Rapturous Rejuvenation

A female Sambar Deer on a hill top.

 In the year 2009, my father bought a piece of untouched forests in village Haripur in Punjab, which lies in the Shivalik Mountain range. It was far away from civilisation with little to no population in a 500-acre radius at the time. It was until 2012 when I first went there and saw the tropical dry evergreen forest. My father had a prefabricated temporary house made there as one can't make a proper brick and cement house on forest land. The house was in the middle of a valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides and one could see the sun setting perfectly behind the mountain range. The house was completely empty and abandoned and no one went there for quite a few years until the past 5 years. When I got into bird watching, observing wildlife and capturing it in my camera, I thought of what all rare and elusive fauna I would find in that place. 

An aerial view of the Farm in 2017

When I went there after so many years, it was still green and luscious but there seemed to be very little sign of wildlife which I had never noticed till that time. Well, of course, there was an occasional sighting of a Sambhar deer and a few common birds, but it wasn't what I expected of an untouched dense forest in the hills. It was a great place nonetheless and I started going there more often with my brother and friends for fun and barbecues.

In 2020 after a forest fire.

Once my brother and I along with some friend's scanned the land with a drone all afternoon and set up a barbecue till sunset and by the time we were done, it got dark and we started to walk back from the house to the entry point in the forest which is almost 5 kilometres and our car couldn't go beyond 2 kilometres so we had to navigate  3 kilometres through the dense forest at night. We had torches because without light it was complete and utter darkness and we couldn't see beyond a metre without them. We lost our way several times in the beginning as there were 10 foot long densely packed weeds and bushes in the way, but then we finally landed on the path made by a river which leads us back, but then we got lost again when the path divided into two and then finally we saw our car and everyone sighed in relief. On the way back to the car we even heard and saw a pair of Large Tailed Nightjar's which was a new bird for me at the time. Then everyone got into the car, but it still takes a lot of time to get back to the main road because the remaining 2 kilometres is also a dense forest and one can't drive very fast there. One the way back to the main road we suddenly stopped the car as we were cut off by a long trail of Wild Boar's crossing our path and all of us looked at them with awe. As we approached the end of the path we stopped again to see a Jungle Cat sitting in the middle of our way. The Jungle Cat is an elusive species of small wild cat's whose population is going down by the day. It was a wonderful experience finding such species of fauna and avifauna in a matter of hours, it was as if the forest came alive during nighttime. Every year during summers the valley would fill up with Indian Pitta's and we could hear their melodious call from each corner. Once we even saw a group of 8 of them surrounding a bowl of water at 7:30 in the evening.

In May, 2021, with water bodies.

As of recently, in the past 5 months that place has gone through drastic changes and for the better. In January, my father had a path cleared to the house and had all the unnecessary weeds and bushes removed. In a matter of weeks, my father acquired permission from the Divisional Forest Officer of Ropar Mrs Monika Yadav, to set up water for the flora and fauna of the farm. Several solar panels were set up behind the house to power a tube well which was used to fill up small ponds to provide water for the forest. Even the dried up seasonal river filled up with water to an extent. All the extra unnecessary shrubs and small trees were cut down. This process is called 'Thinning', in which selective removal of trees is undertaken to improve the growth rate or health of the remaining trees as overcrowded trees are under competitive stress from their neighbour's. Through planned forest thinning and carefully placed introduction of water, the whole area was now flooded with wildlife and several species of birds. In a census I conducted over a weekend I was able to record 124 different species of birds and animals such as Indian Muntjac's, Sambhar deer, Wild Boar's, Indian Crested Porcupine, Jungle Bush Rats, Indian Jungle Cat's, Indian Golden Jackals and the Indian Palm Civet. The labour was still at work around the house, creating a water reservoir for irrigation in the forest and furnishing the house so that one can stay there overnight.

The Blue Throated Blue Flycatcher which I saw.

                                   

I ventured into the deeper forest in the evening and sat under a bamboo thicket facing an old brick weir which is basically a small dam. There was no activity for a bit, probably due to all sound I made crushing the dried leaf loaded path when I walked there. After a while, I could hear several birds chirping, but it was very difficult locating them through dense branches and leaves. Suddenly a small blue and orange bird caught my eye while it was foraging for insects on the ground navigating through the dead leaves. I looked at it through my camera to click its photo and saw that it was a Blue Throated Blue Flycatcher, a summer breeder in the Himalayas.   

Orange Headed Thrush Female

As I was capturing this bird in my camera a dash of orange swooped in from behind. It was a pair of Orange Headed Thrush's collecting nesting material. I was overwhelmed with the amount of flamboyant birds I saw when suddenly I heard the sui generis call of the Indian Pitta right beside me as it appeared from the undergrowth. It was a bird that literally had 9 different colours on its body.

Orange Headed Thrush Male

Indian Pitta, the nine coloured bird.

                                       

It was extraordinarily wondrous seeing such colour in the dry and dull coloured surroundings. While walking back to the house I saw several Green, Blue Tailed and surprisingly Chestnut Headed Bee-Eaters swooping in the main pond in front of the house to drink water. As it got dark we saw the sunset and the moon emerge from the skyline. Around 9:00p.m we started hearing Large Tailed Nightjar calls from several directions and my father and I went to find and photograph them.

A Spotted Owlet during nighttime 

My father held the torch and tweaked my camera settings according to the dark. Whilst following the Nightjars call we found some Spotted Owlets which was also a great sight and made for a good photo. A Barn Owl also flew over us but we came to dead end with the Large Tailed Nightjar. We had walked till the very starting point of the farm where a Jackal was strutting around and ran away after seeing us and then we heard a different call from that of the Large Tailed Nightjar. It was a Savanna Nightjar which was flying in front of us and as my father followed it with a torch I tried to take its photo but got a blurry shot as it is difficult clicking fast-moving objects at night. We returned back to the house only to witness two Large Tailed Nightjar's swooping in on the pond to drink water in the dark, illuminated by the full moon.

                                             

The next morning I woke up and sat in front of the pond with my camera on a tripod and around 5:00 a.m there were so many birds that I lost count. I could see Peacock's dancing on the hills, several Red Jungle fowls and Bulbuls drinking water from the pond. A great many flycatchers, robins and warblers were all gathering on the bushes, a herd of Sambar Deer was roaming around to quench their thirst and the tips of trees were laden with Bee-Eaters, Yellow Footed Green Pigeons and pairs of Golden Oriole's. At this point, I was rather tired of clicking photos and had a month's worth of photos to post-process.

I found it very astonishing how a water source and some selective reduction of vegetation can completely replenish a dormant forest and how my father managed to do so in the past five months. Work still remains unfinished in those forests as there are more water reservoirs to be built across the several acres of land and I look forward to seeing what all various, elusive and vibrant species of animal life arrives there in the time to come. 

Four Indian Pittas together at the farm.

A Bird's Song

We hear them everyday, we hear them in our backyards and we hear them in the forests. Bird songs can be heard everywhere. Birds songs are nature's best sounds made by birds which are melodious to the human ears.

Ornithologists classify birds vocalisation into two types, which are :
(1) Bird Songs

(2) Bird Calls

Bird Songs are the longer and more complex bird vocals and are usually produced by birds in matters related to courtship, mating and territory. Many birds exhibit temporal and contextual variation in their delivery of songs, and in their responsiveness to the songs of members of their species. These variations

include short-term changes, such as locations in their territory, proximity to conspecifics,
and longer-term variations, such as with phase of the nesting cycle, time of day or season,
and even in relation to weather conditions such as temperature.

Bird Calls are comparatively simple, shorter and less rhythmic vocalisations which serve the function of alarms and to call for a partner or flock of that particular species.

The birds which are broadly classified as songbirds are Warblers, Thrushes and Sparrows. Songbirds learn their songs and perform them using a specialized voice box called a syrinx.The vast majority of non-songbird species make simpler sounds that are instinctual rather than learned. While some birds hatch knowing the songs they will sing as adults, the true songbirds have to learn how to communicate effectively. Songbirds begin learning their songs while still in the nest, a phase known as the critical period, when nestlings listen to the adults singing around them. Following fledging, young birds attempt to replicate these songs, practicing until they have matched their tutor's song. Some songbirds, such as the catbirds, thrashers, and mockingbirds, learn to mimic other species—frogs, cats, and even car alarms.

Unless and until we make an effort to hear a bird call it goes right through our heads. Each and every bird has a distinct sound, even the slightest of vocal differences can can help us differentiate between two species of birds, yet we can't recognise or remember the unique voices of all the birds. Thankfully, we have tools to represent bird calls visually through graphs which shows us the difference between vocal fibrillation of bird sounds. 

Grey Breasted Prinia

In the this graph we see that the frequency of the Grey Breasted Prinia is extremely low and can be heard loud and clear. The red area shows us the frequency until 44 Hertz and the purple shows 20500 Hertz. Humans can hear sounds  from 20 Hz to 20000 Hz .

Grey Breasted Prinia sound frequency graph

Plain Prinia

This graph shows the calls of the Plain Prinia and as we can see it has a higher pitched voice in between 1440-1830 Hz.

Plain Prinia sound frequency graph

If you hear a bird call or song the chances of that bird being male is greater. Male birds are the ones who produce most of the songs and calls in order to attract partners and assert their territory. Many birds sing at dawn. I believe that these calls are used by male birds in defence of their nests and mates. Particular birds such as the Pitta family burst out in a pompous and loud display of their calls at dawn and dusk. Birds are excellent vocalists. The "Thrasher" family of birds can produce two different notes at once. Canary's can alter between high and low notes by switching sided of the syrinx.

Indian Pitta 

Indian Pitta sound frequency graph.

Owls are also an interesting species when it comes to vocalisation. Many owls vocalize at a distinctively low frequency, which allows their songs to travel long distances without being absorbed by vegetation. Becoming familiar with these songs and other vocalizations will help you find and identify owls. Their calls are usually hoots, screeches, barks and shrieks.

Indian Eagle Owl

Indian Eagle Owl sound frequency graph.

Waveforms show changes in loudness over time. Distances between peaks are used to calculate pitch.

In todays world bird songs are being heard less and less everyday. The harsh and loud sounds created by vehicles, factories, and human tools cover up these beautiful and complex vocalisations made by birds. People use recorded audio calls from the internet or call playback to attract birds for the purpose of hunting them or for bird watching. This has increasingly become a problem in India.  The overuse of such artificial methods can affect breeding habits and social behaviours of birds.

The growth of bird song research over the past half century has been catalysed by both technical and theoretical advances. The study of mechanisms has largely moved to the neurobiological level, where work on bird song has blossomed. The vast topic of  bird vocalisation cannot be covered by one single article and one can even go very deep into the details of bird calls of a single bird species. I hope everyone observes more bird sounds from now on.

Pernicious Misconceptions

The misconceptions of mankind about how wildlife causes damage to our infrastructure is very much ludicrous. People often blame wildlife for damage to crops, attacking humans, destroying infrastructure and much more, but we do not realise that it is us who have invaded their  lives, destroyed their homes, and brutally finished the different races of wildlife just for our personal benefits and needs. We pollute habitats. We illegally hunt and kill animals and as  human population is growing so fast, animals and plants are disappearing 1000 times faster than they have in the past 65 million years. I know that writing about this will not change a thing about it or make me a wildlife conservator, hence through this blog I plan to list these threats so that we can know that how we can still bring change.

Amongst the threatened wildlife, bird life and insect life, agriculture in its current form poses the biggest hazard to these species more than any other factors. Agricultural practices used to be the greatest factor to support huge bird and insect populations, but the Un-organic and pesticide filled practices have only helped to reduce the population of avi-fauna it once supported. Though this can be changed through the practice of organic and sustainable farming which yields the equal amount of crops to the farmers as the usage of  Un-organic means of agricultural practices and pesticides, along with the advantage of protecting the environment.

The expansion of housing companies and huge industries have taken over the agricultural land after which small farmers and labourers are forced to resort to forest and clear them out for residing and farming which causes damage to nature and wildlife and as well as to humans and the climate.
When people intrude forests to expand agricultural land, animals of prey, usually leopards and tigers are threatened and in return they attack humans in fear. These animals are later on labelled as "Man-Eaters" and are simply killed due to this reason. Even simple and shy creatures such as snakes which help eradicate mice in fields are treated as a threat and are brutally killed on site.

A Russel's Viper decapitated by foolish people.

Birds which are included in the Sparrow family are disappearing as they have no where else to go. They cannot withstand the electromagnetic radiations produced by the telephone towers.  Due to this factor sparrows resort to village areas where usually agriculture is practiced and they usually damage many cereal and fruit crops. They also spoil cereal crops, animal feed and stored grain with their droppings. Their nests may block gutters and down pipes. So we cannot simply label them as 'Vermin', as we are the ones responsible for their suffering.

House Sparrow's which fell out of the sky due to heavy radiation.

Birds, namely Egrets and Herons eat worms and other insects from the fields and keep check on their population. Falcons, Kites, Hawks and other birds of prey help remove the mice and rats from the fields which are responsible for damaging the crops and soil. Sunbirds are  known to play an important role in pollination, while Larks, Pipits and Swallows put a check on pesky insects, yet all these birds are dying due to the pesticides used in fields. One such example is of the Red Headed Falcon from India. The population of this species has drastically gone down, as the mice which it catches and eats have consumed the crops filled with pesticides which poisons this falcon including many other birds of prey.

The Red Headed Falcon in Punjab.

For birds, this brave new world of intensification has meant death by a million pinpricks. Non-crop areas where birds once nested are now inhospitable fields of corn or wheat. Mechanised mowing injures birds and mangle their nests.  Farming practices have to radically change to become more sustainable as there are no easy changes.

Collisions with electricity transmission and distribution lines have been identified as the second-largest human-caused source of bird mortality. Between 10-41 million birds per year are killed by collisions with transmission lines; between 160,000 and 800,000 birds are electrocuted by distribution lines; and about 400,000 nests are destroyed annually due to vegetation clearing under power-lines.

Bees are also another order which is declining in population due to industrial agriculture, parasites/pathogens and climate change. The loss of biodiversity, destruction of habitat and lack of forage due to monocultures and bee-killing pesticides are particular threats for honeybees and wild pollinators. If this number keeps on declining it would destroy the delicate balance of the Earth's ecosystem and affect global food supplies.

 Bees killed by invasive wasps and fumigation.

Every animal has a proper function and place in this world and without them the ecosystem will get disrupted, hence instead of thinking only about our own financial gain we should also think about the wildlife around which is one of the greatest factor keeping our earth alive and protected from human greed.

The Anatomy of Aviation

Indian Roller in display at Sakteri,Haryana

Birds are masters of the air. Other animals can           fly, but none can match the sheer speed, agility,   and endurance of birds. Qualities which have been  refined by millions of years of evolution. We all know how birds fly, they have hollow and light bones, they have a streamlined body and they have feathers to push air back and take flight. We must acknowledge that all these facts are the most important ones, yet there is more to the art of  flying in birds.

 Flight is the most distinguished feature of birds  which differs them from other animals. Flight helps them while feeding, breeding, migrating, fleeing. The Indian Roller even uses its amazing flight to impress its partner for breeding by performing aerobatics and stunts in the air. Bird flight is a very vast topic and different birds have different flight patters and techniques. Some birds use their wings for gliding, some for hovering, some for soaring and so on. Nature has perfectly crafted flight patterns to different birds as per their needs.

All basic bird anatomy starts from a prehistoric creature known as the Archaeopteryx, which is considered to be the first bird ever. Its feathers only supported gliding and it had woodpecker like hand and feet which helped it grab onto trees. Today 150 million years after the the transition from dinosaurs to birds, we have over 10,500 species of birds around the world, all with distinct features, different colours, calls, flight patterns and behaviour.

The basic concept of flight lies in lift and drag. Lift is produced by the action of air flow on the wing, which is an Airfoil . The airfoil is shaped such that the air provides a net upward force on the wing, while the movement of air is directed downward.

Aerodynamic drag is the force which acts opposite due to which the bird exerts energy and pressure to the flight.

The shape of the wing of a bird is also very important for flight and there are many types of wing shapes. If the wing's shape is not balanced properly i.e if one of the wing is longer or heavier than the other, birds will not be able to fly at all, just like a plane crashing if the if one of its wing is only an inch longer.

Different birds have different wing shapes for different needs. 
Hummingbirds and sunbirds have short and triangular wings which are ideal for fast wingbeats while Eagles and vultures have Broader wings to catch rising air currents. I saw this phenomenon for the first time in Morni, Haryana from an observation point which was at a great height. At that point we saw a Himalayan Griffon Vulture which flew at a point and then suddenly gained a great height.When the vulture gained a great height, it flew across the whole land in a straight path and scanned for prey. After a while several more vultures stormed the same point and did the same thing. Mr. Daman, who was with us that afternoon and is an aeromodelling instructor in the Air Force told us that the vultures are catching warm air currents called thermals to get a better view. These thermals are present only at some points, and when the warm air which rises up, raptors identify it and it basically acts a lift for them to get to a higher level. It was very satisfying and fun to watch raptors catching thermals at different locations.

Himalayan Griffon after catching a thermal.

Birds also have different flying patterns. You may have seen that Cormorants and ducks during flight use rapid and regular wing beats while when you see a Swallow or Bee Eater, they randomly glide and flapp as they hunt insects in mid air. The different types of flight include: Gliding, Hovering, Flapping, Bounding, Random flight which are all self explanatory. Several times I have seen birds such as Kingfishers, Kestrels, Black Winged Kites and Short Toed Snake Eagles hover in mid air over their prey. They are able to do this by flying upwards just fast enough push against gravity against a wind current.

Take offs and Landings also have to be very precise. Birds such as Ducks, Cormorants, Herons and all other waterfowl have heavier bodies and have to exert more energy and pressure than other birds. Many waterbirds such as ducs and cormorants take a run-up and make the water their runway before taking off, while some birds just launch themselves.

Black Eared Kite at take off.

Landings have to be very accurate. If the bird does not land properly and aims for the wrong place, it will go crashing down into the ground. Birds extend their feet just like a plane unfolds its landing gear and perfectly co-ordinate their wings with slowing down a halting. Hence, almost all of our Aerodynamic Vehicles have been inspired from the flight and flight structures of birds.

Black Kite balancing before landing.

The tail also plays a major role in flight and gives direction to the angle on which the bird flies. In birds such as Bee-Eaters, the tail helps them take extreme turns in mid air when they are trying to catch insects and when this happens they also make a small "krrrk" sound if you observe closely.

A Blue Tailed Bee-Eater in flight.

Well, this was all I could observe about the flight of birds after 3-4 years of birding.There may be many more concepts and facts about bird flight that I need to learn, but now at least we now that why the birds keep preening their feathers.

Colour Codes: Understanding Bird Colours

All of us love colourful birds. The more the colours the more of joy comes to our hearts after looking at those birds. Many of us may not know that how different birds acquire different colours and always wish to see the more brighter and colourful bird rather than just an ordinary mynah. Well, the answer lies in science and as well as survival.

Bird Colours are a result of the pigments flowing through them and the light which reflects off their feathers.

When light passes through a prism, that white light is divided into seven colours: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. When the light deflects, Violet has the shortest wavelength and red has the longest which makes the colour red look more prominent while violet is less visible. The same way when light passes through the feather of birds at a certain angle, they give out different colours. This means that Parrots, Bee-Eaters and barbets are not actually green, we see the light reflecting from their brown and slightly transparent feathers. The best example to prove this comes through the bird, "Anna's Hummingbird". This bird is mostly green and grey with wonderful feathers on its head which changes colour according to the angle of light. In low light this bird usually looks dull grey or brownish, but with the swing of its head, sometimes it may seem pink, or bright red and sometimes it changes to a rufous and orange colour. Hence, its the angle and not the colour of the feathers which determine what we see. Thankfully, raptors and many animals which prey on birds don't see their colours as bright as our eyes do, which helps these colourful birds to hide from them easily.

Anna' Hummingbird from California,USA

Anna's Hummingbird changing colours due to light angles.

Many birds also acquire their colour through eating certain food substances which release pigments in their body causing a change of colours. The best example for acquiring colour change are flamingoes.

Flamingoes are born dull brown or grey and they acquire their pink colour because a natural pink dye called "Canthaxanthin" which they obtain through eating brown shrimp or blue green algae.

American Falmingoes from Florida,USA acquire their colour from Canthaxanthin.

There are three main pigments which give feathers their colours.

The first pigment is called "Melanin". Melanin produces a dark and black colouration and it is also the pigment which makes the hair of mammals look black. Melanin is a very strong and rigid pigment and is mostly used up in the flight feathers of birds.

Grey Bushchat from HP, India contains mostly melanin in feathers.

The second group of pigments are called "Carotenoids" which produces colours such as Red, Yellow and Orange. Cartenoids are ingested through the food and fruits the bird eats.

The third group of pigments is called "Porphyrins" gives out colours such as Red, Pink ans Green. It is the rarest of all pigments and is possessed only by a few bird families.

A mixture of different pigments produces different colours and hues in a bird.

Sun Conure from Brazil contains a mix of carotenoids and porphyrins.

Keratin also plays a role in bird colouration as it's the feathers, bill and feet are made of this substance. Keratin is the same protein which helps in the formation of nail and horns in mammals. It produces colour through the process of layering and scattering.

Layering colours are produced when translucent keratin reflects short wave-lengths of colours like blues, violets, purples and greens.

Scattering is produced when the keratin of feathers is interspersed with tiny air pockets within the structure of the feathers themselves. These air pockets and the interspersed keratin scatter blue and green light and produce the shimmering colours of birds like kingfishers, rollers and bee-eaters.

Indian Roller from Haryana,India consists of scattering of Keratin.

Hence, the different colours of birds are a perfect combination of pigments and light angles.

Another aspect of colour change in most birds is that, the male bird is more brightly coloured than females.The theory of Charles Darwin concluded that colour differences between sexes in birds (also known as sexual dichromatism) result largely from female preference for bright colours in males. This general rule has received much support since Darwin's time, but other influences have also been noted. For example, females of species that are exposed to predators while incubating tend to have dull colours, although both sexes may be brightly coloured in species that nest in tree hollows because the females are less visible to predators. Colour can also aid individuals in recognizing members of their own species and in species that are not good to eat, colours can provide a warning to potential predators. Males also have bright colours and beautiful extensions of feathers through which they show their pomp and secure their territory.

All of these factors perfectly combine to support the structure of bird colourations which made me realise that colours are not meant only for beauty or for us to look at them, they are also meant for the survival and lifestyle of the birds and animals we see everyday.

Wilson's Bird of paradise from West Pappua New Guinea
The striking male is below the dull and brownish female.

The Call Of Colours

Indian Pitta at Mirzapur

Pittas are one of the most colourful birds in the world. The behaviour, the colour and the ecology is very elusive and attractive. It is a delight to all birders and ornithologists.
Pittas are colourful, long legged passerine birds as big as a myna but plumper and short tailed. They generally hop around the forest floors over fallen logs and dense undergrowth, usually roaming in loose pairs. They feed on insects, grubs, snails, worms, etc. They are quite shy and are best located by their characteristic whistling calls. Most likely seen at dawn or dusk, roosting on trees with their melodious call.
One of my favourite Pittas is the infamous Indian Pitta, which is a bird of nine colours. I have seen it quite a number of times now and observing it and listening to its call is always a delight no matter how many times I see it. The Indian Pitta resides in the south in winters and comes upto north India in summers for breeding. It generally nest and breeds in the Shivalik Foothills and Western Himalayas, and while its conquest to reach there, it can bee seen through various states of India. This year I  saw six of them at farm in Ropar, Punjab. The Indian Pitta starts calling at 6:00am in the morning and at 6:00pm during the evening, thus it is also called the six o clock bird. It mostly prefers scrub jungles or dense deciduous forests. Pittas also have a very keen sense of smell. Indian Pittas were found to have the largest olfactory bulb out of all passerine birds. Pittas are also quite clever birds and have been seen several times, using stones to crack open snail shells and eat them.

Malayan Banded Pitta I saw in Thailand

There are 42 species of Pittas found in Asia,          Australia and Africa and are divided in three  different genus: Hydrornis, Erythropitta and Pitta. Pittas are a very popular bird group amongst birders due to their dazzling plumages and the relative difficulty of seeing these birds hiding in dark, dense forests. The desire of birders to watch this bird is incredibly described in the book: "The Jewel Hunter" in which the writer Chris Goodie attempts to see every species of this bird.

Due to the amazing appearance of this bird, many bird and wildlife photographers go beyond the limit of ethical bird photography. They use huge flashes to get good photos of this bird as it is usually seen in darker forest areas and the flash causes temporary blindness to the bird and stuns it. In order to see it people usually play their recorded call which in return makes the Pitta respond, but can also

confuse it. However, I stand guilty of attempting to call the pitta by using a fake call, I do not use it now and don't recommend it to anyone else as it confuses the bird in thinking that the fake call is its partner.

The Blue Pitta I saw in Thailand.

Pittas are continuously facing a threat to endangerment due to forest and habitat loss. The Gurneys Pitta in Burma and the Blue Headed Pitta from Borneo are threatened by rapid forest loss. Pittas are targeted by poachers for illegal wild bird trade. I myself saw several Banded Pittas caged in a local bazaar in Bangkok, Thailand.They are not targeted because of their song, as many songbirds are, and may simply be captured as bycatch from collecting other species, and because of their attractive plumage.

 The attempts to breed these birds in captivity is not a total success as they are strongly territorial and can cover territories from 3000m square to 10000m square. In captivity they also get highly aggressive, attacking other bird species and even their own while this behaviour is not observed in the wild.
Being the most colourful birds on our planet one can never see enough of pittas and their beauty never ceases to surprise me and it is our duty to conserve our forests, so that the home of these beautiful bird remains preserved and let them bewilder us by their beauty.

Indian Pitta Calling

The Gull Sees Farthest Who Flies Highest

A Black Headed gull At Sukhna Lake.

Gulls are often referred to as "Seagulls", but what most people don't know is that the bird "Seagull" is not a real species of birds. The word Seagull is just an informal way referring to any of the species that belong to the family "Laridae". In layperson's term that is not used by most ornithologists and biologists and has no fixed taxonomic meaning. A very good book known as "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach tells us about the story of a gull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a lesson about self-perfection. The story is absolutely wonderful, though it repeatedly uses the word "Seagull" to refer to a gull which has created a mindset amongst people about a bird know as the "Seagull" and is a common mistake made by many authors
 The study and identification of gulls is an extremely vast subject. It can be difficult to separate the many different species of gulls to the untrained eye but they always have minute differences in their size, leg colour, plumage and behaviour. Gulls are further divided into 10 different genus, most of which are not properly classified but the genus with the maximum species is the genus: Larus. There are approximately 50 species of gulls in the world, depending on how different species classifications are split or lumped.

The Lesser Black Backed Gull I saw in Kalesar, Haryana

Identifying immature and juvenile gulls usually creates havoc and can confuse even the best of ornithologists. One such incident happened with me, where I saw an immature gull near the Yamuna river at Kalesar National Park, Haryana. A flock of three gulls flew by me and I clicked all of their photos. One of them was positively identified as a juvenile Pallas's Gull because of its head marks and red spot on beak but the other two were extremely intriguing.When I sent the photos to some of my friends who are also bird experts, we had a good long debate about deciding wether it was a Juvenile Steppe Gull or a Juvenile Heuglins Gull. In the end we categorised the bird as a Lesser Black Backed Gull which is a broad term used to refer to both of them as we couldn't determine that out of the both which one it was. Gulls also have different winter plumages according to which they change their feathers until they reach maturity and even after that they change their plumages when breeding season approaches.

A comparison Chart for the Brown Headed and Black Headed Gull

A very common example of confusing Gulls which can be seen at Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh every winter are the Brown Headed and Black Headed Gull. Both look very different when in breeding plumage but when the breeding season is off, differentiating between them can be a tricky matter.When not in breeding they can be identified only by a thin white ring around their eyes and to see it one must have clear closeups of the bird.
Gulls are also social birds. They nest in large colonies near large water bodies and sea shores. If you ever visited one of their colonies, let me tell you that they are extremely overcrowded and so noisy that you can't even hear yourself speaking. A common example of the social behaviour is portrayed by the California Gull which nests at the Great Basins and the Pacific Coast in USA. They are very friendly birds and may also snatch your food while you are having walk on the beach.

Gulls are also very clever. They learn, remember and even pass on behaviours, such as stamping their feet in a group to imitate rainfall and trick earthworms to come to the surface.

A California Gull clicked by my father.

Gulls’ intelligence is clearly demonstrated by a range of different feeding behaviours, such as dropping hard-shelled molluscs onto rocks so that they break open so they can eat them, and following ploughs in fields where they know upturned grubs and other food sources will be plentiful.

Everything about these magnificent gulls can't be covered in a single article, but I hope people acquire the knowledge about these amazing birds living amongst us.

A colony of California Gulls at the Pacific Coat