What bird have you seen where you live today? (1 Viewer)

[Jaysan]

Am in Chennai for the next couple of days. Not sure if I will be allowed to go birding this visit. So decided to look around the house. I used to see a lot of sparrows as a child. But they are rare now. Just thought it would be intresting to see what common birds people see and children grow up with now. These are the birds I saw today.

Crows (House and large billed)
Drongo
White throated king fishers (will post a picture later)
Common mynas
Yellow billed babblers (will post later)

Hoping to hear from you...

 

[Jaysan]

Day 2: Took a walk down the road from the house at 6.00 AM in Neelankarai, Chennai. Here is the list of birds.

1. Golden Oriole x1 (Will post image later)
2. Rufous treepie x 2
3. Spotted dove x2 (Will post image later)
4. Many Sunbirds - thought they were purple sunbirds, but there was a definite Lotens Sunbird (Will post image later)
5. Ashy woodswallows (x3) (Will post image later)
6. A finch of some sort (Will post image later for ID) x5
7. Yellow billed babbler (x1) (Will post image later)
8. Koel (x2) (Will post image later)
9. Red vented bulbul (x2) (Will post image later)

And many house / large billed crows, common mynas and black drongos (will post image later).

Walked down to the beech, striking sunrise, but no birds there.

There were loads of people going for their morning walk / jog enquiring as to what I was up to. Caught a few standing behind me waiting to see the pictures on the camera. Quite appreciative when they got to see the images. One individual gave me a pointer to the nesting place of fruit bats in the locality. Used to be quite common when I was a kid, but since a lot of trees were felled in the interim years, they are not that common.

Not bad for an hours work.

 

[Jeanie]

Hi Jaysan,
We were in Chennai a few years ago in March. We were culture hunting rather than birding and the most memorable aspect of the trip was the heat and the upset stomach that we got. Been to India many times but that trip wins the all out food poisoning competition.
Today in Chester it's rather dull. In the garden we have
Goldfinch
Bluetit
Greatit
Blackbird
Wren
Greenfinch
Sparrows
Dunnock
Starlings
and doves various.

Jeanie

 

[Jaysan]

Hi Jeanie,

Sorry your trip went - how do I put it - down the drain... some advice I give visitors is to wash hands before eating, not to dry hands with a towel (it will dry in a few minutes - remember you are in India), touch your food and only your food with your eating hand (useful to designate one hand for eating and the other for handling things), avoid chutneys, water/ice cubes. Piping hot food is generally safe, even if the surroundings are not ideal. The bit about washing hands / towel and not touching other things stems from my experience in microbiology. Might sound nit picking, but the devil is in the detail. Most Indians will eat with one hand (usually the right) and handle things with the other - these cultural habits have a role in avoiding infections.

Now for the birding bit. You are lucky to have all those species visiting. The only birds that come to my feeder are the gold finches (x8), 2 black birds, a robin and 2 wood pigeons.

Went down the same road this evening. Saw the following new species.
1. Coppersmith barbet (x1)
2. Green bee eater (x2)

Also came across a group of school children walking home. One of the boys wanted his photo taken, subsequent to that the whole group wanted their photos taken. Nice to see kids being kids.

I will post photographs once I am back home. Unfortunately I didn't bring a card reader / USB cable. Very frustrating.

 

[Jeanie]

Hi Jaysan,
The food culprit was a veg pakora from quite a posh restaurant in Halebid.
It is the only food my husband and I shared that day.
Having said that we have travelled to many different states in India and have always been lucky.
I love green bee eaters, will try and attach one we took some time ago but I'm new to this so may fail.

 

[Jaysan]

Hi Jeanie,

Great bird. Always a joy to watch them.

Today I am in Coimbatore. Went for a quick stroll around our house with my son in tow. Saw a golden oriole and a tree pie. Hope to go for a longer walk tomorrow.

Have just had access to a note pad and am trying to upload some photos. Takes a bit longer than normal.

Surprising there are no answers from within India.

 

[Jaysan]

A few more as promised.

 

[Jaysan]

And the last lot for the day.

 

[sidp7]

I spotted these two beauties from my 7th floor window after the monsoon rains. An ID would be appreciated.

They look like Berbets I used to see in Tanzania (not that familiar with Indian birds yet)

 

[thirudevaram]

Yes,they are the coppersmith Barbet.

 

[Jaysan]

Yes,they are the coppersmith Barbet.

Agree with Thirudevaram. Great shot of two Coppersmiths.