After dropping my wife and son to their school (quite close to our home) I decided to do a little bird watching. It was about 8:45 in the morning.I was actually in search of Mynas when I stumbled across a Spotted Dove, some White-Brow Wagtails, an Ashy Prinia and a bird I did not recognize.
It flew out of nowhere and sat on the electric wire almost right overhead. Sunlight was hitting the bird and me head-on. I decided to walk to the other side of the road so that I could have the sun behind me to get the perfect shot.
I looked through my lens and gasped! This was such a lovely bird. It had bluish scales. I had never seen this bird before and here it was, such beauty. I zoomed in to a full 300mm to take a picture. The bird was too tiny to fill my entire screen. Nevertheless, I got some shots. Soon another bird joined it. A pair of them! There must be more. I started looking around for more when the first bird flew away. I was disappointed.
When I walked back to my parked bike I noticed chirping behind me. Turing around I was pleasantly surprised to see three to four of these birds perched on the nearby shrubs. I decided to take another shot. I made my way towards these birds slowly. Noticing my approach they quickly flew to another shrub and sat on a protruding branch (as you can see in the photo). I inched my way towards them with my eye glued to the camera's eyepiece. I took a photo with each step and with each step I was getting closer. Finally, I got a good shot. I was happy.
Few days later I went back to the same spot and found the family of birds still chirping and perching happily. This time I did not disturb them. I had a different mission.
Bird facts
AKA: Spotted Munia, Nutmeg Mannikin, Spice Finch, Ricebird
Size: Small only about 11cm but with big heads and conical beaks (like other finches)
Stand-out Features: brown scaled feathers on white breast, greyish tinge on rump
Genders: both look alike
Flight Pattern: Rapid and fluctuating, glide into cover
