Common Birds: Blackheaded Oriole,Blue throated Barbet, Koel, Spotted Dove

Blackheaded Oriole Oriolus xanthornus

Hin: Peelak, Ass: Khokioti

Size: Myna.

Field Characters: Brilliant golden yellow, with jet black head, throat and upper breast. Black in wings and tail. Bright pink bill; crimson eyes. Sexes alike, but black of head duller in female. Young birds have yellow forehead and the black head streaked with yellowish. Singly or pairs, among leafy trees in wooded country.

Habits: Arboreal. Not appreciably different from the Golden Oriole's. Liquid flute-like calls also very similar.

Call: A harsh nasal kwaak, commonly heard, and other harsh notes.

Food: Insects, fruits and berries, and flower nectar.

Nesting: Orioles are mild-mannered birds and often build nest in the same
tree as holds a nest of the Black Drongo, presumably on account of the protection against marauders by that bold and pugnacious species.

Season: April to July

Nest: The nest is in the form of a small cup placed in a fork near the end of a branch.

Eggs: Two or three white eggs with pinkish, brown and black speckling

Online Resources

Call recordings: https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Oriolus%20xanthornus%20

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/sp/1287/Oriolus-xanthornus

Blue throated Barbet. Psilopogon asiaticus

Hin: Nilkant basanth

Size: Myna.

Field Characters: A gaudily colored dumpy green arboreal bird with a heavy conical bill. Forehead and crown crimson with transverse black band above the eyes. Sides of head, chin, throat and fore neck pale blue. A large crimson spot on each side of the neck
and a crimson speck on either side at base of lower mandible. Sexes alike.

Habits: Arboreal. Singly, or parties, in leafy fruiting trees.  Affects wooded country, groves and gardens even in populous cities. 'Flight noisy and dipping, a few rapid wing beats followed by a short pause.

Food and feeding: Fruits and berries, figs of the various species of Ficus being special
favorites. Like other barbets, frequently catches flying termites in the air.

Call: Its loud familiar call kor-r-r — kutroo, kutroo, kutroo resounds endlessly in the forest reiterated at all times of the day.

Nesting:

Season: Overall March to June.

Nest: A hole in dead tree- trunk or branch excavated by the birds, 10 to 25 ft up.

Eggs: 3 or 4, glossless white. Both sexes share all domestic duties.

Online Resources

Call recordings: https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Psilopogon%20asiaticus

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/1205/Psilopogon-asiaticus

Koel. Eudynamys scolopaceus

Hin: Koel, Ass: Kuli

Size: House Crow; slenderer, with longer tail.

Field Characters: Male glistening black, with yellowish green bill and crimson eyes. Female brown, profusely spotted and barred with white.

Habits: Brood-parasitic. Arboreal. Singly or pairs, in groves of trees, etc. Frequents gardens, groves and open country abounding in large leafy trees. Familiar shrieking crescendo calling, kuoo-kuoo-kuoo. Flight straight and swift with rapid wing beats.

Call: Silent in winter, thus often overlooked and recorded as absent. Becomes increasingly noisy with the advance of the hot weather, and then one of the earliest bird voices at dawn. The call begins with a low kuoo, rises in scale with each successive kuoo until it reaches fever pitch at the seventh or eighth, and breaks off abruptly. It is soon commenced all over again. The female only utters a sharp, quick-repeated kik-kik-kik as she dashes from tree to tree.

Food: Largely fruits and berries; also caterpillars and insects.

Nesting:
Season: Mainly April to August, coincident with that of its normal hosts, the House and Jungle crows.

Eggs: Smaller but similar to the crows': pale greyish green or stone colour, speckled and blotched with reddish brown. As many as 13 have been found in a single crow's nest.

Online Resources

Call recordings: https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Eudynamys%20scolopaceus

Images: https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/839/Eudynamys-scolopaceus

Spotted Dove. Streptopelia chinensis

Hin: Chitta fakhta Ass: Kopou

Size: Between Myna and Pigeon.

Field Characters: White-spotted pinkish brown and grey upperparts, and white-and-black ' chessboard ' on hindneck are leading clues to its identity. Sexes alike. Pairs or parties, in open wooded country, gleaning in stubble fields, on cross country cart tracks, etc.

Habits: Affects open well-wooded and cultivated country; avoids arid tracts. Becomes quite tame and confiding if unmolested, freely entering gardens and verandas of bungalows. Flight as of other doves, swift and strong, attained by vigorous wing strokes.

Call: An oft-repeated, pleasant though some- what mournful kroo-kruk-krukroo .... kroo-kroo-kroo, the number of final kroos varying from 3 to 6.

Nesting:

Season: Undefined; practically all year.

Nest: Customary flimsy dove structure of two crossed slicks low down in a tree or bush; also under eaves and on cornices and beams etc., in verandas of inhabited bungalows.

Eggs: 2, white. Both sexes share in all the domestic duties.

Online Resources

Call recordings:  https://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=Spotted%20Dove

Images:  https://www.birdsofindia.org/#!/sp/780/Streptopelia-chinensis