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| Male |
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| Female |
Oriolus oriolus Kundoo
Size 25 cm M/F
Dimorphic
This beautiful bird visits us every winter. The
pleasure of taking a picture of a creature like this sitting in your
drawing room is something else! Well for that the prerequisite is that
you should have some tall trees outside your drawing room window. Our
little friend visits us every winter with his mate, and once it actually
sat on my kitchen window and enthralled us with his melodious song.
Characteristics : The male bird
is a bright golden yellow and the female is a dull greenish shade. Both have
black eye stripe (mask) and black wing bands. It differs only slightly from the
Eurasian GOLDEN ORIOLE (Oriolus oriolus) in that its black eye
stripe extends behind the eye.
It has a harsh, husky call quite
distinct and also a melodious whistle.
Inhabits leafy wooded areas and prefers Mango
groves, which has earned it the name Amrapakshi
(mango bird in Sanskrit), apart from the fact that it has the colour of a
ripe mango. It is also variously called Peelak, Poshnul, Sona bou, Vanga pandu,
Manjakkili in different parts of India.
Distribution : it is found in all parts of India except the North
East, upto 2000m in the Himalayas, and in Pakistan, Srilanka and Bangladesh but
not in Myanmar. It is a resident in some places and a migrant in some. It is a
winter visitor for me in Pune, migrating from the Konkan, where it breeds in
the summer.
Food : Insects, fruits and berries and also flower nectar which it
manages to reach despite its big size through great acrobatic manoeuvres. I
find him catching a lot of green grubs and praying mantis on my Gulmohar tree.
Breeding : season – April to July. Nest is a deep cup woven with
grass and fibres and bound with cobweb, hung between forked branches. Lays 2 or
3, black or brown spotted, white eggs.
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