Okay - Yellow-bellied Prinia ceased to be my lifer a long long time back. That long time back probably took the zing of my love for it perhaps. Then a few days back on 19 May I decided to visit Sultanpur, big news - it closes from May to September - and there I was with a professional birder who didn't know about the bird sanctuary being closed and he called me to meet at the gates of the sanctuary before break of dawn.
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| Ah ! here you are pretty one... |
Anyway he promised me some good birding and asked me to list the birds I would like to see. I listed some fantastic ones that would have got me some ticks on my life list - and one that I wanted to see - the Yellow-bellied Prinia. Well - yo behold and some time after two hours of birding and chasing the ones I asked for - the guide stops and points at a clump of reed and says that there is a resident Yellow-bellied Prinia in that patch. We waited and could see the bird clearly hopping around in the distance - dancing and singing. After about an hour we realised that it is in no mood to move in any closer and decided to move on.
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| Yellow-bellied Prinia |
All the same - seeing the bird dancing around made my love for the little bird kindled again and joy of hearing the pleasing sound made me decide to hunt it again. I was in Chandigarh the next day - fired up my computer and started a search for the last few sightings in and around Chandigarh - my home town.
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| Okay - that one is far away - but then there it is... |
I was not really very happy to see only one listing of the bird a few years back in Mohali - but since the person who listed it - Mr Munish - a great and active member of Chandigarh bird club. I posed the question on our club group and surprisingly answers came pouring in about sightings a bare couple of kilometres from my home. Self, with Mrs Rima and Master Amandeep were there in the evening hunting Prinias.
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| Okay - I had only one poser - but then that did the trick... |
The thing is that the bird is resident of reeds near water and my past visits were more concentrated at other birds so just did not seem to ever find them perhaps. Here I was today looking for them and was wondering - how the hell did I ever miss them for past few years. They were really every where - singing, dancing and spreading love songs...
All the pictures are from my visit hunting these small beautiful birds today...
Next take some time off and listen to these beauties.
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