Jacana....

Jacanas

sometimes referred to as Jesus bird or Lily trotters .

They are uniquely equipped with long straight claws for walking on floating vegetation .

There are about seven to eight species .

Well, I'll be covering two of them :

Pheasant -tailed jacana 

Bronze- winged Jacana 

They are a group of tropical waders found worldwide in the tropical zone .

Will be back soon with my clicks of pheasant-tailed jacana which happens to be one of my favorite bird ....

Date with a scaly-breasted munia ....

Small sparrow- sized birds called munia .
The name munia includes six species of small, seed eating birds .
They are generally found around meadows,  farmlands ....
I spotted this munia in the balcony of a high rise apartment .

One lazy morning I decided to drop by at my friends place . And as luck would have it spotted a bird flitting in and out of the ficus plant  in the balcony .On close observation it was a small bird building its nest with loads of hard work .

The nest is an untidy globe made out of grass and bamboo leaves. The nesting material is pushed together not woven .The nest is hidden at a height 4-5 m in  bushes ,trees or creepers . The male bird gets the nesting material and female builds the nest form inside .

Agile ,little social bird .
with small conical beak,
designed for feeding on seeds of grass and sedge .

Will be back soon with another munia ....

Birds which are found so abundantly yet so inconspicuous .

Egrets all the way ....

This is the little egret.....plumage is all white . It has long black legs with yellow feet .This is the breeding plumage of this bird .

This is the great egret also commonly known as the common egret ,large egret or the great white heron . The great egret is all white plumage . It can be distinguished from the other egrets apart from its size is because of its yellow bill ,black legs and feet .

Western Reef Heron is also commonly known as western reef egret . This is a medium sized bird with a slaty grey plumage .

Will be back again with another bird ...

Happy Birding .

Birds with the white plumes ....

I have decided to cover a different bird every week  . It's going to give me insights into whatever I have done so far and share it with all you guys over there. I will start my post with'' Egrets '' ....birds with a white plumage which develop long ornamental plumes during breeding season . When I started  bird photography would go about clicking the birds around my place  . Egrets are generally found around habitation especially the cattle egret but the backdrop is not too appealing  .Then I happened to chance upon a place called Talave in Navi Mumbai . During high tide the low lying areas get filled up ,making it an ideal joint for photographing  these waders .

Egrets are generally found around marshes ,lakes and wetland areas .They are wading birds and feed on small fishes , amphibians ,reptiles and crustaceans in shallow waters.

Different species of egrets are  found ....

Great white egret ,intermediate egret, little egret and western reef egret .

Though the clicks  are very noisy but they are very close to my heart .

 I find all these clicks very serene .

I will be back again with some more clicks of the egrets ....till then .

Happy Birding ...

I -spy a bird ....

Tall dried reeds all around ,could hear a lot of twittering of birds . But could hardly see any , so perfectly camouflaged .I quietly sat on a mound of mud and spotted .........

I spy: ''Ashy crowned sparrow lark''

Sparrow sized birds with a finch like bill , 

 sandy brown  overall with a black belly..

extending to a band in the neck  and a black eye stripe .
Foraging  on the ground for seeds and insects ....

Happy Monday morning .

Birding during Monsoon ....

 I enjoy backyard birding during monsoons . 

You land up capturing some beautiful moments of the avian world . It  poured heavily and sun god was peeping out ...right time to pick your camera and step out .What I witnessed was pure delight .

 Sparrow chicks enjoying a dip in a pothole .

Who says that potholes are bad .... the birds were having some much fun . 

Will be back soon with some more clicks . Hope you all are having loads of fun over the weekend .

Happy Birding ...

A Regal bird .....

A bird from the pheasant family .

Train of tail feathers adds to the grandeur .

All dressed in metallic blue-green colors with a fan shaped crest on its head ...The Peacock

Behind the stunningly beautiful plumage there lies a complex structure that changes color with the angle of incident light . In general the diversity in the birds feathers can be explained just by two factors pigments and simple structures in the feathers that interfere with the incident light.

This bird is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology .The folklore associated with the  eyes in the tail of the peacock exists in Greek mythology. It is also known as'' bird with a hundred eyes''

A bird that is hard to miss....