The ‘tantalising’ painted storks
The word ‘tantalise’ means ‘desirable but just out of reach’. This word is derived from the Greek mythological figure Tantalus. As the legend goes, Tantalus is a son of Zeus who is an evil doer. In one…
The cacophonous red-naped ibis
Since the new year, every dawn, I hear a series of loud cacophonic screams near my house. These begin as harsh squealing sounds and then get louder almost to the extent of trumpeting. And I know who…
The Black-necked Stork: A near-threatened species
Only recently there was a hue and cry in the papers about a black-necked stork which was spotted with a ring around its beak in a wetland outside Delhi. Black-necked storks are large birds, which are classified as…
Pallas’s fish eagle: Spotting a nest
In Kaziranga, last year, we spotted a nest. Was it empty? Empty nest? No, two white heads bobbed up. Hey! There is a couple inside! Eagles! Which one? This is Pallas’s fish eagle, a species classified as ‘vulnerable’ in…
The raucous white-breasted waterhens
I had just returned from work and was parking my vehicle, when I heard some loud strange noises in the field beyond the boundary wall of my house. It was raining and I should have rushed into…
Morning yoga with a scaly breasted munia
Manna Dey immortalized these birds in Teesri Kasam, when he sang Chalat musafir moh liya re pinjre wali munia… I have always found scaly breasted munias very attractive specially for their designer waistcoats. One morning, as I was enjoying…
Indian silverbills or white-throated munias
Quite often these drab-looking tiny birds are overlooked in favour of their more colourful counterparts. The Indian silverbills are one such species which though ubiquitous, are often ignored. They usually forage in groups and are very gregarious.…
Neelkanth: The Indian Roller Bird
This is one bird which you will commonly find perched on wires along roadsides. The Indian roller bird or the Neelkanth. As children whenever we had our trips to Nagpur, one of our common pastimes used to be counting…
Golden orioles: My favourite summer sight
Sevagram can be terribly atrocious in the summers with the temperatures climbing to over 45 degrees C. But there are some blessings of nature one can look forward to even when the sun is blazing down. Delicious…
