4 The diverse birdlife and habitats of North-India are tied together in intricate ways. This is a guest article by Pritam Baruah.
Species Information
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4 A few species of birds evolved over time into life forms so different from their nearest relatives that evolutionary biologists place them alone in their own families. Here are the 7 monospecific families that are found in India. (Guest post by Pritam Baruah)
The Monospecific Bird Families of India
4 This article focusses on the two species of a group of very small shorebirds known as Stints (Calidris sp) - the Little Stint and the Temminck's Stint.
Identifying Waders: Part 2
4 In the first part of the series related to identifying waders, we try and tackle an often misidentified group consisting of the Tringa sandpipers.
Identifying Waders: Part 1
The Pied Cuckoo is well known to birdwatchers and in folklore as the bird that heralds the beginning of the monsoon. Legend has it that the ‘chaatak’ arrives just in advance of the rains. When the first Pied Cuckoo of the season is spotted, the rains can’t be far behind. The story is a little more complicated. This species is… read more »
The Rain Bird and the Monsoon
The guide to identifying the 7 species of turdoides babblers found in India
The Jungle Babbler and its Six Sisters
1 The following article has been written by Chinmay Rahane. The classification of birds into different species, known as avian taxonomy, is a fluid subject. Bird species are being split quite frequently these days, often due to advances in molecular methods. These methods are similar to DNA testing in human beings, by which one can make inferences about the ancestry of… read more »
Any black on the wings, Mr. Jungle Babbler?
The previous article focussed on the 4 regularly occurring white egrets from India. In this follow-up post, the attention will shift to egrets that happen to be dimorphic, i.e., they have a dark morph as well as a white morph. The Reef-Egrets are chiefly coastal, associated with beaches, estuaries, islands, etc. In India, the Pacific Reef-Egret is restricted to the Andaman and… read more »
Dark egrets can be white…
17 Egrets are beautiful and elegant birds to watch. You’ll often see them standing still over water and, in a flash, using their long, pointed bills to stab a fish or pick out an insect. No matter where you are in India, it is common to see one or many white birds looking for prey in wet fields and water bodies, or… read more »
What’s that White Egret sp?
Each year, the Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus undertakes a marathon journey from its breeding grounds in the trans-Himalayan region and further north in China and passes through the subcontinent enroute its wintering range in Africa. This route has been further elucidated by the Beijing Cuckoo Project, which has been tracking cuckoos satellite-tagged around Beijing earlier this year. This species, usually recorded… read more »
“Common” Cuckoo
Ever seen a V-shaped flock of black birds flying purposefully in the sky near a water body? Or a black bird sitting still with its wings spread out in a small village pond? Or a bird’s head sticking out of the water at a lake or pond? Did you notice any large colonies of black birds nesting on tall trees by a… read more »
Cormorants Clarified
5 There are four species of leafbirds (also known as chloropsis) found in India and they never fail to enthral a birder. Each of them is largely green, slender in build, with a medium-length tail and the habit of dwelling in the top or mid-canopy. They feed on fruits, insects and even nectar. The Orange-bellied Leafbird Chloropsis hardwickii is restricted to… read more »
Leafbirds – Golden-fronted, Jerdon’s and others
Hopefully, you’ve had some practice over the past month(s) in telling apart larks from pipits. In this article, we’ll try and give some tips to tell between 3 different groups of larks and the species within these groups. We’ll start with the Bushlarks, Skylarks and crested Larks – all of which can be mistaken for each other. All these larks are… read more »
Bushlarks, Skylarks, ‘crested’ Larks
23 Few birds are as confusing to the beginning birder as Pipits and Larks. The first step towards identifying the species within the two families is to be able to tell between a pipit and a lark. Here is a short guide to telling apart these confusing ground-dwelling birds. Morphology Pipits and larks are generally confused with each other because they… read more »
Is that a Pipit or a Lark?
9 Green and Greenish Warblers have always been notoriously difficult to tell apart. Till recently, Green Warbler (P. nitidus) was considered to be a subspecies of the Greenish Warbler (P. trochiloides). Considering the difficulties involved in identifying the two species in the field, I hope the few pointers here are helpful. Do note that the species are best separated by a… read more »