There is something about birds…. their beauty, their freedom… that is good for a man’s soul.

       That, is a line from the book A guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson. A book I just finished reading, a book which took me back to those afternoons I have spent with my mom, waiting at our window for the birds to come by.

the Red Vented Bulbul

       And how true that line is! Who among us has not even once wished they could fly off to faraway places like those winged creatures?

the Bulbul preying on a lizard

       And yet, birds are rarely admired, rarely even noticed in our busy lives except perhaps to shoo off the crowing crow, or to swear at the pigeon who soiled your freshly ironed shirt with its droppings, or maybe to curse the chirping sparrows who ruined your sleep early morning (for the only roosters you can find in cities are in a butcher’s shop…. so being awakened by a their call, is a distant possibility).

       Yes people, I’m talking about cities. Big, busy, dirty cities. Cities where it is difficult for human’s to survive with all the heat and pollution so birds are pretty scarce. A city, like Mumbai near which I have grown up and grown to love despite its lack of avian hospitality. Why, you might ask, such a fixation on birds? Because as Nicholas Drayson said, and I whole heartedly agree, birds are good for a man’s soul. Which brings us to the beautiful and fulfilling hobby of bird watching. Ofcourse I don’t mean the teenage bird watching in colleges! Because ornithology is far, far rewarding than girls.

the Oriental Magpie Robin

       As I earlier said, being near a busy city has its disadvantages for nature lovers. But if you were to have a walk early in the morning or simply if you lend an ear to distinguish the different chirps & calls, you would be surprised at just how many different feathered species house the busiest of cities.

       This again takes me back to those afternoons of bird watching with my mother. I don’t know how it began. Maybe it was the large neem tree in front of our house that attracted so many birds. But gradually we began noticing visitors. They came at the

The Tailorbird

afternoons mostly or sometimes stayed throughout the day swaying from branch to branch (thankfully we live in a housing complex with a commendable garden). Some were small with a shrill cry, some large and elegant while some unknown an elusive.

A complete back view of the Tailorbird

       The first ‘different’ bird we noticed (and it still is my mother’s favourite) was the tiny tailor bird. A very distinctive tweet-tweet-tweet call and fluttering of leaves in a tree will help you identify this baby. For the tailor bird (or as I prefer to call it by its Bengali name ‘tuntuni’), is an extremely restless bird. It keeps hopping constantly calling out most of the time and its call is quite loud for a creature of its size. If it were to step out of the thickets & foliage of a tree and stay still for long enough for you to take a glance, you would notice it is smaller than a sparrow. It was painted in a dull muddy colour by Mother Nature and then tempered with a dash of copper on its crown and olive on its back. Fix these feathers on a white belly and add a slender, long feather in the tail complete with a sharp beak, and there you have it….. the darling Tuntuni!! My mother once came upon a delicate nest of the Tuntuni, with hay and dried leaves stuffed within two stiched up leaves but sadly I don’t have a picture of that one.

       Then there were rose ringed parakeets, which we commonly identify as parrots. A loud squawking call was always a cue for me to rush to my window and more often than not witness those vivid green beauties soaring by. Sometimes they would halt by at the neem tree. And mind you, no sign of restlessness here. They know we mere brown/black/white skinned humans admire everything right from their scarlet beak to that graceful tail. I could, at leisure, take my camera and click pictures while the parakeets obliged me with poses at every angle. A couple of times they even came to my window sill, pecking at the grains I had laid out for pigeons & sparrows.

You must have noticed Bulbuls probably. The red vented ones with stylish Elvis Presley puff on their heads. Quite common they are and sometimes mistaken for a Mynah cause of the similar size and color. Another one is the Oriental Magpie Robin, slightly smaller than the Mynahs and with stark black and white feathers. They are quite shy these robins. But if they happen to flee at your sight, then don’t miss the pretty fan shape they make with their alternately black and white feathered tail.

the Purple Rumped Sunbird

pretty little thing hiding in the leaves

the bluish green crown visible at certain angles

      My personal favorite happens to be the sunbird. The Purple Rumped Sunbird to be precise. Far more fidgety than the Tuntuni. You can make that out from its call itself. It’s a sudden burst of excited tittering. To have one pause for long enough to allow you to capture its glorious yellow belly against that glossy brown coat is nearly impossible! They move about in a pair, dangling upside down from hibiscus blossoms, feeding on their nectar. The female has a olive brown coat with a white throat as opposed to the brown on the male and are also devoid of the bright blue-green crown.

the female Sunbird

      It is commonly observed in all animals that males have more striking features. I could observe that clearly in the sunbirds and the parakeets. The Cuckoo takes it one step further though. Those who have seen the female Cuckoo with its spotted brown feather will agree that the male with its polished black ones looks better groomed. And above that; the female has short, harsh cry while the males we know resort to melodious calls during the mating season.

the female Cuckoo

male (top right) and female Cuckoo

       Wow that’s quite a list isn’t it? And that is how simple it is to spot birds. Oh wait I just forgot to mention the most startling visitor! A large barn owl that just came out of nowhere and perched itself on my window sill one fine day. Probably it was injured, but that didn’t stop it from fixing me with a stern glance when I approached it with my camera. So you can come across birds in the unlikeliest of places. All you need are alert ears & eyes, a platter of grains and a dish of water to begin with. Then maybe nice binoculars and a camera if you wish (mine is a basic 11.2MP digital camera….that explains the grainy zoomed in images). So go on…. give it a try at least! It won’t hurt to add a new hobby to the list. Enough of angry birds on your smartphone…. it is time for some real bird watching!!!