Red-Billed Leiothrix

The Red-billed Leiothrix (Leiothrix lutea) is a member of the Leiothrichidae family, and is native to the Indian Subcontinent. Adults have bright red bills and a dull yellow ring around their eyes. Their backs are dull olive green, and they have a bright yellow-orange throat with a yellow chin; females are somewhat duller than males, and juveniles have black bills. It has also been introduced in various parts of the world, with small populations of escapees having existed in Japan since the 1980s. It has become a common cagebird and amongst aviculturists it goes by various names: Pekin Robin, Pekin Nightingale, Japanese Nightingale, and Japanese (Hill) Robin, the last two being misnomers as it is not native to Japan.

The leiothrix is about six inches in length, generally olive green, and has a yellow throat with orange shading on the breast. It also has a dull yellowish ring around the eye that extends to the beak. The edges of the wing feathers are brightly colored with yellow, orange, red and black and the forked tail is olive brown and blackish at the tip. The cheeks and side of the neck are a bluish gray color. The female is a lot paler than the male and lacks the red patch on the wings. It doesn't fly frequently, except in open habitats. This bird is very active and an excellent singer but very secretive and difficult to see. 

The leiothrix is usually found in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Burma and parts of Tibet. This species is a bird of the hill forests, found in every type of jungle though it prefers pine forests with bushes. It has also been found at elevations ranging from near sea level to about 7,500 feet.The species was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in 1918 and spread to all the forested islands except Lanai. Its population on Oahu crashed in the 1960s and it disappeared from Kauai, but is now common and increasing on Oahu. The leiothrix was released in Western Australia but it failed to become established. This species was also introduced in Great Britain but permanent establishment was unsuccessful. It was introduced to France, where it is now established in several areas.

This bird was photographed in Chakki Modh in Himachal Pradesh by S S Cheema

Birding in Chakki Modh 24 Dec 13.

I went for a Bird Photography walk to Chakki Modh. I was introduced to the place by Mrs Rima Dhillon and have been a fairly regular visitor there. With the winters on us a lot of birds that are otherwise in the higher reaches of Himalayas come down to the lower hills and this place gives some wonderful opportunities to see them and photograph them. 

Well the plan was simple - get up in the morning and drive down to the place (30 - 45 min drive from Chandigarh). 

The day started well - even before I turned on to the road where we usually start birding - we saw a family of Khalij Pheasant (2 Males and one female) crossing the road. I stopped the car and struggled to take out my camera - it gave one of the lessons that I have refused to learn in the past - be prepared at all times with camera - opportunity does not follow your planning. By the time I shot a poorly composed shot out of the front the birds had already run away leaving me with tears in my eyes for the lost opportunity.

 

I then turned on to our birding road and were rewarded by White-Crested Laughing Thrush and Red Billed Leiothrix. The sun was still not up so the pictures were no go. All the same the on our way back we stopped again and could get some descent pictures of the Leiothrix - sadly the White-Crested Thrushes were not there.

All in all the place just does not stop to amaze with the variety and the beauty of mother nature. For the birders it is a dream come true.

The list of birds that I saw is as given under, there are a lot of variety that I did not recognise - I have a few pictures of them as well that I will list separately.

1.   Ashy Prinia

2.   Blue Fronted Redstart

3.   Black Bulbul

4.   Black Throated Tit

5.   Red Junglefowl

6.   Chestnut Bellied Nuthatch

7.   Common Myna

8.   Common Tailorbird

9.   Crimson Sunbird

10.  Great Tit

11.  Blue Fronted Redstart

12.  Grey Treepie

13.  Himalayan Bulbul

14.  House Sparrow

15.   Indian Robin

16.   Jungle Babbler

17.   Khalij Pheasant

18.   Large Billed Crow

19.   Oriental Magpie Robin

20.   Pied Bushchat

21.   Red Billed Blue Magpie

22.   Red Billed Leiothrix

23.   Himalayan Bluetail

24.   Red Vented Bulbul

25.   Rufous Bellied Woodpecker

26.   Rufous Chinned Laughingthrush

27.   Rufous Treepie

28.   Russet Sparrow

29.   Streaked Laughingthrush

30.   White Capped Water Redstart

31.   White Crested Laughingthrush

32.   Common Hoopoe

33.   XX____XX Bunting

34.   Crested Serpent Eagle

35.   Oriental White eye

36.   Grey Headed Woodpecker

This is in no way the complete list. Since I do not write down as I see the birds - this is what I remember/recollect from the photographs. There is a fairly wide variety that I did not recollect the names and the Stalwarts were not there to prompt me/tell me. The book was taking just too long to refer to.
...I also have to remember to take more tea and snacks with me next time.

Purple Swamp Hen....

Purple Swamphen

 Long time back I had gone to Chatbir Zoo in near Chandigarh and saw these birds that looked and behaved like Coots but were purple in colour. Now - almost 20-25 years later I saw the same birds in one of the village ponds and clicked a few snaps. Then I started browsing the feild guide I have of Indian birds to see what they were. They are the Purple Swamp Hens... A fairly straightforward name and digging a bit more gave me an information that their conservation status is not of a major concern.

My point is straight forward. If that be so - how come a crazy person who stares more at birds than females missed spotting these birds for so long. What I am doing now is not only posting the photographs but also the position off the Google maps with Lat and long that whosoever is interested can build up upon it and can use this as data if so desired.

Peacock...

A thing of Beauty - whichever way you see this bird. It may be number one in elegance. I had a lot of them in our near vicinity for majority of the places I have been posted to. Every single time I have seen them I wanted a camera to shoot - shoot and shoot. Luckily on this day I had one (Canon 550D with my 55-250 lens) and shot this bird to the hearts content. Only regret that I still carry is that this bird was in Captivity and not the one in the wild. Anyway now I am better prepared with a good set of lens, a bi-pod and ofcourse my camera. Will surely look around for some good shots and post them here.

Colours of nature... Beetle

 I had bought a new Canon 100mm macro and was hunting around for little things to hunt down with my camera. It so happened that I just could not capture anything worthwhile as the butterflies, flowers, Dragonflies and anything interesting were just to busy doing their job for waiting and posing for me. it was the will and a beautiful spider shot that motivated me to continue hunting for more photographs.

After spending better part of month with nothing much to show in Macro Photography and perhaps I was also finding it difficult to justify the purchase to my Finance Minister (read wife) I saw this beautiful bug crawl up my bed one day - like a savior sent by the Heavens above. I clicked away and what I saw myself after I finished was God's wonderful creation - not seen or appreciated by so many. So here I am posting a few Photographs.

After I had finished - I started to read around how I could have made these photographs better. The problem that I saw in these photographs was very shallow Depth Of Field (DOF) that takes a lot of detail from the Beetle. Then I started searching around for a solution and surprisingly came across one that I will be trying in my next photograph and also explaining it in detail - that is if I get it right myself. Till that time please do have a look at these photographs and do leave a comment/leave a advise how I can do it better. All suggestions are welcome. The photographs are available in original full format and will be happy to share to whomsoever asks. Looking forward to Photo Critics. 

Scaly Breasted Munia...

Walking back from the office to my Vehicle - I caught sight of this beautiful bird. I remember as a kid I bought two pairs of these birds - I love birds and did take care of them as much I could but they did not survive for too long. I saw them being traded in markets every now and then for a fairly long time after this incident but had by then understood that these birds are not the kind that will survive easily in captivity.

I took another initiative and asked some of my colleagues whether they recognised this bird - to my surprise none of them had seen this earlier - let alone recognising it. I feel sad that our modern lifestyles have taken us so far from nature where we do not have time and aptitude to take time to appreciate nature - let alone being part of it.

 These are two more snaps of the same bird. And before I pen off - These photographs are with my Brand New 100-400L series lens....

A new blog

I wanted to start a new Blog on Photography - but then I already have four semi-dead blogs and here I am naming an old one from 'My Life' to My Photography. With time I have been jumping from one hobby to another. The photography is my passion now and would like to share what I can with everyone.

I don't know - whether in the times of facebook and twitter - blogging still holds a position - but then where is the harm??

How did I start on the photography? well - I was always interested - right from the time I could not afford a camera - to the time I was gifted 'Click' (a simply pinhole camera) and then moving on to Canon Eos 550D today.