Indian Myna. Acridotheres tristis
Hin: Desi myna, Ass: Khalika
Hin: Desi myna, Ass: Khalika
Size: Bulbul +. Pigeon - (= 9 inches).
Field
Characters. A familiar
perky, well-groomed dark brown bird with bright yellow bill, legs, and bare
skin round eyes. A large white patch in wing conspicuous in flight. Sexes
alike. Pairs or parties, about human habitations and on countryside.
Habits. A confirmed associate of man,
following wherever he opens up new habitations.
Food
and feeding: Omnivorous. Eats fruits, insects, kitchen scraps. Follows
the plough for earthworms etc., and attends on grazing cattle for the
grasshoppers disturbed, side-hopping jauntily, and springing up in the air to
capture them.
Call: Has a variety of sharp calls and
chatter: a loud, scolding radio-rädio-rädio, and keek-keek-keek, kok-kok-kok,
chur-chur, etc., uttered with the plumage frowzled and a ludicrous bobbing of
the head.
Nesting.
Season: April to August.
Nest: A collection of twigs, roots,
paper and rubbish in a hole in a tree, wall or ceiling.
Eggs: 4 or 5, glossy blue. Two broods often raised in succession. Both sexes share domestic duties.
Eggs: 4 or 5, glossy blue. Two broods often raised in succession. Both sexes share domestic duties.
Black Drongo or Crow. Dicrurus macrocercus
Hin: Bujanga, Ass: Phesu
Size: Bulbul ±.
Field Characters: A slim and agile glossy black bird
with long, deeply forked tail. Sexes alike. Singly, on the open countryside and
about cultivation.
Habits: A familiar bird of open country,
usually perched on telegraph wires, or attending on grazing cattle.
Food and
feeding: From exposed
look-outs it keeps vigilant watch for grasshoppers and other insects. These are
pounced upon and carried off, held under foot, torn to pieces and swallowed. It
rides on the backs of grazing cattle and takes toll of the insects disturbed by
the animals movements through the grass. Forest fires or fired grass patches
invariably attract numbers of drongos for the same reason. Highly beneficial to
agriculture by the vast quantities of injurious insects it destroys.
Call: A variety of harsh scolding or
challenging calls are uttered.
Food: Insects; flower nectar also
regularly eaten.
Nesting:
Season: Principally April to August.
Nest: a flimsy-bottomed cup of fine
twigs and fibres cemented with cobweb; in fork at extremity of branch 12 to 30
ft up in large preferably standing alone in the open.
Eggs: 3 to 5, variable; mostly whitish
with brownish red spots. Both sexes share all domestic duties and are bold in defense
of their nest.
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White throated Kingfisher. Halcyon smyrnensis
Hin: Kilkila
Hin: Kilkila
Size: Between Myna and Pigeon.
Field
Characters: A brilliant
turquoise-blue kingfisher with deep chocolate-brown head, neck and underparts,
a conspicuous white ' shirt front ' and long, heavy, pointed red bill. A white
wing-patch prominent in flight. Sexes alike. Singly, in cultivated and wooded
country, both near and away from water.
Habits: The most familiar of our kingfishers and also the least
dependent upon water. Seen at ponds, puddles, rain-filled ditches, inundated
paddy fields and near the seashore, but also in light forest at considerable
distances from water.
Food and
feeding: Fish,
tadpoles, lizards, grasshoppers and other insects. Occasionally also young birds
and mice. From a favorite lookout on telegraph wire or post, it pounces down on
creeping prey and flies off with it to another perch nearby where the victim is
battered to death and swallowed.
Call: A loud cackling chiefly uttered in
flight. Also, as a loud, not unmusical, frequently-repeated chattering song,
delivered from a tree-top or some exposed elevated perch.
Nesting:
Season: Principally March to July.
Nest: typical of the kingfishers: in a horizontal tunnel dug into the side of a dry nullah or earth-cutting.
Nest: typical of the kingfishers: in a horizontal tunnel dug into the side of a dry nullah or earth-cutting.
Eggs: 4 to 7, white, spherical. Both
sexes excavate, incubate, and feed the young.
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Roller or Blue Jay. Coracias benghalensis
Hin: Nilkant
Hin: Nilkant
Size: Pigeon.
Field
Characters: A striking
Oxford-and-Cambridge- blue bird, with biggish head, heavy black bill, rufous
brown breast, and pale blue abdomen and under tail. The dark and pale blue
portions of the wings show up as brilliant bands in flight. Sexes alike. Singly
perched on telegraph wires etc., in open cultivated country.
Habits: Affects open cultivated country and
light deciduous forest. Indulges in a spectacular courtship display,
somersaulting and nosediving in the air to the accompaniment of harsh, grating
screams.
Food and feeding: From a lookout on a telegraph wire
or other point of vantage it pounces upon some large insect, frog or lizard on
the ground, returning with it either to the same perch or flying leisurely
across to another nearby. Here the quarry is battered to death and swallowed.
Highly beneficial to agriculture since it destroys vast quantities of injurious
insects.
Call: Has a variety of loud, raucous
croaks and chuckles.
Nesting:
Season: Chiefly March to July.
Nest: A collection of straw, rags and
rubbish in a natural tree-hollow at moderate heights; sometimes in a hole in
wall of building.
Eggs: 4 or 5, glossy white roundish
ovals.
Small Green Bee-eater. Merops orientalis
Hin: Patringa
Hin: Patringa
Size: Sparrow.
Field
Characters: A dainty
grass-green bird tinged with reddish brown on head and neck. Central pair of
tail feathers prolonged into blunt pins. Slender, long, slightly curved bill.
Conspicuous black ' necklace Sexes alike.
Habits: Pairs, or parties, in open country
on telegraph wires, fence-posts, etc. Inhabits
open country, the neighbourhood of cultivation, forest clearings, fallow land,
gardens, golf links, etc. Also partial to the zone above sandy beach along the
seacoast.
Food and
feeding: Insects,
chiefly diptera and hymenoptera. Launches aerial sallies after bees etc.,
snapping them up in its bill and circling back gracefully on outstretched
motionless wings to the perch, where the quarry is battered to death and
swallowed.
Call: A pleasant jingling tit, tit or
trilly tree-tree-tree constantly uttered on.the wing
or at rest. Large numbers collect to roost in favourite leafy trees, and much noise and flying around in rabbles precedes retirement for the night.
or at rest. Large numbers collect to roost in favourite leafy trees, and much noise and flying around in rabbles precedes retirement for the night.
Nesting:
Season: Principally February to May.
Nest: A horizontal or oblique tunnel
ending in a widened egg chamber, dug in the side of an earth-cutting,
borrow-pit or in uneven sandy ground.
Eggs: 4 to 7, pure white, roundish
ovals. Both sexes share in excavating net-tunnel and feeding young.
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