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| In the Chronology: • Rufous-breasted Accentor ,Prunella strophiata - Facts and images; posted on 12 Jan 2010 • Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, Dendrocopos canicapillus - Facts and images; posted on 6 Jan 2010 • Booted Eagle, Hieraaetus pennatus - Facts and images; posted on 23 Dec 2009 • Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus - Facts and images; posted on 22 Dec 2009 • Lammergeier, Gypaetus barbatus - Facts and images; posted on 5 Dec 2009 • Ecologists sound out new solution for monitoring cryptic species; posted on 1 Dec 2009 • Albatross camera reveals Killer Whale association; posted on 28 Nov 2009 • Scaly Thrush, Zoothera dauma - Facts and images; posted on 27 Nov 2009 • Yellow-rumped Honeyguide, Indicator xanthonotus - Facts and images; posted on 18 Nov 2009 • 'Curtain twitching' skylarks keep track of strangers through their songs; posted on 15 Nov 2009 • Sierra Nevada birds move in response to warmer, wetter climate; posted on 16 Sep 2009 • Migrating birds chill to fatten up; posted on 15 Sep 2009 • Scientists reconstruct the plumage of extinct avian taxa using Subfossil DNA remains; posted on 31 Aug 2009 • Upland Pipit, Anthus sylvanus - Facts and images; posted on 26 Aug 2009 • Study finds migratory birds not picky about their rest stops; posted on 20 Aug 2009 • Roadrunners not too fast for AgriLife researcher; posted on 18 Aug 2009 • Aesop’s fable ‘The crow and the pitcher’ more fact than fiction; posted on 18 Aug 2009 • Spotted Bush Warbler, Bradypterus thoracicus - Facts and images; posted on 17 Aug 2009 • Bald-Faced Flyer: WCS and University of Melbourne Discover New “Bald” Songbird; posted on 11 Aug 2009 • Invigorated muscle structure allows geese to brave the Himalayas: UBC research; posted on 5 Aug 2009 • Humans lend a hand to critically endangered waterbird; posted on 1 Aug 2009 • Energetic bottleneck factors in winter wrecks. Study on catastrophic loss of seabirds; posted on 1 Aug 2009 • Noise Pollution Negatively Affects Woodland Bird Communities, According to CU-Boulder Study; posted on 27 July 2009 • Researchers see evidence of memory in the songbird brain; posted on 24 July 2009 • Toxic molecule may help birds "see" north and south; posted on 24 June 2009 • Rosy Starling, Sturnus roseus - Facts and images; on 22 June 2009 • Allometry of the Duration of Flight Feather Molt in Birds; Neccessary feather change limits bird size, posted on 18 June 2009 |
Recent content
Kakdagad (~1000m), 46 Kms before Gauri Kund (Kedarnath), Uttarakhand,
India on 4 July 2009. (Coor.: 30.490610, 79.086167). YS Negi and I search a known himalayan location of the Yellow-rumped Honeyguide which depends on the rock bee hives for subsistence. Bees depend on flowers but the forest zone near Kakdagad is degrading fast and hence the bird is threatened there, as elsewhere, but this inconspicuous bird possibly is more common than meets the eye. Buzz Index (6 months Google aggregate,
24Nov09)
Besra Chopta BirdsLearnNestDefence DesertNationalPark DemoiselleCrane HarKiDoon IndianBustard LateCanariesSingAsWell References Shillong |
Differs in having the whole upper plumage greyish brown, with only the back
streaked, the few traces of streaks visible on the crown being obscure or obsolete;
the lateral black bands on the crown are broader and more massive;...
According to Mr. R. Thompson this Pigmy Woodpecker breeds in the dense forest
districts of the bhabar and lower valleys of Kumaun in April and May, laying
4 or 5 eggs. The birds migrate into cultivated districts in winter...
This is a highly predatory species, living on squirrels, rats, and other small
mammals, doves, pigeons, &c. It frequently carries away fowls, and Jerdon remarks
that Kites are often unjustly credited with the depredations of this little
Eagle on pigeons and poultry...
The Peregrine is seldom found far from water, and is most common on the sea-coast
or near rivers and large swamps, doubtless from the abundance of its prey, which
consists largely of ducks and waders; pigeons,...
The Bearded Vulture keeps to rocky hills and mountains, and is usually seen
beating regularly over precipices and slopes with a steady sailing flight very
like that of a Vulture. It occasionally soars also, and may be recognized at
a great elevation by its pointed wings and long wedge-shaped tail...
I am inclined to think that this bird is resident on all the hill-ranges
within its area of distribution, and merely descends to the adjoining
plains in the winter.
Original description: Notes on various Indian and Malayan Birds, with Descriptions
of some presumed new Species. By Edward Blyth, Curator to the Museum of the
Asiatic Society.
H. sylvana.-Above clear brown, picked out marginally with clear rufous,
as in the Larks; below rufescent, with narrowing central stripes;
chin immaculate; a dark mustache; superciliary line pale; tail-feathers
internally and laterally albescent; upper coverts prolonged and pointed,
as in the Larks; bill sordid fleshy or horn; legs clear,...
Distribution. Nepal and Sikhim, extending to the Bhutan Doars and
across the valley to Shillong. Godwin-Austen also records this species
from the Megna river in Sylhet. In the British Museum there are specimens
collected in the N.W. Himalayas by Pinwill, and in Kashmir by Jerdon....
Distribution. The whole of India as far east as Western Bengal, Ball recording
this species from Manbhoom. It is found on the lower ranges of the Himalayas
as far east as Sikhim. It extends to Ceylon, and is said to have occurred in
the Andamans. It is absent from India from about the middle of May to the beginning
of July, but is abundant at other times. It occurs over a considerable portion
of Europe and Western and Central Asia...
The Demoiselle Crane appears early in October-often I think in September-generally
in vast flocks, either flying in a straight line or in a line which
the letter M. represents very well. Occasionally, but rarely, they
will settle on large shallow jhils; but on the Chowka and Gogra at
Byramghat they are often numerous, particularly during the very cold
weather. They migrate in March, going, as they came, in immense flocks...
Coloration. Male. Head and neck all round, and upper breast, deep
crimson; chin blackish; remainder of lower parts bright crimson behind
an ill-marked white gorget; back, scapulars, and wing-coverts along
forearm ferruginous-brown, brighter and more rufous on rump and upper
tail-coverts; wings as in H. fasciatus; middle tail-feathers rich
chestnut, black-tipped, the next two pairs black, with usually part
of the outer web chestnut; outer three pairs black, with long white
tips...
Habits,
&c. The Great Indian Bustard is usually found singly or in
twos or threes, more rarely in flocks, and it keeps chiefly to open
dry country, especially wastes covered with low grass and scattered
cultivation, or sandy ground with small bushes; it is never found
in forests nor on hills, but it sometimes enters high grass...
Coloration. Upper plumage greyish brown, tinged with rufous on the
upper tail-coverts and slightly streaked with blackish on the crown;
tail brown margined with pale rufous, the outer web of the outer tail-feather
entirely of this colour, the bases of all the feathers tinged reddish;
wing-coverts and quills brown margined with pale fulvous, the inner
web of all the quills largely pale rufous; lores brown; a ring round
the eye and a line above and below the lores fulvous white; ear-coverts
greyish brown; chin and throat pale fulvous white, with a few brown
spots on the lower throat; remainder of lower plumage fulvous grey,
with a few brown streaks on the breast; under wing-coverts and auxiliaries
rufous...
Distribution.
A winter visitor to the plains of India, ranging as Coloration. Male. Resembles
male of P. grisea, but differs in having the forehead broadly white, the whole
crown dark chocolate-brown or blackish, and the white of the ear-coverts produced
narrowly round the hind neck to form a collar; the black sides of the neck are
also produced as a collar over the mantle, immediately behind the white collar...
Habits, &c. Those of the family. The nesting does not appear to have
been recorded within Indian limits, though there can be no doubt that
this bird breeds in the Himalayas. In Europe it breeds about February
or March, sometimes on cliffs, more often in trees;...
Distribution. A winter visitor to the plains of India, ranging as
far east as about the longitude of Mudhupur on the E.I. Railway, where
it meets P. superciliosus, and the two are found there together. It
extends south to about the latitude of Belgaum. It is found throughout
the Himalayas as far as Nepal, but it has not occurred in Sikhim...
The Grass-Babbler is not uncommon about Deesa in the rains at which
season it breeds. I found a nest containing four eggs on the 18th
August 1876. When the hen bird flew off I mistook her for Chatarrhoea
caudata (Common Babbler, Turdoides caudata - ED). On looking,
however, into the bush I saw at once by the eggs that it was a species
new to me...
Coloration. Whole upper plumage, sides of the head and neck, chin,
and throat umber-brown (deepest on the crest) shading off into pale
brown on the lower plumage; every feather of the plumage, both upper
and lower, the wing-coverts, and tertiaries with a long median white
streak, the streaks larger but less defined on the abdomen and under
tail-coverts; quills dark brown, the outer webs of the first few
primaries hoary,...