Evening Birding at Lalbagh

It was my family trip to Lalbagh sometimes around 1 o cock noon. Caught some of the actions and loved to see the battle of Pelican and Black Kite. 4 Black Kites attacked Pelican who had a big fish in the mouth. Attack was successful and Pelican left the big fish but none of the black kites were able to take that because of its heaviness.

 

Enjoy some of the pictures !!

 

Black Kite

Booted Eagle

Little Cormorant with catch

Red Breasted Flycatcher – Female

Grey heron

Lotus

Spotted Owlet

Spotted Owlet

Rose ringed Parakeet

Spot billed Pelican

Spot billed Pelican

Black Kite attack to Spot billed Pelican

Red Breasted Flycatcher – Female

Red Rose

Spotted Dove

tickells leaf warbler

ID please

Gulakmale Visit – Birding

Some pics.

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Sparrowlark, ashy crowned

Myna, common

Starling, rosy

barbet, white cheeked

barbet, copper smith

bulbul, red whiskered

bulbul,white barowed

bulbul, red vented

munia, white rumped

silver bill

weaver, baya

swallow, red rumped

swallow, barn

eagle, short toed snake

eagle, booted

shikra

buzzard, oriental honey

buzzard, white eyed

kite, black

kite, brahminy

kite, black winged

warbler, booted

warbler, greenish

babbler, tawny bellied rufous

babbler, yellow billed

flycatcher, asian paradise

flycatcher, tickells blue

fantail flycatcher, white browed

flycatcher, asian brown

bee eater, small green

lapwing, red

treepie, rufous

drongo, black

drongo, grey

drongo, ashy bellied

minivet, small

tailorbird, common

sunbird, purple

sunbird, purple rumped

white eye, oriental

iora, common

heron, pond

egret, great

egret, cattle

dove, laughing

dove, spotted

dove, eurasian collard

stork, painted

ibis, oriental white

prinia, ashy

prinia, plain

prinia, brown breasted

parakeet, rose ringed

bay backed shrike

great tit

golden oriole

crow, common

crow, jungle

robin, indian

bushchat, pied

Paradise of Birds – Nandi Hills

After 5 days of continuous rain and two times cancellation of plan, finally … finally we were moving to Nandi Hills. Thanks to Anand and Kannan who decided to take us in their cars and to Deepa for making plan. At first glance, there were 9-10 people but some of us got dropped out and we left with 7. Nevertheless we reached to Nandi Hills. It was too dark for camera to work properly. Different people have different opinion in low light. Some go for smooth little blurry image with low ISO and low Shutter Speed whereas I prefer a sharp picture regardless of noise. So, I prefer a high ISO and a high shutter speed.

Some of the great sighting of the day was Egyptian Vulture – endangered species and my first vulture of photographic life(which is off course a small period).  These species are so graceful in flight that many of us put the camera down and said woww by naked eyes.

Egyptian Vulture - Endangered Species

Egyptian Vulture - In Flight

Canary flycatcher rather Grey Headed Canary Flycatcher – I heard this name first time on the bird race day which was “bird of the day” for bird race. Barely any size(around 8cm) this bird is a beauty in small birds.

Grey Headed Canary Flycatcher - Small Beauty

Photo 2

While watching the beauty of Canary Flycatcher, Deepa sighted a silent killer at the backside. O, a silent killer (Brahminy kite) enjoying its prey with a red blooded mouth.

Brahminy Kite with prey

Barely at any distance, we spotted out singing bird “Tickells Blue Flycatcher”, a lovely bird with a lovely voice. She was happy on us and told take as many pictures as you want.

Tickells Blue Flycatcher - Singing Beauty

A highly dense jungle and surprises were always for us. A sighting of Orange-headed Thrush made the day more exciting. A beautiful artistic work at the eye.

Orange Headed Thrush

Deepa promised us for Blue Rock Thrush as well. While searching hard for that, we got another beauty. Though still confused with its ID, we are hoping it to be a scaly Thrush. Black and Orange color blended on the body as symmetrical as nature did it from its own hand.

Female Grey-bellied Cuckoo (Thanks to Shreeram)

Alright, story is not over. A sight of a mysterious bird, when we watch a crow, yes a crow, with white feather. Instant reaction was that we all watched it or not. Yes, all can’t be drunk. A crow with a white feather… is it possible ? Sorry the view was so mysterious that we can’t able to lift our camera.

Pouring our happiness with 40-45 varieties of bird, it was awesomely satisfactory day. Enjoying birds to playing at their habitat are so relaxing. Tailorbird trying to pull out cotton for her nest, Ashy Prinia making loud call to her partner. Puff-throated Babbler hooping on the grass land.

Common Tailorbird struggling for nest

Puff throated Babbler

Olive-backed Pipit(thanks to Shreeram)

Birding at a cloudy Day, Ragihalli Again

Taking a day off and watching the gift of nature is always an awesome experience. The day was cloudy and i was getting impatient for those birds who were just wow to watch. Finally the count started and sun gave enough for camera to work.

Sun around 7.00, which was not a good sign :(.

Sun around 7, not a good sign

Brahminy Starling fighting on a tree full of summer flowers. I have noticed a common feature in these birds like starling or parakeets, they are very specific towards some flowers, so even they will be in the ocean of flowers they will fight for that particular one. Any justification ?

Brahminy Starling

Moving forward, I saw some scaly breasted Munia’s in the water pool. I guess they were searching some food at that watery land.

Scaly Breasted Munia

And at the same place, little separated from the crowd, here goes Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark(my first shot):

Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark

Finally finishing the visit of a small ground, me and Chandu( a class 10th student, all excited after finishing his exam) decided to move forward. As we came outside on road, we saw bushchats, a common beautiful bird with a whistling sound.

Pied bushchat (Male)

Indian Robin(Female) ? (A baby Indian Robin ?)

In the meanwhile, I also got my fav. House Sparrow. sitting nicely, calmly as they always do.

House Sparrow(Male)

and a matching, Jerdon’s Bushlark:

paddyfield pipit

Very interesting to watch that some oriental white eyes were hiding themselves in a leaf of a tree. Thank God to 400 mm lens, I saw that they were protecting their nest. So, this is just one shot of this lovely bird as I decided to move forward.

Oriental White eye

Many treats were there for me on the midway. Where I saw Pied Cuckoo a winter migrant but doing something in Summers(thanks to Deepa for this knowledge). Here goes:

Pied Cuckoo -- Winter Migrant

Soon followed by Flycatchers and Bee eaters.

White-browed FANTAIL Flycatcher

A out of focus shot (please adjust)

Asian Paradise Flycatcher(Female)

White cheeked Barbet

Small Green bee-eater

White packing for the day and coming back to sweet home. Here went some more shots:

Pair of Laughing Dove

Red Rumped Swallow

Ashy Prinia

Black Kite

Ashy Drongo

Birding at Bannerghatta Zoo Area – Part 2

Part 1 can be followed here.

This time we were ready with a gang of small students in which we are trying to put the delight of bird watching. Gang joined by Deepa and Geetanjali made us little more knowledgeable.

It was again my pleasure to watch Asian Paradise Flycatcher. And its hard to believe I saw this bird in all my last three trips repectively to Ragihalli, Hullimangala Village and now to Bannerghatta. Watch out the beauty of lovely blue ringed eyes Asian Paradise Flycatcher. Now, no more text, enjoy the nature.

Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Female

Tickell's Blue flycatcher, Male

 

Welcome on board 🙂

Tickell's Blue flycatcher, Female - On board

 

purple sunbird male

 

small green bee-eater

 

Red Whiskered Bulbul

 

coppersmith barbet

pied wagtail

 

Common Jezebel Butterfly

 

White throated Kingfisher

 

Purple Sunbird Female

 

Oriental White Eye

 

greater coucal

 

Blue Tiger Butterfly

 

pied bushchat male

If you want to know which place near Bannerghatta Zoo area, please go to the place section and see the location in the map. Its a great pleasure to know that these kind of places exist near us in Bangalore.

Hullimangala Village – a new treasure

Wikimapia Coordinates:12°48’48″N 77°38’15″E
This was our 3rd Sunday outing with bngbirds team.

One of the most exciting birding. While going to the place, Sushil has taken from some inside road. He told me that he saw black shouldered kite here many times. So, we got little conscious in driving.

While driving, we saw that beautiful moon(which was supposed to be the closest to earth). Meanwhile, some guys asked us “what happened to last night match” .. Yes, Pakistan won the match.

Small Minivet

On a single tree, we spotted Golden Oriole, White cheeked Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet and Great tit.

short-toed snake eagle chased by Black kite

Moving forward towards the lake side, we have witnessed some of the classical view where Pied Kingfisher was hovering and searching for prey. A black kite was chasing short-toed snake eagle.

Pied Kingfisher

O yes, again a treasure tree. We spotted Small Minivet, Cuckoo shrike, Indian Roller, Jungle Myna, Common Myna, Indian Roller and White throated Kingfisher.

Indian roller

Black headed Cuckoo Shrike

O man, this is my favorite. I never knew that Juvenile Red Whiskered Bulbul don’t have red spot at head. Just awesome to watch and listen Red whiskered Juvenile bulbul.

Red Whiskered Bulbul(juvenile) - My Fav.

Common rose

And the paradise of all. Asian Paradise Flycatcher – Just saw her existence for a second. Sushil chasing long to the greater Coucal from its highly confusing sound. Finally we spotted her sitting on a tree. And like always jumping from one tree to another.

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Greater Coucal

Now, this is the beauty we witnessed first time. Asian Brown Flycatcher. A million dollar eyes. A very small bird, flying and sitting on the same branch of a tree.

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Ashy Drongo

Coppersmith barbet

Pied Kingfisher hovering for food

Black Shouldered Kite

 

Black headed Cuckoo Shrike

White throated Kingfisher

Pied Bushchat Female

 

News from Lalbagh

Second Sunday is dedicated for Lalbagh, which is one of the biggest prides of Bangalore. Glad to know that we were able to spot new birds at this place. I have been lalbagh so many times and every time it come as a surprise. Enjoy some of them 🙂 :

verditer flycatcher male

verditer flycatcher female

So One of us shared story about this verditer flycatcher. 3 yrs ago, it was been sighted but in last 2 years we had not seen that bird in Lalbagh, probably because of some tree cut, they have shifted there place.

golden oriole

grey headed starling

Grey Headed Strarling was also our first time sight. Love to see Golden Oriole too. I have spotted this bird three days back near by Home.

black drongo

brahminy kite

We left in the half itself, while coming back. We have spotted Brahminy Kite sitting on a tree. The pattern at neck was so lovely, that we have taken our camera back from the bag.

Great tit

Rose ringed Parakeet

white cheeked Barbet

Asian Koel Female

Spotted dove

Asian Koel Male

Valley School – Birding off-course

Finally we reached to Valley School – they say a heaven for bird watchers. Its a huge open area, I guess around 3-4 Kms. Asking for the permission at Gate, he said – Please put the bikes here and go. We moved into the gate which is parallel to the school main gate. The first bird we spotted was a SparrowHawk and a new bird for us. Though there was some confusion of it from Black Kite and Shikra but at home we identified it correctly (hopefully 🙂 ).

Shikra male

Small Minivet

Bird that is in abundance in Valley School are Bulbuls. We spotted 3 of its kind. Red-Vented, Red Whiskered and White-Browed. Moving forward, path got split in 2-3 directions, no clue where to go. We decided to cover all 1 by 1. Soon, we were able to spot Copper Smith Barbet and Minivet. Both of them were new for us.

Scaly Breasted Munia (Immature and Adult)

Purple Sunbird

Moving to one direction, we saw some water storage. We waited there for the hope of some birds :). Finally, we were able to spot Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher (a bird which is not very shy). On the path coming back, we also spotted Fantail Flycatcher.

Copper Smith Barbet

Tickell's Blue FlyCatcher

It was already of more than 3 hours of roaming. One of our friends offered us Bread Sandwitch which was like must at that time. Discussing about Camera, Lens, Binoculars .. We decided to have one more round. We spotted Munia, Babbler, Bush-lark and Prinia.

Common Iora

White Browed Bulbul

Started for home back, around 12.00 Noon.. Bingoo !! We spotted Shikra. Again, our first time view. We were walking with deep concentration, meanwhile a jungle rabbit jumped and ran away. It was exciting to see some wild life as well.

White-throated Fantail Flycatcher

Jungle Rabbit

Female Oriental Honey Buzzard

Jerdon’s Bush-lark

Scaly-breasted Munia

Juv. Scaly-breasted Munia

Red Whiskered Bulbul

Ashy Prinia

Red Whiskered Bulbul

Small Green Bee eater

White throated Kingfisher

Yellow-billed Babbler

Hebbal – New arrivals :)

It was a republic day morning and the journey started with the vision to see “Valley School”, but after 1.5 hours of finding, we decided that lets go to Hebbal. We were not able to find valley school, though from map it looked like we reached very near to the place. Anyway, when we reached Hebbal Lake it was 8.20 AM. Very soon, Priyanka and Sushil able to spot the new birds which we saw first time – Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher and Great Tit.

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Great Tit

Moving forward we have spotted lot of Koels both Male and Female. Looks like its a place for Asian Koel Only :).

Purple Swamphen

Asian Koel Female

Asian Koel Male

Red Whiskered Bulbul

Spot-Billed Duck and Spotted Dove were also our new finding. By the way, Making Sushil as leader, we had bypassed the boundary of Hebbal Lake. If you noticed Hebbal lake at the end is covered with some tin. Other side beauty is much different than this side. We crossed it and went other side of it. I can bet very few of us have spotted Green Bee eater in Hebbal. But on the other side, there are more than half a dozen bee eaters. In the seek of Kingfisher(which I was never able to spot in Hebbal), I was moving forward. Oops, I saw a blue color bird flying… nothing but a white throated Kingfisher. Meanwhile, Priyanka from one side waved “A kingfisher here” and same words by Sushil from other side. Bingoo !!

Spotted Dove

Spot-Billed Duck

Sunbirds and Herons are most beautiful and common bird which we can see in Hebbal Lake. I guess, we viewed almost all Sunbird and Heron.

Purple Rumped Sunbird (male)

Pond Heron

And I remember the confusing sound of Squirrel and Birds. I mean there is nothing confusing but the excitement of sound itself is confusing.

A Sad Squarrel

Black Kite - Flight

Small Green Bee eater

Red Wattled Lapwing

White Breasted Kingfisher

Ashy Prinia

White-Cheeked Barbet

Brown Shrike

Spotted Dove

Ashy Drongo

Great Cormorant

Plain Flowerpecker

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Large Pied Wagtail

Manchanabele Dam – Beauty Survives

Manchanabele Dam also spelled as Manchanbele, Manchinabele, Manchinbele dam. I have never got its spelling write and have to rely on Google to help me out. Its about 40kms from Bangalore on Mysore Road.

As usual we started very early and reached the Dam when it was still dark. After wandering for some time, we started seeing some birds.  Nice place and lots of new birds for us.

Early morning it was quite dark and all of us were completely thrilled with cold as again like last time photography equipments were there but body warming cloths were not there. Me and Vaibhav decided to go for a run and at that time, we saw two black kites, probably making the day plan :). Clearly the dawn was visible backside to them. After that, we decided to move in one direction, though we were not clear but birds sound made our path. Sunbirds were busy in search of morning breakfast.

Pair of Black Kite

Purple Sunbird got the breakfast

Loten's Sunbird

Purple Rumped SunBird(Female) searching in flower

Moving down to dam side, we saw Pied Wagtail and Common Kingfisher probably in seek of Insects and Fishes.

Pied Wagtail searching for breakfast

Common Kingfisher searching for breakfast too

Soon we saw more water birds like Grey Heron, Red Watted Lapwing, Little Cormorant.

Red Watted Lapwing

Little Cormorant with open wings

Its our first time, we saw Red-rumped Swallow and Barn Swallow both.

Red-rumped Swallow

Barn Swallow

On the way to return back, we spotted Bulbuls, Bush-Chat, Bee eaters and Munia’s and Laughing Dove(I always find it in angry mode, why we call it Laughing Dove, probably his sounds is like Laugh)

Red vented bulbul

Laughing Dove

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Silverbill

On the grassland side, we saw Indian Robin(Male and Female).

Indian Robin - Male

Indian Robin - Female

Green Bea Eaters

Paddyfield Pipit

White-Browed Fantail-Flycatcher

Pied Bushcat Male

And the journey Cont.. Now I am tired of Embedding Images, so rest can be viewed at :

Sushil: Here
Vaibhav: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaibhavkumar/tags/manchanebele/
Priyanka: http://www.flickr.com/photos/priyankavarma/

Prashant and Pratima Photo’s will come soon here.

And some more:

Caterpillar

Fishing

Common Iora

Chestnut-tailed Starling