Scaly Breasted Munia

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

 

 

The Robin - "Mirror, mirror on the Car, Who’s the Bird that has no Par?"

Yellamma Lake birding was a fulfilling experience for me; partly, because I happened to find a little friend who was interested in something I owned. A little Indian Robin was hovering near my parked car. I spotted this beautiful creature when I came back from an uneventful lakeside walk trying to capture some water birds on camera. This was a visual treat for me.



 

 

What surprised me was that this Robin was not afraid of me. He came quite close to me. Guess he discovered I wasn’t a threat to his presence and games. I set up my tripod a distance from my car and stood behind the camera waiting for the perfect shot. I didn’t have to wait long.

 

The Robin flew down from the electric wire and sat on the left mirror. He bent down, looked into the mirror, saw himself and started pecking at it. He jumped down on to the window, hopped closer to the mirror and started fluttering up towards the mirror, screaming all the while. Well, that was the perfect picture.

 

 

I had always heard of birds being attracted to shiny objects. Here was a ‘big’ shiny object; and, it caught the Robin’s attention. This bird played with the mirror (seemingly admiring himself with each look and attacking the other bird who looked cuter) saying (perhaps), “Mirror, mirror on the car, who’s the bird that has no par?” I wish Snow White was around. Her evil queen might have got some good competition.

 



After 15-20 minutes of waiting, I moved on into the reeds to get a closer look at some Purple Moorhens. It took me about 15 minutes to get back to the car. The bird was still in action. While I enjoyed the antics of the bird, I didn’t like the poop that he left all over the windows (he played with the other mirror too!) and mirrors. However, I didn’t want to spoil his fun.

 

I had to move on. I got into the car and started it. I edged along slowly towards the exit of the compound. What I saw surprised me again. The Robin followed. I parked the car to get some shots of a Drongo and some Green Bee-Eaters (photos coming in another post). The Robin still played.

 



Finally, it was time to leave. I felt sorry for the little fellow (who, by the way, followed my car to a certain distance before turning around), but I had to go.

If you happen to spot a Robin anywhere. Be patient. You might just experience something like never before.

 

Robin Facts:

• Black plumage (brownish – females)


• White stripes or patches near the shoulder area (only males)


• Chestnut (color) undertail


• Tail raised upright


• Commonly found in scrub areas


• Northern India Robins are more brownish, Southern Indian Robins are black

 

Let me know when you spot a Robin.



 

Mynah March in April

The Mynah is a cute little bird that’s so commonly found that the urban species got tagged as the “Common Mynah”. It is a fascinating bird that’s capable of multiple vocal renditions. In fact, there are times you’d think there are multiple birds in the area when it would be just a bunch of Mynahs singing away to glory.

 

The Mynah (officially spelled as Myna) is a member of the Sturnidae family (consisting of starlings and mynas) and is a native bird of Asia. It is omnivorous and has a very strong territorial instinct. It has now been introduced to other parts of the world; and today, you can see them in Australia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa.

 

You can easily identify a Mynah by its brown body, black hood, a yellow patch under the eye, yellow legs and beak, the white patch near the tail area, and the white lining on the underside of the wings.

 

Though it lives in urban areas and is used to seeing people all the time, the species is still very scared of humans. The birds let out loud shrieks to warn their mates and other birds of human approach. When you go birding for Mynas, be careful. They’re very aggressive when it comes to protecting their roost.

 



This photo taken on the Infosys campus in Bangalore shows two Mynas (usually appear in pairs) collecting twigs and straw for, perhaps, their new nest. The couple kept hopping ad marching along as I tried to go closer to take a better picture. If you get a picture of a Mynah, come by and post it here.

Here are the other two pictures I got...