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Himalayan monal (Male): Lophophorus impejanus

 
Himalayan monal (Male)
Lophophorus impejanus
 
Himalayan monal: Lophophorus impejanus
Gender: Male
IUCN Status: Least Concern
Sighted at: Four distinct sightings between 2500 – 3500 m ASL.
Monal is the monarch of the bugyals and alpine forests of Uttarakhand. The Himalayan Monal is accorded the status of State Bird of Uttarakhand in India, and National Bird of Nepal. He is the most stunning bird of the montane region of Himalayas – from Kashmir to Bhutan – ruling the gentle curved bugyals and moist mixed forests from within his palace in rhododendron thickets at 1500m ASL or so onwards, as well as, the steep rocky slopes of alpine forests in his realm up to altitudes of 4000m ASL.
His plumage is iridescent armour of glittering metallic colours – black underneath, blue, green, copper, yellow, purple, white patch on back, a cinnamon brown tail and just about any colour with the changing angle of light falling on his plumage. His head is shimmering green and wears a crest of spatulated green shimmering feathers that tremble like emeralds hanging from stalks of a crown with every movement of his head and neck. In flight, he reveals a white horseshoe pattern on upper tail-coverts and a narrow white tip to tail. Truly, he is ‘a bird of nine colours’ as the locals call him.
The emerald jewels he wears as a crown was the reason he was hunted down in the past – royalty and important people of this mountainous belt wore his crest upon their turbans as a symbol of power. It is a miracle caused by efforts of conservationists that the monals are not rated as ‘vulnerable’ or ‘endangered’ as some others pheasants of the region.
My own expensive upgradation of photographic equipment and the long journey from Delhi and a tedious climb on foot – which ultimately floored me and ended my trip - with due respect to other bird species, was my way of homing-on on the Himalayan monal. Tungnath, Chopta and the climb to these places to spot the royal pheasant were always discussed in hushed reverential tones among colleagues who were interested in birding. It was considered a difficult enterprise – they all aren’t the fittest of men anymore - and one had to be lucky to come away with a ‘sighting’ after all the effort. Or so they all said. It grated – plans would be made and dropped and drawn up again and again dropped. And so on and so forth. My own fitness was going downhill given the sedentary nature of my current charge. I was crushed between a built up desire to spot a monal and passage of time, health and opportunities - eventually squeezed to a ‘now or never’ point. Sharang - who was stopping over on his own seminar-conference journey - and I, headed to Daryaganj, upgraded the photographic equipment – there was no way I was going to undertake this do-or-die trip with my trusty but rudimentary Nikon D5100 in expected low-light or snow-bright conditions. I dropped Sharang off at the airport later that evening and within a couple of hours of that, in the early hours of morning, I whizzed off on my ‘hunt’ for the Himalayan monals. No second-guessing myself. Expense, fitness and consumption of leave be damned – who knows about tomorrow, there may be none!
Garuda - the Lord of Birds – must have heard my plea clearly in that crisp pious air of the Himalayas and decided to bless me. Since my intensity was to sight monals, Garuda blessed me with as many as five sightings (Four distinct monals in five instances). In exchange, perhaps, Lord Garuda sent me home afterwards instead of allowing me to spot hundreds of other bird species of the region. I had three days more to spend but couldn’t.
I spotted the female monal only in flight on one instance. I could not spot them among the rhododendron thickets in low-light conditions on the mountainside. The female is not as colourful, though no less regal in stature. The female is a palette of earthy shades of brown to black with white neck patch, white streaks, short crest and bright blue orbital skin. Like mascara sported by human counterparts.  It is entirely possible the period I was there coincided with the nesting period of monals. Females incubate the eggs alone while the male potters around on guard and foraging duty. Could be one of the reasons I couldn’t spot the females. The must have been well camouflaged in the low-light among the brown thickets with patches of snow here and there. The other reason could be I wasn’t patient enough. I wasn’t going to go up or down the steep inclines and disturb the birds anyway or break my neck. I spent a fair bit of time waiting but all in vain.
The monals, like others Galliformes, have strong beaks and feet with which they can plough the moist soil for tubers, roots, buried worms, slugs, and the general pheasant family cuisine. They also eat berries.
 
Taxonomy:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:    Chordata
Class:         Aves
Order:       Galliformes
Family:     Phasianidae
Genus:      Lophophorus
Species:    impejanus
In Nepal it is also called Impeyan instead of monal after Lady Impey, wife of the colonial Chief Justice of Bengal who used to keep them in captivity. It was a different world then, one must keep that in mind; however, Lady Impey is immortalized by naming the species after her. That’s one way of acquiring species that do not belong to colonial powers! The other is of course the trade/economic forums of today.
The biggest threat to monals continues to be man and his expansive endeavours. We eat into their habitat on some pretext or the other. Hydroelectric power dams are the current reason for loss of habitat.
 
Photographed at Chopta-Tungnath mountainside, Uttarakhand, India, on 1st May, 2015, using a Nikon D7200 camera and Tamron 150-600 mm lens.
 

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Cheer pheasant (Male) : Catreus wallichii

 
Cheer pheasant : Catreus wallichii
IUCN Status: Vulnerable
Spotted at Vinayak, Pangot, Uttarakhand, India.
4.4.2015
Gender: Male
As we negotiated a curve in the snaking Himalayan incline, we came upon a reasonable straight stretch of road where I spotted another birder in the distance peeking over the verge tentatively at the mountainside below. He looked up towards us - his rotund face bespectacled with ‘Gandhi’ style glasses, face flushed with excitement – and began to furiously flap his left arm up and down. Obviously, he was flagging us down and asking us to be quiet. Common signals among birders. He had a big bazooka pointing down the slope, wore well-worn binoculars and looked to me a serious sort of birder. It had to be something important. Given the successional grassland landscape on the craggy slopes of the area, I felt my own excitement rising as I tip-toes quickly towards the birder. Could it be that he had spotted Cheer pheasants? The habitat looked the type.
When I reached the point, almost on my knees by then, I tremblingly, peered over the edge of the road. As my eyes cleared the crest of the stone bordering the road, I spied – about 10 feet away from my eyes - a Cheer pheasant couple foraging on the craggy mountainside! I dared not even shift my weight. This was a rare sighting. Cheer pheasants are classified as vulnerable and are severely threatened by various factors and their numbers are dwindling. But I had to photograph them. Eventually I did. Rather nervously and clumsily I might add, given my posture and the fact that they were rather niftily foraging over a large patch in the wide acreage of their wild estate. It was a lifer.
They have red facial skin, buff-grey plumage; males have long tails with black barring and spotting with central feathers being longer. The females are smaller in size – not by much – and have shorter tails.
Their diet is rather varied - Ants, Beetles, Berries, Bulbs, Grubs, Insects, Roots, Seeds, Tubers, Worms and stuff. Interesting to note they consume tubers and such, but not surprising given their strong beak and very peacock-like sturdy legs.
They nest on the rocky crags and their eggs are vulnerable to a host of avian and rodent predators.
It is found in the western Himalayas in small population groups, patchy in distribution, and widely separated. Therefore, an uncommon spot.
I must say, they were rather well camouflaged in the grass and black rock.
Taxonomy
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Genus: Catreus
Species: wallichii
They are monotypic, they are the sole species of this genus.
There was a time when they used to be classified among ‘game birds’. They still are in certain publications.
 
Photographed at Vinayak, Pangot, Uttarakhand, India on 4.4.2015.
Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.

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Cheer pheasant (Female) : Catreus wallichii



Cheer pheasant (Female) : Catreus wallichii
 

Cheer pheasant : Catreus wallichii
IUCN Status: Vulnerable
Spotted at Vinayak, Pangot, Uttarakhand, India.
4.4.2015
Gender: Female
 
Taxonomy
Kingdom : Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Genus: Catreus
Species: wallichii
 
 
Photographed at Vinayak, Pangot, Uttarakhand, India on 4.4.2015.
Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.

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Alpine accentor: Prunella collaris ssp. whymperi

 
Alpine accentor: Prunella collaris ssp. whymperi
Alpine accentor: Prunella collaris ssp. whymperi
Finding foothold on the Himalaya slope

Alpine accentor: Prunella collaris ssp. whymperi
 
 
Name: Alpine accentor: Prunella collaris ssp. Whymperi
Spotted at 3600m ASL approx 100m below Tungnath temple, Distt. Rudraprayag, Uttaranchal, India.
Rasping breath...when the next step was not forthcoming, the head turned involuntarily towards Kedarnath across the valley and my thoughts turned to Lord Shiva, at that very moment a silvery arc passed before my eyes and dropped to the snow. It was a flock of accentors, the sun glinting on their feathers. One of them came rather close and started foraging in a grassy/mossy knoll between piles of snow. I saw the rufous colour and I thought – it’s Altai again. Then I saw the yellow patch at the base of a black beak and a white neck patch – it was an Alpine accentor! Within a month, my score for the Prunella species rose to two from zero.
Taxonomy
Kingdom:     Animalia
Phylum:      Chordata
Class:       Aves
Order:       Passeriformes 
Family:      Prunellidae
Genus:       Prunella
Species:     collaris
Subspecies:  whymperi
Photographed at altitude of 3600m ASL approx 100m below Tungnath temple, Distt.Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand, India on 1.5.2015.
Camera used: Nikon D7200 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.
 

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Altai accentor: Prunella himalayana

Altai accentor: Prunella himalayana

Altai accentor: Prunella himalayana

Altai accentor: Prunella himalayana
 
 
Name:
Altai accentor: Prunella himalayana
IUCN Status:
Least Concern
Gender:
Indeterminate
Age:
Adult
 Name is derived from Altai mountains. Distribution is from Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Tibet and Turkmenistan.
Taxonomy
Kingdom :
Animalia
Phylum :
Chordata
Class :
Aves
Order :
Passeriformes
Family :
Prunellidae
Genus :
Prunella
Species :
himalayana
Subspecies :
monotypic
 
Characteristics:
Grey head and throat, rufous and black streaked back, white mottling on throat, horn-coloured beak, reddish-brown iris, a little larger than a sparrow – 15 cms approx in size; lives in flocks on barren mountainside or in meadows/low scrub along mountainsides.
 
 
 
Habitat:
Open Mountain
Food:
Beetles, Berries, Flies, Insects, Seeds, Worms
Nesting:
Low bush, Rock crevice
 
Photographed at Vinayak, Pangot, Uttarakhand, India on 5.4.2015.
Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.
 

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