Hoopoe and Shikra

Birds(and animals) live a life of "high alert" at all times. This hoopoe is busy using its long pointed beak to dig out and eat juicy worms from the freshly mowed lawn. Cars and people are passing by the road nearby and my camera is not far away focusing on him. He is unperturbed. Experience tells him "not to worry".

Suddenly he freezes. I wonder why. Can you guess?. Look at the video below and I have tried to bring the action in the background through the recorded sound.



Listen through the din of cars and wind and you can hear the shrieking of a "shikra" -a raptor, who is circling above the lawn. The hoopoe knows that any movement on the lawn will attract the raptor's attention and he will swoop down for a meal.

As the shikra flies further away, the hoopoe resumes his meal.

Here is the disappointed shikra taking a break

Cat and the pigeon

Mention the domestic cat and the vision is that of a 'purring' furry creature happy to sleep on your bed, slurp milk from a bowl and eat cat food for breakfast and dinner keeping the pet food manufacturers happy.

A very different picture from that of "kitty"-the cat who roams our neighborhood. Her territory consists of the back and front yards of at a least a dozen houses in the neighborhood and loathe she will, to enter a human household.

So we are not surprised when at times we find bird feathers in the yard, remains of kitty's meal. We also know that kitty keeps in check the rodents and garden lizards.

The latest hunt of kitty surprised us though. A full grown pigeon attacked and downed in a jiffy. The pigeons usually avoid the small hedges and lawns in our garden but this one did not and paid with its life.



Kitty Claiming the prize hunt



Kitty the hunter with the pigeon she felled

Barbets

The colourful barbets are closely related to woodpeckers. They are as common in the gardens of Delhi as they are in the wooded streets of South Mumbai.

Many believe that the typical calls repeated rhythmically is an indicator that our city pollution levels are still under control in many parts which have large trees around.

In common with woodpeckers barbets feet have two toes facing forwards and two back. This feature allows them to cling easily to trees and excavate their nests.

The place to look for them in Mumbai is old fig trees. In Delhi, the coppersmith and green barbet are regular garden visitors (mostly in large public gardens).

The short video below on the “feathered heritage of India” opens with a coppersmith calling and excavating its nest on a dead tree trunk in a common park in a residential area in Delhi.


India's Feathered Heritage - These bloopers are hilarious

The photos below are of a green barbet guarding its chicks inside the tree hole nearby. Curious onlookers are still there, like the mynah, which is trying to peer in and of course my camera!