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The bird story

A big thanks for being here. This is my collection of bird photos with some interesting stories associated with it. I hope it won't disappoint you.

The pet duck

  • Bird Name: Dabbling Duck
  • Local Name: Haah

The Pet Duck

I am a big fan of ducks. I took one pair from my maternal uncle. They were shy and afraid of humans. I got to know that as a duckling they were raised by chickens. Later, I got another pair from the market which was raised by Humans. The later ones are more friendly towards humans, even going to the point of eating from hands. The human raised are more dominant and lead the pack.

Although they lived all together, a grouping remained between the earlier pair and the latter pair even after so many months.

The king of crows

The king of crows

Everyone knows the crows. Caw, caw, caw. Dominating every bird species it spots. Any outdoor food source, you will find atleast one crow. Any bird species, if a crow comes will look to fly away. But there is this species, which doesn't seem to bother by the crow. Sometime it dominates even them. Meet Black Drongo.

Primarily feeds on insect, it lives comfortably around other birds driving manily the predatory birds.

The sassy Bird

Spotted Dove

As with every young couple, a pair of doves wanted to have a home of their own. Have some kids. Live a happy life. So they started building their nest on our arched ventilated window just above our front door. But there was a villain in this story.

The crows !!

The crows love to eat doves' eggs. Often destroying their nest. The doves work hard to rebuild their nests, often with construction materials like steel wires. To protect them from the attack of crows, my dad built a wooden enclosure that prevents the visibility of their nest from outside. Since then, they have used that as their breeding ground (even the older children breed here) and have laid around 5-6 pairs in the last year or so.

Although they live near humans, they don't like to eat any food that we provide. They are comfortable to be roaming around us but if we get too close they fly away to a distance.

The henchmen

These little birds had been in our house long before we came. Not a single room left where they have not marked their territory by building nests.

Once we were out for two days and the rooms were locked. When we came back and started cooking, we heard chirping on our kitchen balcony and investigated. We found that a pair had built their nest on the kitchen chimney outlet. Since this was dangerous for the birds as well as it risks damaging the vent, I carefully took out the nest and placed it in a cardboard box. I hanged the box near the vent, only hoping they would use the new home, but changed their location altogether.

The Indian Pond Heron

  • Bird Name: Indian Pond Heron
  • Local Name: Konamusori

We have a pond beside our house. We have put some local fish like Koi maas, Darikana. We put some bamboo sticks in the pond for our ducks to climb and rest there. One particular evening, through my window, I spotted this bird searching for something. Quickly it plucked a small fish out and gobbled it. After I captured this photo, it spotted me and flew away.

After this, I haven't seen it again on my pond. But after a few months, I spotted it on a nearby water-logged plot.

Black-rumped flameback

This was a last-minute shot I took in my village. I was about to enter my car to come home. I heard a rattling call. I was searching for this bird the entire day. But never was able to spot it. After hearing the call, it took some time to spot the source, since it concealed itself in a betel nut tree. I took my camera and zoomed to the fullest to spot and capture. The call went on for a few minutes. It flew away after that. I was lucky to witness that

Pani Kauri

  • Bird Name: Little cormorant
  • Local Name: Pani Kauri

I have four ducks. In our pond, they swim and take baths there. One particular day through my window, I saw five ducks instead of the regular four. I thought, from where did the extra one come from. So I called my ducks (I have a call sign with the ducks). Four of them came, but one remained. The 5th one casually flew to the banks spreading its wings in the sun to dry. Then I realized it was a different bird.

I took my camera and went to photograph him. On realizing I was near, he flew from the bank to a nearby wall and did the same act of spreading wings in the sun. After a while, it flew away.

The Friendly Neighbors

I have a small bamboo grove in my front yard where lives a family of Dauk. They are early risers and make loud croaks. They became my alarm clock waking me up.

They are very watchful of human movement. Tracking my every move when I am out of my house. Switching positions when I look the other way. If our eyes lock, they stay standstill. If one leg was up, you be sure, they would remain as it is until you blink. They step slowly but can move quickly in the sight of danger. They seem like the Jones (From keeping up with the Joneses ) to me.

The friend of cow

I took this shot near our house. He was first sitting on the back of a cow, picking fleas one by one. The cow seems to be enjoying this. As I went near to photograph them, the bird went to a nearby wall. It continued to monitor my movement. Just after I photographed him, he flew away.

We have a small patch of wetland nearby where it catches small fish. They are active, particularly in the evening and the morning hours. I have rarely seen them during noontime.

The blue bird

I have a story about this bird. The first time I saw this bird, I was mesmerized by its color dynamics. Its blue coloured body with a dark head and brownish beak. It often sits near our pond in trees, cable wire, boundary walls.

One time it was sitting on an electric wire. It spotted an insect flying near the ground. In one swoop, it caught the insect, flew up to the wire, and gobbled it up. The attack accuracy was too good.

Once, it had a feud with some crows, got beaten up, and fell on the ground outside our compound. We have a street dog that stays in our complex. It spotted the bird, picked it up in its mouth, and to our complex. My dad thought he had killed the bird and gave a big shout. The dog ran out and entered through the backside. He laid the bird near its home. When I checked in on him, the bird was awake and standing near the dog. It seemed like the dog was guarding the bird. I took a cloth and carefully went to pick the bird. I placed the bird in a cardboard box and gave him a bowl of water to drink. He stayed there for the night. Anytime my dad goes near it, it screams heavily, whereas if I went, it just looks at me. The next day, as we opened the door, it flew away.