9. Bird-Watching : From an armchair in my livingroom

Incredible though it may sound, the best Bird watching I have done has been from an armchair in my living room. Of course, I have truly enjoyed the outdoors only after I decided to take up bird watching as a hobby and found out more about birds and started identifying each one. Earlier all birds were just ‘birds’ or at most the ‘yellow bird’ or the ‘blue bird’, the browns and the greys didn’t have a chance (of being noticed). Once I started watching birds other creatures also started interesting me; because Nature is so symbiotic you can hardly be aware of one part and close your eyes to the other.  It has taught me to tread softly on this earth lest I trample a precious life, lest I disturb a bird and it flies off even before I have seen it properly.

The most enjoyable bird watching is when one of these little friends comes to my terrace or sits on the Gulmohar tree outside my living room. My camera is ever ready to catch and cherish them forever. Below is the little fellow who set my heart aflutter when I saw him hanging upside down drinking nectar from the Aloe Vera flower, on my terrace. I ran for the camera praying he would not fly off. He was there! Not only that day, was he there but every day till the flowers lasted. It is the male Purple Rumped Sunbird. Mark its maroon breast band and yellow belly and the characteristic long curved sunbird beak. 

Fact File: Purple Rumped Sunbird leptocoma (Nectarinia) zeylonica 10cm. 

Resident. Widespread in C and S India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

The other Sunbird I see on the trees around my house is Loten's Sunbird. Shimmering dark blue colored, it is a sight to behold. The male has a dusky brown belly and vent. I am uploading a lovely picture of this bird by my neighbour Sanjeev Hukmani, from his terrace.

Look at this sleeping beauty! He sleeps outside my bedroom window EVERY DAY! for the past few days. At about quarter to seven in the evening he comes and promptly goes off to sleep and wakes up around six in the morning and in a blink of an eye is gone. Dont miss the yellow patch on its wing. Guess he is using it to impress the females.

Fact File Loten’s Sunbird cinnyris lotenius 13cm. resident. C and S India and Sri Lanka.

The Purple Sunbird is also sometimes visible on a flowering tree in front of our building but mostly I am caught off guard and unable to take his picture, so I am uploading a picture of it I have taken elsewhere.

The male sunbirds are quite distinctive and easy to ID, but the females are quite another story. They can pass off as so many other birds unless you see the curved sunbird beak, so the only way to be sure is to look for the male in the vicinity.

Fact File: Purple Sunbird cinnyris asiaticus 10cm. resident.

Another tiny bird I see quite often outside my living room window, on the Gulmohar tree is the Oriental White Eye. When you see the picture you will see exactly why it is called that! It is all of 10 cms. big so if you don’t exert your eyes a little when you see a little movement in the tree, you are more than likely to miss it. The good news is it comes in groups. It looks so cute and unusual that I painted a picture of it.

Fact File: White Eye zosterops ceylonesis 10 cm. widespread resident

The Great Tit is happily a common sight in Pune. It has a strong and melodious call so I know it is there even without looking. These too come in groups so if you miss one you will have another one to see. They are a few centimetres bigger than the White Eye.

Fact File : Great Tit parus major 14 cm. widespread in the hills of the subcontinent

The Tailor Bird is another adorable little bird with a rufous crown, olive green back a white vent and a sweet call. The reddish colour on its head shines and shows different hues in the sun. It is tiny (13cms) and at a distance I am normally able to ID it because of the black markings on either sides of its neck.

Fact File: Tailor Bird orthotomus sutorius 13 cm. widespread resident

Here’s a little bird called the Coppersmith Barbet. I saw its little multicoloured head peeping out of a hole in a rotting branch of the Gulmohar. Then a second bird arrived and a fight of sorts ensued, which Rajeev got on his handy cam.

Fact File : Coppersmith Barbet Megalaima haemacephala 17cm. resident

A very common but frisky bird here, so extremely difficult to capture on the camera, is the Ashy Prinia. Its characteristic broom like tail, which it is forever flicking and loud but sweet call will catch your attention.

Fact File : Ashy Prinia prinia socialis 13cm. resident

 I have only been talking of tiny birds so now here’s a really large bird the Coucal or the crow pheasant, which occasionally lands on the roof of the row houses in front, visible from all our windows. It has a deep resonating call. Larger than a crow, it has chestnut colour wings and a black body. The adult has red iris whereas a juvenile has dark iris.

Fact File : Greater Coucal  cetropus sinensis 48 cm. resident

The Little Brown Dove or the Laughing Dove is to be seen everywhere in these parts and most people are able to identify it as ‘a dove’. But it is distinct from the collared dove and the spotted dove which are common in the rest of India.

Fact File: Little Brown Dove streptopelia senegalensis 27cm. resident

There is this Shikra which likes to perch itself occasionally on my Gulmohar and dry its feathers. I think it comes eyeing my upstairs neighbour’s Love-birds, one of which it had managed to pull out of its cage once. But I will also post a picture of one sitting on the handle of a motor bike! parked in front of my sister’s house in Lucknow. It’s a predator, (note the curved beak), and mostly seen alone, except when breeding.

Fact File: Shikra accipiter badius 30-36 cm. resident

The Indian Myena is ubiquitous, so little wonder that I see a few chattering and fighting around here. I find the small krrrrrrrr sound they make when taking to wings particularly funny. Here's one feeding its baby.

Fact File : Indian myena acredotheres tristis 23cm. resident

The Rosy Ringed Parakeets are common enough too and are easy to spot once you hear their shrill calls. They mostly come in large groups towards evening.

Fact File : Rose-ringed Parakeets psittacula krameri 43cm. resident

The Koels are particularly numerous and vociferous around my house. They are silent right now (winter) but come the summer and they are cooing almost day and night. Sometimes when I wake up too early and put on the light they get annoyed and issue loud warnings for having awakened them. Here I am uploading a picture of a female. She does not need to sing, of course, and is also less visible.

Fact File : Asian Koel eudynamys scolopaceus 43cm. resident

Here is a picture of a group of Rock Pigeons frolicking in the rain and having a jolly good scrub. They reminded me of these street children in Mumbai who enjoy the rains as only they can, without a thought to hygeine and germs. My friend Maggie has a deep and abiding disgust for pigeons because they poop on her terrace. I have tried to show her the larger picture but to no avail. Pigeons are great survivors. They will breed their own maggots in their faeces and feed them to their young, therefore you seldom see mother pigeons bringing grubs and seeds for the chicks (I can almost see Maggie screwing up her nose!)

Fact File : Rock Pigeons columba livia 33cm. resident

The Common Crow is not so common here. We just see one or two once in a while. It is quite pleasant to hear one cawing softly in the afternoon.

Fact File : Common Crow corvus splendens 43cm. resident

The Green Bee eaters are one of the most beautiful birds up close. If you see it flying overhead, its wings look like dried leaves.

Fact File : Green Bee Eater merops orientalis 21cm resident

The ubiquitous bulbul is of many varieties. I see the Red vented, and the Red-whiskered here.

Fact file :Red-vented or Black-headed Bulbul Pycnonotus cafer 20cm resident

Fact File: Red-whiskered Bulbul pycnonotus jocosus 20cm. resident

Every year, after the monsoons, we get to see a family of the Grey Hornbills with a couple of new babies. Hornbills are normally not to be seen in residential areas but fortunately Pune still has some very old trees (despite some 63000 having been cut during the road widening for the Youth Commonwealth Games in 2008), and luckily one family of Grey Hornbills nests close to my house. Look at these babes!

Fact File : Indian Grey Hornbill ocyceros griseus 45cm resident

The fish tailed Ashy Drongo visited my Gulmohar today so I decided to add it here. It’s a winter visitor to these parts. The more common Black Drongo seen everywhere can be differentiated by a white spot near its beak called a rictal spot. The Drongo is a complete “non-vegetarian” therefore, it is a friend to anyone growing plants. Not only a farmer’s friend, I have seen it putting up a valiant fight with a crow and a magpie ie birds at least 3 times its size, on behalf of a nesting paradise flycatcher. 

Fact File : Ashy Drongo dicrurus leucophaeus 30cm. resident

The last and the best is our winter visitor the Golden Oriole. He has been coming every year regularly on the 2^nd of Jan but this year he came late. I missed the exact date because Rajeev landed in hospital with a broken leg. When we saw him on the 4^th of Feb after a week in the hospital our spirits got really lifted. We had our fingers crossed all this while, anxiously waiting for it to land on the Gulmohar from far off Konkan making a lot of noise on landing, as if announcing himself.

Fact File : Golden Oriole oriolus kundoo 25cm. resident

Unfortunately one bird that should have found a mention here but has not, is the Common House Sparrow. I have never seen one from my house. I know places and particular bushes where I can find them but they have stopped being common. Researchers have mentioned many reasons for their dwindling numbers including the mobile towers messing with their breeding signals. 

So I think you will agree that I have had a great time ‘armchair bird-watching’ considering the number of birds I have seen from my window or terrace.