Eurasian Cuckoo
Monthly Archives: January 2012
African Elephant
The African elephant is the largest living terrestrial animal. The genus Loxodonta in Greek stands for ‘oblique-sided tooth’
Spot-billed Duck
Spot-billed duck or simply Spotbill has three subspecies: the Indian Spot-billed Duck (A. poecilorhyncha poecilorhyncha), Eastern Spot-billed Duck (A. poecilorhyncha zonorhyncha), and Burmese Spot-billed Duck (A. poecilorhyncha haringtoni). An interesting trivia is that in the Japanese manga and anime One Piece, there is a “Super Spot-billed Duck” named Karoo which is owned by Nefertari Vivi. Also, the Farfetch’d species in the Pokémon series is possibly based on the spot-billed duck. In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island the character Huffin’ Puffins’ Japanese name “karugamo” corresponds to the name of the Anas poecilorhyncha.
Indian Black-lored Tit
These birds utilize barbet and woodpecker holes for nesting and surprising for me they can excavate their own if needed – the beak just does not look powerful enough….
Easily identified by broad black line (wider in the male) down yellow front, Often a short yellow superilium in front of eye. Large black crest, neck, throat and head
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-01-15
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Lilac-breasted Rollers in a courtship display
Rollers get their name from their impressive courtship flight, a fast, shallow dive from considerable elevation with a rolling or fast rocking motion, accompanied by loud raucous calls. Have been lucky enough to see this display many times in Indian rollers but could never capture it. This picture of Lilac-breasted rollers we were particularly lucky to get 2 pairs indulging in courtship display…
Long-legged Buzzard - Landing
Long-legged Buzzards from the Balkan and Russia are mostly migratory and spend the winter in northern Afrika or in the Sahel. Some birds spend the winter in Hungary or Greece. Sometimes Long-legged Buzzards are seen farther in the west, for example in Austria and Germany.
A map on Wikipedia shows that the ones found in India are in a mixed range, some are winter migrants and some are part of the permanent range.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-legged_Buzzard
http://www.europeanraptors.org/raptors/long_legged_buzzard.html
Ashy Prinia
Another mystery solved for me. I had often wondered why some Ashy Prinia show supercilium and others don’t. Wikipedia informs me “In breeding plumage, adults of the northern population are ash grey above, with a black crown and cheek with no supercilium and rufescent wings. In non-breeding season this population has a short and narrow white supercilium and the tail is longer”
Psst… Supercilium is a synonym for eyebrow 
Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)
A fact that I learnt today about this species today is that are able to see near ultraviolet light, allowing the birds to detect the urine trails around rodent burrows as they shine in an ultraviolet colour in the sunlight.
Oriental White-eye foraging on a bottle brush tree
There is always a better shot