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 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

The Invisible Bird

An Indian Nightjar clicked by Mr. Rick Toor at Sattal,Uttarakhand.

 Nightjars are mysterious birds. They are    
 nocturnal birds which live a secretive            
 lifestyle. Most people only consider owls as  
 the birds which rule the nights and consider  
 them to be the only nocturnal birds but what
 they do not know is that owls share their
 nights with another nocturnal species, the
 Nightjar.

 Nightjars are medium sized bird with long
 wings, short legs and a very short bills. They
 mostly sit flat on the ground or can be seen
 perched on dry and hardwood tree branches
 with their outstanding camouflage which
 blends perfectly with the surroundings
 making them extremely hard to spot during the day. I, myself on one occasion passed by the side of a Jungle Nightjar and not knowing it was in front of me, it suddenly flew off with great speed leaving me startled but enough to see by the colour that it was a Jungle Nightjar. All the nightjars come into the order of "Caprimulgiformes" which have been divided into three subfamilies: the "Caprimulginae", the typical nightjars with 79 known species, the "Chordilinae" or Nighthawks with 10 known species and the Eared Nightjars are placed in a separate family called "Eurostopodidae" (*this family has not yet been widely adopted) with 9 known species.

In many European languages, the Nightjar is known as the ‘goatsucker,’ with the genus name "Caprimulgus" deriving from the Latin for ‘milker of goats’. It was believed that Nightjars fed from goats due to often being found in close proximity to livestock. In reality, this insectivorous species would have been searching for prey associated with domestic animals. Others believed the calls of the Nightjar were the sound of witches hiding in the bushes.
The main diet of these peculiar birds consists of insects in which they prefer moths and other large insects. They can fly very long distances for feeding as it requires a lot of insects to fill its appetite and has been recorded to go until a 6km radius of its nesting site to find food.

Nightjars lay one or two eggs in small clearing soft dense forest on bare ground . Some nightjars surround their nest with some twigs and leaves while some just lay them out in the open and sit upon them so that the light which reflects off eggs doesn't attract predators. The nightjar being a master of disguise will not fly away if its incubating its eggs as it believes that it won't be seen and sometimes you may walk by its side and it will remain their to protect its eggs.
Nightjars become quite active during their breeding season and you may hear their calls near their feeding and nesting areas in their habitat starting from dusk and sometimes continuing till next morning.
Road Kills is one of the major reason of decrease in population of this species because of its habit of resting and roosting near roads. Once, I also saw a Savanna Nightjar sitting in the middle of the dirt track which leads to my farmhouse in Ropar, Punjab. There is an uncertain amount of data about the population of this species due the difficulty of finding and identifying this species of birds.

In the past I have seen quite a few different species of nightjars and nighthawks but the first time I tried to get its photo was when I went to Kalesar National Park, Haryana on 18th April, 2019. After a full day of birding near the Yamuna river we went to rest in the Kalesar forest rest house for the night and about near 7:00pm I heard a peculiar sound I had heard before, besides the house. I recorded the sound and sent it to a fellow birder. We both agreed that it was the call of a Large Tailed Nightjar. I was very happy  knowing that it was Large Tailed Nightjar as I had never seen this particular Nightjar before. I asked the forest guard to get me a torch so that I can see the bird which was extremely close in the the undercover of bamboo and sal trees. As soon as I got the torch I went down to the porch of the house and set up my tripod and camera with the torch. There was a steep cliff which went down to the Yamuna river bank and had a lot of thick branched trees. I scanned the area with my torch and as soon as the light form my torch hit the nightjar, its eye started glowing like a ruby and I recognised it. I took my camera and tried to focus on it but due to low light I got very dark and shaky shots and only star a few seconds it flew away leaving me disappointed. after a few minutes I heard its call again and located on another far away tree in thick underbrush. I could see its eye glowing under the torch light but still I couldn't take the photo due to thick bushes. We stood there just looking at it from a distance of 15-20m and hearing its loud and continuous call for about half an hour. We were really tired and just as we were about to go back, the nightjar astonishingly came and sat just in front of us and I was extremely amazed. I focused my camera on it as fast as I could after which I got many clear shots while it was calling. After I got my proper clear shot it flew away as if it had specially sat upon an open perch for me. I was filled with joy, as it was the first time I had clicked a Nightjar though I had seen it many times before and I hope to see more of these mysterious birds in the future.

The Large Tailed Nightjar I clicked at Kalesar National Park..

The Royal Falcon

The photo just before it launched itself after landing.

Falco peregrinus peregrinator. On 13th April, 2019 a surprise waited for me in Nagar Van, Chandigarh. A falcon flew besides me while I was photographing a Wood Sandpiper. I assumed the falcon to be a Peregrine Falcon which is a yearly winter visiter to Nagar Van. It went and sat on the transformer tower which is its favourite location and assuming it to be a Peregrine Falcon I ignored it, as I had seen it before. After some time we saw it flying once again and assumed that today the falcon was hungry and it wanted to hunt. So, to witness this act we went close to the tower and saw it sitting on the absolute top of it which was about a 70m above the ground. We waited for about five minutes and to our surprise the falcon dived towards the forest canopy in such great speed that I couldn't even take its photo. I was disappointed to see it disappear into the canopy without getting a dive photo but once again to our surprise it flew in from behind our backs towards the tower in high speed and this time I was ready. I focused my camera on the flying falcon and kept pressing the click button.While I was continuously clicking the photos the raptor was about to sit on the tower but immediately as it landed, it took off the next second as it saw Black Drongo sitting on top of the tower but then again, instead of going after the drongo it came back and sat on the tower. All this happened just only within a matter of 20 seconds and this time I managed to capture all this in my camera but, when I reached home and looked at the photographs I was extremely astonished. I looked at the falcon closely. The raptor which I assumed to be a Peregrine Falcon was actually a Shaheen Falcon, which is a South Eastern sub-species of the Peregrine Falcon. To confirm my hypothesis I sent the photo to a senior and experienced birder who told me that it was indeed a Shaheen Falcon and also gave me certain points and facts about it. I had seen the Peregrine Falcon a lot of times before, but his was the first time I saw a Shaheen Falcon. 

The taxon was formally described by Carl Jacob Sunderval in 1837 as a separate species, Falco peregrinator, based on a juvenile specimen caught on a ship between Sri Lanka and the Nicobar Islands. Its taxonomic status as a subspecies of Falco peregrinus has been controversial for several years. The Shaheen Falcon is mainly found in India and is a small and powerful looking flacon with dark upper parts and a gorgeous rufous belly. This appearance has made it a favourite amongst falconers and it is one of the most traded raptor due to which it requires for more conservation. People infiltrate its nest for collecting its eggs and selling them for trade due to its reputation amongst raptors which has now resulted in different nesting behaviour of this bird, building its nest away form human vicinity. A lot of information on this raptor in generally lacking and much more research is required including taxonomic studies and its population status in India and China. This raptor is usually solitary and mates for life. Its breeding season varies in the Himalayan Foothills between March and May and sometimes upto June. The Shaheen Falcon is a deadly hunter and preys upon mostly birds such as partridges, doves, quails, swifts, parakeets and it has even been recorded while hunting ducks. The falcon sits on high perch selecting a perfect prey and scanning the hunting area after which it dives upon the selected prey with a speed normally upto 320km/h inserting its talons inside the other bird and killing it upon impact due to its high speed. This raptor is the fastest flying bird and its dive speed has been recorded to reach 389km/h. The name of this flacon is derived from Persian which literally means "Like a King", "Worthy of a King", "Majestic"or "Kingly" making this bird a favourite amongst royals.

The aerial high speed shot while it came behind our backs.

Population Distribution of the Shaheen Falcon