Greylag Goose: Anser anser

 

Greylag Goose: Anser anser
Rajhans, Kalhans

 

Greylag Goose: Anser anser
Rajhans, Kalhans

Greylag Goose: Anser anser
Rajhans, Kalhans

Greylag goose: Anser anser. Local Name: Rajhans; Kalhans (Sanskrit)

 

This is thought to be the root goose - the progenitor of all domestic geese. The "lag" in the name could refer to the fact that they are the last among geese to emigrate from northern Europe.

 

This is a common visitor to north Indian wetlands in winter. I didn't quite spot it past season at Keoladeo Ghana -  missed it if numbers visited - however, they were present in large numbers, along with many other water birds, at the unpretentious and foggy Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary, a few kilometers from Jajjhar, Haryana, on the road leading to Mahendragarh, in the first week of last December.

 

It is brown coloured with grey rump and white tail and a flesh-pink bill which is typical of the species.

 

This goose is a wetland operator and likes to breed in such areas surrounded by vegetation and large open spaces. On that count, Bhindawas was ideal given there were fertile fields - pretty mustard and wheat fields - all around the sanctuary. In fact the sanctuary was born out of excess water from Jawaharlal Nehru canal stored here. Their nests are on the ground, among the reeds and grass.

 

Threats are mainly Anthropogenic. These geese are hunted all over the world for sport and meat. Hunting geese and ducks is quite a tradition in UK.

 

The dangers posed by these birds is they are carriers of Avian flu and damage crops.

 

Photographed at Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary, Haryana, India on 4th December, 2013.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Black-headed Ibis or Oriental White Ibis:Threskiornis melanocephalus

Black-headed Ibis or Oriental White Ibis (Didhar)
Threskiornis melanocephalus

 

 

Black-headed Ibis or Oriental White Ibis: Threskiornis melanocephalus. Local Name: Didhar, Safed baza, Munda.

 

Status: Near-threatened.

 

It's ironical that the bird listed as 'Near-threatened' - and rightly so I may add - has been sighted by me in all waterland areas of northern, north-western and western India, where I've spent time birding past couple of years, in varying numbers, from large flocks to smaller numbers. However, I have never been able to photograph them properly with my rudimentary photography kit. The white and black coloration of these birds in bright sunlight from a distance always produced blurry qualities at most zoom levels. And these birds do not allow one to get too close, no matter how much you creep through and crouch patiently in the waterside reeds and muck. They wizen up. Other birds creating a racket about one doesn't help with camouflage either. Maybe with the more expensive bazookas, one can sit back comfortably at a safe distance and yet get clear, crisp shots. That's my saga with this bird.

 

It is about 70-80 centimeters in size wityh white feathers on body; a long black neck;  a prominent naked black head devoid of feathers ending in a long down-curved black bill. There may be yellowish-orange-brown or slate grey coloration beneath wings and on rump during breeding season. As if air-brushed onto a white canvas. The legs are long glossy black.

 

These birds are found in flocks/parties scattered across the marshy wetlands they inhabit. They may cluster on islands within wetland marshes.

 

Their nests are made of twigs atop trees near waterbodies just like storks. At Keoladeo Ghana last November, they were spotted in about a hundred numbers of them among the mixed population of many hundreds - might be in thousands - of storks and other ibises nesting atop trees there. 

 

They don't make much noise, just like the Wooly-necked storks in this regard, and unlike other storks and cranes.

 

Breeding seasons are in segments, from June to February, divided across India.

 

Am saving up for a low-end bazooka lens kit (which might take more than a year!) and hope to catch these birds with it next season of birding.

You guessed right, their main threat is Anthropogenic. This bird is vulnerable to drainage, disturbance, pollution, and agricultural conversion of waterlands; and also, hunting of adults, eggs and chicks by humans.

 

 

 

Photographed at Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra, India, on 19th January, 2014.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Woolly-necked Stork: Ciconia episcopus

Woolly-necked Stork
Ciconia episcopus



Woolly-necked Stork couple
Ciconia episcopus

 

Woolly-necked Stork, Bishop Stork: Ciconia episcopus. Local Name: Haji laq laq.

 

This photograph was taken from a seriously rocking boat on a gusty afternoon, and from a distance beyond comfortable range of my basic lens kit; hence, please excuse its quality. Had my hands full trying to get them in frame given they too were fidgety despite their studied sedentary ways.

 

About a metre in size, they have glossy black feathers on the back with wooly white neck and back of head. Top of head is black, as if wearing a skull cap typically. They have a heavy black bill which may have a reddish hue at the tip.

 

Solitary or in pairs, may sometimes be in small groups.

 

Found in wetlands and grasslands besides rivers etc., but seldom wades into water.

 

Asia and Africa main zones of existence. Rather sedentary with limited migratory habits.

 

In India tends to breed during the monsoon season in the southern parts and December to March in the north.

 

Nests are found atop tall trees with wide canopies and made of sticks and twigs like most other storks found in India such as Painted Storks, Open-bill Storks etc..

 

Main threat is Anthopogenic through habitat destruction, encroachment, fragmentation and shooting. Though numbers are dwindling, not considered endangered yet.

 

This was only my second sighting of these birds. Earlier, in a mixed population of nesting storks, I had spotted four of them among the many hundreds of storks at Keoladeo Ghana, Rajasthan, in November last. 

 

Photographed at Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra, India, on 19th January, 2014.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Common Stonechat: Saxicola torquatus (Male)

Common Stonechat (Samanya Bhatt-pidda)
Saxicola torquatus



Common Stonechat: Saxicola torquatus. Local name: Samanya Bhatt-pidda.

Name comes from sharp loud call that sound like two stones being tapped together. Small robin-sized birds. They calls tend to follow you in the forest and calls alerts other birds!

The female of the species have more brownish back and crown than black and a more orange tint compared to orange-red of males.

 

Photographed at Keoladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India on 24th November, 2013.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark: Eremopterix griseus

Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark (Dabhak Churi)
 Eremopterix griseus

 

Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark: Eremopterix griseus Local name: Dabhak Churi

 

In British India, this bird was shot for the table. It was also prepared as 'Ortolan', a French gastronomic form of force-feeding the bird (ortolan) in a dark box with grain, where the bird eats continuously due to darkness, and then drowned in wine and roasted whole and eaten that way, bones and all, with the diner covering his head and face with a large napkin to preserve the aroma. Source - Wikipedia.

 

Photographed at Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra, India, on 9th November,, 2013.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Indian Bush Lark: Mirafra erythroptera

Indian Bush Lark
 Mirafra erythroptera

Indian Bush Lark
 Mirafra erythroptera

 

Indian Bush Lark: Mirafra erythroptera

 

 

Photographed at Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra, India, on 19th January, 2014.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Pied Bushchat: Saxicola caprata (Male)

Pied Bushchat
Saxicola caprata (Male)

 

Pied Bushchat: Saxicola caprata (Male) Local name: Kala pidda

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Order	Passeriformes
Family	Muscicapidae
Genus	Saxicola

 

 

 

Photographed at Kumbhargaon, Maharashtra, India, on 19th January, 2014.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens

Greater Famingo: Phoenicopterus roseus (Agni Pankh)

Greater flamingo
Phoenicopterus roseus

Greater Flamingo: Phoenicopterus roseus. Rosy Flamingo. Locally known as Agni Pankh for obvious reasons.

 

The feathers, beak and legs are colored brilliant pink to orange depending upon the stuff they eat. Algae and crustaceans they eat contain carotenoids - just like those in our diet such as carrots, coloured capsicum etc. - which are ,metabolized in their liver to form the pigment. Those flamingos which haven't fed enough on the blue-green alga and crustaceans/plankton are pale to white in colour. As the flamingo on extreme left, right and center of the above photograph. After a few weeks of feeding - by mid-February- they'll be brilliantly colored.

 

Greater Flamingos are widespread in distribution. They aren't found in Antartica and Australia. Their Caribbean cousins are more orange than pink due to the carotenoid variety in their diet.

 

These birds live in large flocks of thousands of birds. At Kumbhargaon-Diksal, there were about 500-600 of them scattered over the shallow wetland area.

 

They have long flexible necks, tall limbs and distinctive beaks designed to dredge the shallow water for blue-green algae and plankton.

 

Salty estuaries are their natural habitat. Flamingos are present in large numbers in the Kutch are of Gujarat in India for this reason. Being filter feeders, the hostile environment of saline mud flats and estuaries serve to reduce competition and predators.

 

These birds are 1.5 metres tall approximately and with their necks up straight, and a wingspan that's longer. Look at their flight below:

 

Greater flamingo - Flight of a Flock
Phoenicopterus roseus

The bird leading the flock is their tribal 'neta'.

Flamingos bury their bills, and even heads, in the water sucking up the slurry rich in algae and plankton. Their bills contain filters which separate the foot from water. In days gone by, Flamingo tongues were sought after as a delicacy. Imagine that!

 



Greater flamingo dredging for food
Phoenicopterus roseus

Known to do elaborate courtship dances - singly or as couples - the bloke in center is trying to attract such attention. Wouldn't be surprised if the "Famenco" was based on the dances of Flamingos.

 

Males are slightly larger than females of the population. Females wear their pink earlier and brighter!

 

Flamingos gather in large flocks but they are not averse to be in mixed populations, being quite social birds, with Lesser Flamingos, which are smaller, or other shallow water feeders.

 

Greater flamingo with other species of birds
Phoenicopterus roseus

In the above photographs they are sharing the feeding area with Glossy Ibises, Ruddy Shelducks, Open-bill Storks. Not included in this photograph but present in the area were Spoonbills, Godwits, Stilts, Gulls, Terns, Cormorants, Shovelers, Purple Moorhens and other species of birds.

 

Look at how they contort their necks...almost a loop or a knot! (Towards the right in photo above).

 

There are a few peculiarities like their 'marching' in one direction or the other. As in the image below.

 

Greater flamingo - Marching
Phoenicopterus roseus

 The oranger Caribbean Flamingos are not thought to be a separate species. The Lesser Flamingos look a scaled down version of these Greater Flamingos.

 

When food scarcity hits, they undertake short migrations. Greater Flamingos are easily maintained in zoos etc. where they are fed diet rich in carotenoids to exaggerate their colour.

 

The above flock is completely wild.

 

Sharang and I did this trip together.

 

Photographed at Kumbhargaon, and Diksal,,  Maharashtra, India, on 19th January, 2014.

 

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with AF-S DX NIKKOR 55-300mm VR Lens