Indian Bird Videos

                                                                  WAGTAILS OF INDIA Around the world there are 13 wagtail species. In India there are seven different wagtail species and many of that are migratory to South India. The forest wagtail is very different from the other 6 wagtails. All the other wagtails are seen near waterbodies. The wagtails wag their tails continuously and hence the name. They are mainly yellow , black and white in color. The video depicts all the seven wagtails and explains about the wagtails in detail. This is a good learning content for birders and nature enthusiasts. The Wagtails found in India are 1. White-browed wagtail 2. Western Yellow wagtail 3. Eastern Yellow wagtail 4. Grey wagtail 5. Forest Wagtail 6. White wagtail 7. Citrine wagtail The wagtails are usually seen near waterbodies. White-browed wagtails got accustomed to urban apartments, so they are usually seen near the water tanks. They are normally seen in single or pairs. The wagtails have

                 European Bee-eater European Bee-eaters are common in Europe but in India they are winter migrants. In North India, they are frequently seen during migration season but in South India, they are rare sighting. If they are spotted, they create a ruckus among birdwatchers. They are local celebrities among birders when they visit South India. Like other Bee-eaters, they catch bees and other insects in flight , then return back to the perch. They are gregarious birds and roost communally. The European Bee-eater is a brightly colored bird but during non-breeding season, their plumage can be duller. They are similar in size to the Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, but one can clearly notice the difference between these species when looked closer. In Europe, they were considered a threat to bee population by bee farmers. So they were killed by closing their nest holes and other cruel methods. In India, these birds are not much bothered by humans.  Here is the video of European Bee-eater

Indian Bulbuls Bulbul is a common bird name that even non-birders are aware of. In India there are few bulbul species common in specific terrains.Like Red-vented bulbuls are common in dry areas , so you can see them in Urban outskirts. You cannot stop seeing a Red-whiskered bulbul for a second if you are in a hillstation in South India. If you are in Rajasthan, you can see White-cheeked bulbuls even on a roadside tree. So based on the terrain you can see the commonest bulbul in that area. But not all bulbuls are common, if you take the Grey-headed bulbul even a birder would not have seen them for years unless they visit the forests in Western Ghats. So here we have listed few of the bulbuls that are seen in India. Yellow-browed Bulbul Red-vented Bulbul White-cheeked Bulbul      Square-tailed Bulbul Himalayan Black Bulbul Flame-throated Bulbul Yellow-vented Bulbul Black-crested Bulbul White-browed Bulbul Andaman Bulbul Red-whiskered Bulbul Black Bulbul

                                  Baby Birds  Baby birds are fun to watch and they grow up so fastly. So only if we are in the right place at the right moment, we could witness these beautiful chicks. Parent birds are always very protective of the chicks, so they hide them well from all sorts of predators. The chicks are also very well camouflaged, so spotting them is always tough. Few bird species are "Nidifugous" and leave the nest immediately after fledging. They follow their parents and start feeding themselves. This reduces great amount of workload of parents, so they can grow their chicks in a better way.  We saw chicks of Eurasian Coot, ducklings of Spot-billed ducks and Lesser Whistling Duck in Kolarampathy Lake, Coimbatore. With the latest lake beautification project in Coimbatore, all the lakes are converted to water tanks. Because they were removing all the shrubs around the edge of the lakes which is really a protective ecosystem for these water birds. For now, th

                           PELICANS OF INDIA Pelicans are large water birds and no one can miss these birds even if they are non-birders. Their beaks are so huge and the pouches are well adapted to catch and swallow fish. The pouches help them to filter the fish. They are one of the heaviest flying birds. There are three pelican species in India.  1. Great White Pelican 2. Dalmatian Pelican 3. Spot-billed Pelican In South India, Spot-billed Pelicans can be seen but their numbers had reduced drastically. We saw Great White and Dalmatian Pelicans in Gujarat. Great white pelicans are distributed across many continents and Dalmatian pelicans can be seen in Europe. Dalmatian Pelicans are the largest of the 3 species. All three pelicans are suffering from habitat destruction, reduction in fishes, nesting places and conflicts with humans. Here is a video and facts about these Pelicans.

After making a video about Sirkeer Malkoha , our next target was the Yellow eyed Babbler. Though not elusive as the Sirkeer this bird had a different problem. This species also prefers the bush but is very active to say the least. They hardly ever sit in one place. They shuffle around in the mid area of the dense bushes and jump to another bush from there. We could spot them but we could not one decent clip of the bird. Once in a while they come to the top of the bush and call out , only to get back into the bushes. After spotting them in couple of locations , we had to make several visits to make this video  possible. Everytime there was less than 30-40 seconds of footage. we stitched them together to make this video. We had a bonus for our effort though. Inbetween all the chasing,  we got the call of the bird as well because it was the breeding season.