When the Amaltas Blooms...

The morning walk in the  scorching city seemed a little bit more bearable because of the blossoming Amaltas. I was delightfully welcomed with the shrills calls of the barbet Kr – too and spotted one perched on a branch of the Banyan tree, grass green in colour with a big brown head and patch of ochre yellow circling the eyes.

Doesn’t this bird have grandfatherly looks, thanks to the bare orbital ring which seems to have hardened with age.

The barbets are generally very difficult to spot, as they are camouflaged very beautifully in the green foliage of the trees. Summer being the breeding season the calls of the barbets were loud and constant. These birds belong to cavity nesting community and make a neat, round hole that leads to a sunken chamber hollowed out in the heartwood. I am not sure whether the male bird excavated this cavity which I witnessed on the live tree trunk to impress his partner. But must say the choice of the trunk was very picturesque, just next to the blooming Amaltas.

I sat at a distance to observe the bird and then I spotted the Lineated barbet hopping from one branch to another before proceeding to the nest always with a clump in her beak. The bird was not flying directly to its nest to feed the chicks. She would land on a branch at some distance, would look to its right and left before it would decide to enter her humble abode.

And, then flew a pair of feisty Mynas troubling the barbet trying to feed her little ones. Mynas, at that point of time seemed like the feral enemies of the barbet. After the bird left the nest the Mynas poked their heads into the nesting cavity. I wanted to make them fly away and not disturb the chicks but didn’t interfere with the courseof nature. Whether the Mynas where looking for food or for a plausible nesting cavity is a question mark. 

After some time, the barbet broke into her song and hopping from one branch to another clung to the tree trunk looked around with her large popping out eyes and then very gleefully slid into the cavity.

I sat there for hours, observing the barbet come and go while the park echoed with the loud calls krotok…krotok and beautiful flowers of the Amaltas gently twirling in the wind.

                                      

                                             HAPPY  BIRDING