Common Myna

The Common Myna is a member of the starling family. It is also known as the Indian Myna or Talking Myna for its ability to mimic human speech.

The Common Myna is readily identified by the brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye. The bill and legs are bright yellow. There is a white patch on the outer primaries and the wing lining on the underside is white. The sexes are similar and birds are usually seen in pairs.

Local names for the bird in India include Desi myna in Hindi, Lalri gutar shark in Punjabi, Salik in Bengali, Xalika sorai in Assamese, Kathayi Kabari in Gujarati, Shale or Salonki in Marathi, Narthan Kuruvi in Tamil, Goranka in Telugu, Kavalamkili in Malayalam, Goravanka in Kannada and Gon kawadiya in Sinhalese

The calls includes croaks, squawks, chirps, clicks and whistles, and the bird often fluffs its feathers and bobs its head in singing. The Common Myna screeches warnings to its mate or other birds in cases of predators in proximity.

They breed through much of the year depending on the location, building their nest in a hole in a tree or wall. The normal clutch is 4–6 eggs.It feeds on insects and fruits and discarded waste from human habitation.

Common Tailorbird

The Common Tailorbird is an Old World warbler. This tailorbird is a resident breeder in tropical south Asia from Pakistan and India to south China, and Indonesia. It has also been spotted in Great Britain.
 
This passerine bird is typically found in open woodland, scrub and gardens. Tailorbirds get their name from the way their nest is constructed. The edges of a large leaf are pierced and sewn together with plant fibre or spider's web to make a cradle in which the actual grass nest is built. The Common Tailorbird builds its nest in a shrub and lays 3–5 eggs.

These 13-cm-long warblers are brightly coloured, with bright green upperparts and whitish underparts. The crown of the head is chestnut. They have short rounded wings, a short tail, strong legs and a long decurved bill. The tail is typically held upright, like a wren's.

The sexes are identical, except that the male has long central tail feathers in the breeding season. Young birds are duller.There are two endemic races in Sri Lanka which retain the male's long tail feathers all year.Like most warblers, the Common Tailorbird is insectivorous. The song is a loud cheeup-cheeup-cheeup.

Yellow-browed Bulbul

The Yellow-browed Bulbul is a member of the bulbul family of passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in the hills of Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats of India and in small pockets of the Eastern Ghats of India.

This is a bird of moist secondary growth. Despite its restricted range, it is quite readily found at sites such as Kitulgala and Sinharaja in Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats. It builds its platform nest low in a tree; two or three eggs is a typical clutch.

The Yellow-browed Bulbul is about 20cm (7 inches) in length, with a long tail. It has olive upperparts and bright yellow underparts. The dark bill and eye contrast with the yellow around the eye.

Sexes are similar in plumage, but young birds are duller than adults, especially on the face and flanks. The flight is bouncing and woodpecker-like. Yellow-browed Bulbuls feed on fruit and insects.

Red-whiskered Bulbul

The Red-whiskered Bulbul is a passerine bird found in Asia. It is a member of the bulbul family. It is a resident frugivore found mainly in tropical Asia from Pakistan and India through to southeast Asia and China. It has been introduced and has established itself in the wild in many other parts of the world.

The Red-whiskered Bulbul is about 20 cm (7 in) in length. It has brown upper-parts and whitish underparts with buff flanks and a dark spur running onto the breast at shoulder level. It has a tall pointed black crest, red face patch and thin black moustachial line. The tail is long and brown with white terminal feather tips, but the vent area is red.
 
These passerine birds feed on fruits, nectar and insects. The loud and evocative call is a sharp kink-a-joo, and the song is a scolding chatter. It is more often heard than seen, but will often perch conspicuously especially in the mornings when the call from the tops of trees. The life span is more than 11 years.

This is a bird of lightly wooded areas, more open country with bushes and shrubs, and farmland. The breeding season is spread out and peaks from December to May in southern India and March to October in northern India. They build their platform nest in a bush; two to three eggs is a typical clutch and they may breed once or twice a year. The eggs have a pale mauve ground colour with speckles becoming blotches towards the large end.Eggs take 12 days to hatch. Both parents take part in raising the young.

Blue Whistling-thrush

The Blue Whistling-thrush is a species of bird in the Turdidae family. It is found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and subtropical or tropical moist montanes.

They are insectivorous, but most species also eat worms, snails, and fruit.Thrushes build cup-shaped nests, sometimes lining them with mud. They lay two to five speckled eggs, sometimes laying two or more clutches per year. Both parents help in raising the young.

Black-rumped Flameback

The Black-rumped Flameback also known as the Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker, is a woodpecker which is a widespread and common resident breeder in much of South Asia. It is the only Golden-backed woodpecker with a black throat.

 It is a typical woodpecker shape, and has a golden yellow back, with paler wings. The rump and tail are black. The underparts are white with dark chevron markings. The black throat immediately separates it from other golden backed woodpeckers in the Indian region. The head is whitish with a black nape and throat, and there is a greyish eye patch.

The adult male Black-rumped Flameback has a red crown and crest. Females have a black forecrown spotted with white, with red only on the rear crest. Young birds are like the female, but duller.

Like other woodpeckers, this species has a straight pointed bill, a stiff tail to provide support against tree trunks, and zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward, and two backward. The long tongue can be darted forward to capture insects.It nests in a tree hole, laying three white eggs.

Black-hooded Oriole

The Black-hooded Oriole is a member of the oriole family of passerine birds and is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia.

It is a bird of open woodland and cultivation. The nest is built in a tree, and contains two eggs. The food is insects and fruit, especially figs, found in the tree canopies where the orioles spend much of their time.

The male is striking, with the typical oriole black and yellow coloration. The plumage is predominantly yellow, with a solid black hood, and black also in the wings and tail centre.

The female Black-hooded Oriole is a drabber bird with greenish underparts, but still has the black hood. Young birds are like the female, but have dark streaking on the underparts, and their hood is not solidly black, especially on the throat.Orioles can be shy, and even the male may be difficult to see in the dappled yellow and green leaves of the canopy.

Indian Pitta

The Indian Pitta is a small stocky bird that is mostly seen on the floor of forests or under dense undergrowth, foraging on insects in leaf litter.

It has long, strong legs, a very short tail and stout bill, with a buff colored crown stripe, black coronal stripes, a thick black eye stripe and white throat and neck. The upperparts are green, with a blue tail, the underparts buff, with bright red on the lower belly and vent.In flight, one can see a round white spot near the tip of its wing. Both sexes are alike.

Its call consists of a loud clear double whistle, wheet-tew, uttered chiefly morning and evening, and oftener on cloudy, overcast days. Three or four birds sometimes answer one another from different directions. 

The breeding season is during the Southwest Monsoon, June to August and the nest is globular structure with a circular opening on one side. It is made up of dry leaves and grasses. The nests are on the ground or on low branches. The clutch is of four to five eggs which are very spherical and very white with spots and speckles of deep maroon or purple. The egg is very glossy.

Grey-Jungle-Fowl-(Male)

Grey Junglefowl are gray black in colour with white stripes.The comb of Grey Jungle Fowl is deep red in colour. They have long neck, which is gray blackish in colour.

Grey Jungle Fowl is widely found in the southern and western parts of India. Natural habitat of Grey Jungle Fowl is forest undergrowth and bamboo thickest.

Grey Jungle Fowl feeds on mall dog kibble, seasonal pulp seed fruits like pomegranate, pumpkin and hot peppers.

The Grey Jungle Fowl reaches the level of sexual maturity at approximately two years of age. It usually breeds between the month of March -July. Eggs incubate for 21 days. The average clutch size is between 4-6. Males can breed to more than one hen per year. Males becomes very noisy during the breeding season.