Regurgitation in Birds

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

There are several reasons why birds and animals regurgitate. Sometimes, adult animals regurgitate food to feed their not-yet-mobile young ones. Classic examples of this behaviour can be seen in a pack of Wild Dogs (Dholes) and, more commonly, in birds. The crow feeds its young with regurgitated food from its wide-ranging diet, while a pelican would regurgitate fish to feed its chicks.

Some birds also regurgitate undigested matter, like bones, feathers, fur, skull and hair. Birds of prey, as well … Read More

Yellow-bellied Weasel, Mishmi Hills, Arunachal Pradesh

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

We found this huge rodent lying on the road, dying. We stopped to check what it was. We assumed that a biker who was going ahead had knocked it down, but weren’t sure. As we were discussing this, we saw a tiny animal pop out from a nullah, which was covered by dense vegetation next to the road. It immediately disappeared into the shrubs.

We initially mistook it to be a young Yellow-throated Marten. But then, out it popped again … Read More

Insect Camouflage

-  Photo Feature, -  Photos Leave a Comment

Camouflage (noun) is defined as concealment that obscures the physical appearance. In the natural world, camouflage (verb) is essentially the process by which an organism blends with the elements in its habitat, conceals itself, alters its appearance or for that matter resembles an object in its environment.

Camouflage has, over several millennia, evolved in response to various environmental conditions and survival pressures. According to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, camouflage was one of the features that … Read More

Dhole and Indian Wolf, Debrigarh, Odisha

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary in Western Odisha must currently be one of the very few PAs in the country where dholes and wolves co-exist! Interestingly, sporadic reports in March 2013 by frontline staff seem to indicate that the lone male wolf, which made its appearance about a month back, has been hanging around near the pack of dholes. In fact, the RFO could see them interacting in close proximity for extended periods of time — feigning charges, scent marking, etc.

The … Read More

Leucistic Malabar Giant Squirrel, Mahableshwar

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

Albinism and leucism are two terms to do with the lack of pigmentation in animals, that are often confused with each other. Albinism is the complete absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes. Leucism (or leukism) is a form of partial albinism characterized by retention of color in the eyes, bill, and legs but the skin or plumage contains no color pigment.

The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that in albinism the eyes … Read More

Sighting of Caspian Plover, Koonthankulam, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

The Caspian Plover (Charadrius asiaticus) is an attractive wader that belongs to the family Charadriidae. The bird is similar in size to the Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers, but slimmer and longer-legged. The breeding male (as seen in the photograph) has a chestnut breast bordered with a black band below.

The first sighting of this beautiful vagrant this season was reported by Suresh Elamon and Bal Pandy, the “ birdman” of Koonthankulam on 25th January 2013. To see … Read More

Chinese Pond Heron in Kelambakkam Lake, Chennai

-  Photos Leave a Comment

While birding on the morning of Saturday, 30th March 2013, I saw a Chinese Pond Heron (Ardeola bacchu), in full breeding plumage at Kelambakkam Lake, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. A lone bird was observed feeding on a small bund in the backwaters of the lake.

The Chinese Pond Heron looks almost identical to Indian Pond Heron and difficult to identify in non-breeding plumage. The size difference (Chinese is 8cm larger) is difficult to make out in the field. In … Read More

Water monitor eating Jungle Babbler, Sundarbans

-  Photos Leave a Comment

While walking around at Sajnekhali, Sundarbans, on 12th March, I heard jungle babblers crying the world deaf. I went ahead to find this water monitor swallowing the last parts of a jungle babbler, while the other birds of the flock kept on chattering loudly in alarm, flying overhead and jumping on branches. I don’t know how the seemingly sluggish monitor managed to catch a timid jungle babbler. It could be that the monitor was lying somewhere unnoticed when the poor … Read More

Black Stork, an Uncommon Bird in South India, Nagarahole

-  Photos Leave a Comment

The Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) is an uncommon bird in South India. It is a winter visitor and considered to be rare in the Deccan. It has not been recorded in South India (Ali & Ripley, 2001).

However, over the last few years there have been several sightings in Karnataka. The bird has been seen in north Karnataka in the vicinity of Dandeli. In more recent times, there have been reports of a bird from Bangalore as well … Read More

A Red-wattled Lapwing Nesting on a Roof, Mumbai

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

While Red-wattled lapwings are very often seen near human habitation, their nesting is primarily carried out only on the ground. But there have been growing records of their roof-nesting habit (Saxena 1974; Reeves 1975; Tehsin & Lokhandwala 1983; Mundkur 1985; Koshy 1989; Kumar & Sharma 2011). I have been observing this roof-nesting pair for the last 5 years and feel that this is an important case-study to be shared with the rest of the community. At no point, did I … Read More

Domestic Dogs chasing Indian Wild Ass, Little Rann of Kutch

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

The Indian Wild Ass or Khur (Equus hemionus khur), is an endangered animal with its last refuge in India’s only wild ass sanctuary. The Khur was formerly widespread in the arid zone of northwestern India and Pakistan, westwards through much of central Asia. However, it is now limited to the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, India. The khur probably went extinct in Baluchistan and the extreme south of Pakistan, on the Indian border, during the 1960s (Corbet … Read More

Brown Palm Civet, Pampadum Shola

-  Photos Leave a Comment

On Dec 15th, 2012, we (Neelakandan Madavana and Navneeth Kishor) visited Pampadum Shola National Park, in Idukki district of Kerala. It was around 6pm and we were returning to camp after a trek. We noticed a movement in a tree trunk, not far from us and on closer observation, noticed this Brown Palm Civet climbing up to rest on a branch. These civets can easily go unnoticed to photographer’s eyes, and indeed, they were thought to be locally extinct in … Read More

Jungle Cat feeding on a Nilgai calf carcass, Velavadar

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

We found this carcass of a Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) fawn in the Velavadar grasslands. We had seen three Indian wolves (Canis lupus pallipes) in the same area earlier. It was likely that they had killed the Nilgai. A couple of Jungle Crows and a Wild Boar had their share of the carcass a while ago, before this Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) came along to have a bite!… Read More

Black-legged Kittiwake, Fourth record for India from Chavakkad, Kerala.

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a small sized coastal breeding gull commonly found around north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans in North America and Europe. We were fortunate to observe and photograph two individuals of this species from Chavakkad beach, Kerala, India on January 24th, 2013 during our routine beach birding trip. We (Suhas Kechery and Sandeep Das) located this bird among a flock of Heuglin’s, Brown-headed and Black-head Gulls.

The birds observed were found to be … Read More

Greater Flamingo with sub-adult chick on its back, Dholpur

-  Photos, -  Picture of the Week Leave a Comment

This unusual image of a Greater Flamingo chick on the back of its mother (?) was taken by me on 22 January in Dholpur, Rajasthan, at the Hussain Sagar water body. The waterbody derives its name from Hussain Pur, a nearby village, and is fed by rain water. Even though there is anthropogenic disturbance at this site — buffaloes enter the water and people wash their clothes here everyday — a small group of Greater Flamingos have been at the … Read More