This drongo is black without any glossy on the upperside and greyish on
the throat and breast while the belly and vent are entirely white in the
Indian form which is the nominate subspecies. The fork of the tail is
less deep than in the Black Drongo
which is often seen in the same habitats. Young Black Drongo's can have
a lot of white on the underside but it is usually scaly in appearance.
The Sri Lankan forms insularis of the northern
dry zone and leucopygialis
of the southern wet zone have the white restricted to the vent. Birds
that are less than a year old lack the white on the underside but are
browner above and greyish below
Indian Peafowl
The Indian peafowl or Blue peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large and brightly coloured bird of the pheasant family native to South Asia, but introduced and semi-feral
in many other parts of the world. The peacock (male) is predominantly
blue with a fan-like crest of spatula-tipped wire-like feathers and is
best known for the long train made up of elongated upper-tail covert feathers
which bear colourful eyespots. These stiff and elongated feathers are
raised into a fan and quivered in a display during courtship. The female
lacks the train, has a greenish lower neck and has a duller brown
plumage.
They are found mainly on the ground in open forest or
cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but will also prey on
snakes, lizards, and small rodents. Their loud calls make them easy to
detect, and in forest areas, often indicate the presence of a predator
such as a tiger. They forage on the ground, moving in small groups and
will usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying.
They will fly up into tall trees to roost, however. It is a bird that
is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology and is the
The Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassinus) is an Old World flycatcher found in the Indian subcontinent, especially in the Lower Himalaya.
It is named after its distinctive shade of copper-sulphate blue and has
a dark patch between the eyes and above the bill base. The adult males
are intense blue on all areas of the body, except for the black
eye-patch and grey vent.
Adult females and sub-adults are lighter blue.
They are also interesting among the flycatchers in that they forage
above the canopy level and perching on electric wires or exposed tree
top branches.
This species was earlier placed in the genus Muscicapa and it has been suggested that it is closer to the Niltava flycatchers
Mynas are not a natural group (Zuccon et al. 2006); instead, the term myna is used for any starling in India and surrounding areas, regardless of their relationships. This range was colonized twice during the evolution of starlings, first by rather ancestral starlings related to the Coleto and Aplonis lineages, and millions of years later by birds related to the Common Starling and Wattled Starling's ancestors. These two groups of mynas can be distinguished in the more terrestrial adaptions of the latter, which usually also have less glossy plumage except on the heads and longer tails. The Bali Myna which is nearly extinct in the wild is highly distinctive.
Pegions
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird cladeColumbidae that include some 310 species of near passerines.
In general the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat
interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for
"dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but
this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names
for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms
"dove" and "pigeon." This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest
variety is in the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones. Young doves and pigeons are called "squabs."
Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and have short slender bills with a fleshy cere. The species commonly referred to just as "pigeon" is the Feral Rock Pigeon, common in many cities.
Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests from sticks and other
debris, which may be placed in trees, on ledges or on the ground,
depending on species. They lay one or two eggs, and both parents care
for the young, which leave the nest after 7 to 28 days.[1] Doves feed on seeds, fruit and plants. Unlike most other birds (but see flamingo), the doves and pigeons produce "crop milk", which is secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Both sexes produce this highly nutritious substance to feed to the young.
Magpie
According to analysis,[3] magpies do not form the monophyletic
group they are traditionally believed to be—a long tail has certainly
elongated (or shortened) independently in multiple lineages of corvid
birds. Among the traditional magpies, there appear to be two distinct
lineages: one consists of Holarctic species with black/white coloration and is probably closely related to crows and Eurasian jays. The other contains several species from South to East Asia
with vivid coloration which is predominantly green or blue. The
Azure-winged Magpie is a species with a most peculiar distribution and
unclear relationships. It may be the single survivor of a long extinct
group of corvid genera.[citation needed]
Other research[4] has cast doubt on the taxonomy of the Pica magpies, since it appears that P. hudsonia and P. nuttalli may not be different species, whereas the Korean race of P. pica
is genetically very distinct from the other Eurasian (as well as the
North American) forms. Either the North American, Korean, and remaining
Eurasian forms are accepted as three or four separate species, or there
exists only a single species, Pica pica
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australasia. The group is treated either as a single family, Alcedinidae, or as a suborder Alcedines containing three families, Alcedinidae (river kingfishers), Halcyonidae (tree kingfishers), and Cerylidae (water kingfishers).
There are roughly 90 species of kingfisher. All have large heads, long,
sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have
bright plumage
with little differences between the sexes.
Most species are tropical in
distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests. They
consume a wide range of prey as well as fish, usually caught by swooping
down from a perch. Like other members of their order they nest in
cavities, usually tunnels dug into the natural or artificial banks in
the ground. A few species, principally insular forms, are threatened with extinction
Little Egret
The adult Little Egret is 55–65 cm long with an 88–106 cm wingspan,
and weighs 350–550 grams. Its plumage is all white. The subspecies garzetta
has long black legs with yellow feet and a slim black bill. In the
breeding season, the adult has two long nape plumes and gauzy plumes on
the back and breast, and the bare skin between the bill and eyes becomes
red or blue. Juveniles are similar to non-breeding adults but have
greenish-black legs and duller yellow feet. has yellow feet and a bare
patch of grey-green skin between the bill and eyes. The subspecies nigripes differs in having yellow skin between the bill and eye, and blackish feet.
Little Egrets are mostly silent but make various croaking and
bubbling calls at their breeding colonies and produce a harsh alarm call
when disturbed
