerity. He really turned out to be a very positive person (Mr K Mohan, Divisional Forest Officer). He heard me and allowed me inside with my camera and gave me a guide instructing him to take me to some core places around. It was a sigh of relief and it turned out to be a great experience.
The beautiful: Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
Spot-billed Duck at one of the ponds in the National Park
Purple Sunbird (Female)
Scaly-breasted Munia (juv on left and adult on right)
The birding per-se was just about okay. I did get a wonderful sighting of Blue-faced Malkoha, only problem was it refused to pose so did not get even a single worthwhile shot. All in all I walked about 5 odd kms inside and birded for 2 hrs and 45 min and logged 31 species. It was the Malkoha that made my day. The most common birds inside were the Indian Peafowl, Scaly-breasted Munia, Indian silver bills. These birds were literally hundreds. Like always the list is in the end of this blog entry.
Apart from going to this place I did what I did last time over and posted on various groups with a request that I was available for birding and if anyone had a spot in his/her car to please take me along.
I had just returned from the National Park when I got a message in
the Hyderabad Birding Pals on the whatsapp as to if I was free as the
group was planning a trip to Fox Sagar Lake the next day. Ready I was and Mr Vincent
volunteered to pick me up.
SPOT NO 3: FOX SAGAR LAKE I
reached the nominated spot and we set course to the lake. The lake
seemed to be in middle of the city with narrow lanes leading up to the lake. I was apprehensive but as we entered inside the lake was fairly large. There was fishing going on inside the lake. The lake was littered like most of the places in India. Dirt seems to be integral part of the life. It is then I learnt the good job being done by some members of this birdwatching group. They have been actively organising clean up drive at the various places. I have to admit, I had seen the pictures of clean-up off and on at many lakes around Hyderabad. To hear about it and meet some persons actually doing it and organising it was heart warming and humbling.
Lone Brahminy Kite spotted at the lake.
Pond Heron with a catch
Great Cormorant
Great Cormorant
Painted Stork flypast
Wood Sandpiper
The worst image during this visit to this lake was a dead Darter - perhaps entangled in the fishing net. Apart from this the highlight of the day was the Blue-throat that I spotted and the exclamation was - No way man !! At the end of the birding day we logged 44 species and some good birding even though the ducks were more or less missing. The list at the end of blog...
One birders that I met here offered me a birding trip to Osman Sagar, and you can guess my answer. The camera battery recharged, CF cards washed clean and I was up and out of the room at 5 next day to bird at Osman Sagar. I was to reach some place called Kukatpally - I perhaps pronounced it wrong and was going around in circles before I looked up the place on Google and reached the place.
Off we went to SPOT NO 3: OSMAN SAGAR LAKE
On way to Osman Sagar we were joined with Mr Siriram Reddy. He was a sort after birder on Raptors of Osman Sagar. The place was good and without the hustle and the crowd I saw at the other places. I had visited this place earlier and has been covered earlier, that time I got Indian Courser as a lifer. But then the weather was different and the approach route that we took this time was different and we were at the opposite end of the lake.
The sight that greeted us at the Osman Sagar Lake
After this sight of the sunrise I was sure that birding will go rocking... and Rocking it went. All in all we saw 34 species in 2 hours, 15 odd min and travelling 5 odd km criss crossing the lake. The notable species were Common Teals, Glossy Ibis, Red-naped Ibis, Black-headed Ibis, Eurasian Marsh-harrier, Blue-tailed Bee-eater to name a few.
Blue-tailed Flycatcher
Black-headed Ibis
Clamorous Reed Warbler
Bluethroat
Common Redshank
Common Kingfisher
Eurasian Marsh Harrier
Little Stint
If this day went rocking then an invitation to repeat visit to Osman Sagar was taking it to another level itself.
Once again Mr Rajeev asked me if I was free for birding on 10th and I happily accepted the offer and was waiting at out rendezvous at 5:45 in the morning.
SPOT NO 4: REPEAT OSMAN SAGAR BIRDING
Like I said before, if Osman Sagar was rocking on last visit then this time over it was through the roof. Though it got me only one lifer (Blue Rock Thrush), but the day was many times over with the best snaps ever I got of Common Kestral, River Terns, Black-headed Ibis and others. The count too was not bad for 3 odd hours spent there at 38 species. The list is at the bottom of the article.
Painted Stork
Green-winged Teal (Common Teal)
Eurasian Marsh Harrier
Large flock of Glossy Ibis (the flock in background is of some waders - not identified)
Grey Heron
Common Redshank
Marsh Sandpiper
River Tern
Common Kestral
Bar-headed Geese
Common Kestral
Blue Rock Thrush
Blue Rock Thrush
Eurasian Spoonbill
Little-ringed Plover in a hurry
Spot No 5: Anantagiri Hills Anantagiri hills are 70 to 80 km west of Hyderabad and too many birds reports were giving a great birding in the hills in a fairly small patch near the Temple there. I was told that the Brown-fish Owl and the Black-naped Monarch were a common sightings there. A-hoy and I was on my way to the hills armed with a map of the two trees where the Owl were last sighted. We started early morning so as to be there during the early morning and catch the early birds. As expected the place was a birding paradise - other than the fact that my both the target birds could not be sighted. I was given to understand that there was a festival at the temple and the birds had got disturbed. A great number of birds I did sight, no lifer - all the same, a great birding day. Some of the great birds that I sighted there were Common Woodshrike, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Orange Headed thrush, Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker and a lot of White-bellied Drones.
White-bellied Drongo
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
Common Woodshrike
Lesser Goldenback
Chestnut-tailed Starling
Orange-headed Thrush
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher
A little bit disappointed at not finding the Brown Fish Owl and the Monarch - we headed back but after deciding a pit stop at Osman Sagar Lake.
Enroute to Osman Sagar we found a spot on a river where there was a feeding frenzy by a lot of birds. Stopping there we spotted Painted Storks, Eurasian spoonbills and all variety of egrets, tons of river terns etc
Eurasian Spoonbills and Painted Storks
Coming back to Osman Sagar, Short-eared Owls had been sighted there a few days back and I wanted to get a quick look at them if they could be spotted. Once again I was on my mobile to find the place where they had ben previously sighted, this time over the owls did not disappoint and we were bang on with the pretty wide-eyed owls staring right at us. Oh it was a wonderful company to have. In my excitement I almost forgot to do what I usually do first after spotting a bird - shoot to capture ;-). I went back to the car where my camera was and I was back clicking away to glory.
Short-eared Owl
As to those who missed the part I of the write up on birding in Hyderabad - here is the link Click Me Date wise and location wise checklist of complete birds observed
Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad, Telangana, IN Nov 29, 2015 9:44 AM - 1:42 PM Protocol: Stationary Comments: All birds that I could spot around in open in the Zoological park. Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 33 species
Kasu Brahmananda Reddy NP, Hyderabad, Hyderabad, Telangana, IN Dec 5, 2015 10:28 AM - 1:10 PM Protocol: Traveling 3.107 mile(s) Comments: Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 31 species
Fox Sagar Lake, Rangareddy, Telangana, IN Dec 6, 2015 6:34 AM - 9:31 AM Protocol: Traveling 2.485 mile(s) Comments: Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 44 species
Osman Sagar Lake, Rangareddy, Telangana, IN Dec 7, 2015 6:50 AM - 9:03 AM Protocol: Traveling 3.107 mile(s) Comments: Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 34 species
Indian Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) 16 Green-winged Teal (Common Teal) (Anas crecca) 25 Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) 4 Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) 1 Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) 6 Great Egret (Ardea alba) 5 Indian Pond-Heron (Ardeola grayii) 1 Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) 11 Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) 2 Red-naped Ibis (Indian Black Ibis) (Pseudibis papillosa) 4 Eurasian Marsh-Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) 2 Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) 7 Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius) 5 Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) 7 Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) 3 Little Stint (Calidris minuta) 1 River Tern (Sterna aurantia) 6 Laughing Dove (Little Brown Dove) (Streptopelia senegalensis) 6 Common Kingfisher (Small Blue Kingfisher) (Alcedo atthis) 1 White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) 1 Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) 2 Blue-tailed Bee-eater (Merops philippinus) 5 Eurasian Kestrel (Common Kestrel) (Falco tinnunculus) 1 Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) 2 Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Ashy-crowned Finch-Lark) (Eremopterix griseus) 4 Rufous-tailed Lark (Ammomanes phoenicura) 2 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 21 Clamorous Reed-Warbler (Indian Great Reed-Warbler) (Acrocephalus stentoreus) 2 Ashy Prinia (Prinia socialis) 3 Plain Prinia (Prinia inornata) 8 Indian Robin (Copsychus fulicatus) 2 Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) 2 Common Stonechat (Siberian Stonechat) (Saxicola maurus [maurus Group]) 1 White-browed Wagtail (Large Pied Wagtail) (Motacilla maderaspatensis) 1
Osman Sagar Lake, Rangareddy, Telangana, IN Dec 10, 2015 6:31 AM - 9:26 AM Protocol: Traveling 3.107 mile(s) Comments: Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 38 species
Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) 25 Indian Spot-billed Duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) 7 Green-winged Teal (Common Teal) (Anas crecca) 20 Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) 2 Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) 7 Asian Openbill (Anastomus oscitans) 7 Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) 6 Great Egret (Ardea alba) 5 Intermediate Egret (Mesophoyx intermedia) 8 Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) 5 Eastern/Western Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) 12 Indian Pond-Heron (Ardeola grayii) 3 Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) 100 There was a huge flock of the Ibis, the figure is hypothetical but the flock was huge. The birds flying behind the Ibis are not identified. Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) 3 Eurasian Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) 3 Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 1 Eurasian Marsh-Harrier (Circus aeruginosus) 2 Little Ringed Plover (Charadrius dubius) 3 Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) 6 Marsh Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis) 1 Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) 7 Little Stint (Calidris minuta) 2 River Tern (Sterna aurantia) 13 Laughing Dove (Little Brown Dove) (Streptopelia senegalensis) 2 Common Kingfisher (Small Blue Kingfisher) (Alcedo atthis) 2 White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) 3 Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) 1 Eurasian Kestrel (Common Kestrel) (Falco tinnunculus) 2 Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) 5 Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Ashy-crowned Finch-Lark) (Eremopterix griseus) 3 Dusky Crag-Martin (Ptyonoprogne concolor) 13 Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 22 Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) 3 Ashy Prinia (Prinia socialis) 3 Plain Prinia (Prinia inornata) 6 Large Grey Babbler (Turdoides malcolmi) 4 Blue Rock-Thrush (Monticola solitarius) 1 White-browed Wagtail (Large Pied Wagtail) (Motacilla maderaspatensis) 4 Ananthagiri Hills, Vikarabad, Rangareddy, Telangana, IN Dec 20, 2015 7:52 AM - 10:16 AM Protocol: Traveling 1.243 mile(s) Comments: Capt Yella & Self Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 26 species
