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 my hot cup of goodness on my terrace, this beautiful specimen perched next to me on the bottle brush tree. And for the next 10 minutes, I got a display of one of the most disciplined and regulated grooming sessions I have ever seen.

Oblivious to me and my camera clicks, the focused munia methodically stretched each limb and its neck, and carefully groomed its feathers and tail in a step-wise manner. It was almost as if it was following a checklist and performing some rigorous yoga asanas. And like every good pilot, after it was sure that everything in the cockpit was functioning well, it took off smoothly. But this series of clicks made my day.