Friday 24 June 2016

Bar-throated Minla...

In Feb this year four of us friends were out on a trip to Sikkim for birding. One of the most beautiful bird that we sighted there was the Bar-throated Siva. I must admit here that I do not have pictures to justify the beauty of the bird but then - birdwatching is a thing of luck and the choice of the bird to present itself.

Bar-throated Minla, also known as the Bar-throated Siva earlier is a bird found from India to Southeast Asia. This bird falls in the family Leiothrichidae, that is the Laughingthrushes, there is presently a debate whether they are related or unrelated. Till the results come out - we have three birds in this genus, The Bar-throated Minla, Red-tailed Minla and the Blue-winged Minla.
Bar-throated Minla - unfortunately though I saw this bird number of times - I was not fast enough to get shots - to justify its beauty.
All the times I saw this bird - it was as a part of Mixed Hunting Flocks and that was another thing that posed a problem for sightings and photography. Firstly the birds were moving in and out of thick undercover and to top it all - when the sightings used to happen there were so many beautiful birds around that the mind used to go crazy - see this - look right - look left - over your head....
Highly cropped shot
Different bird, different spot, different day...




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