East India Birding & Beyond

03/06/2024

04/05/2024

The endangered Malagasy Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis bernieri), from the red muddy mangroves of Betsiboka Bay, northern Madagascar. They are considered to be ecologically more restricted than the African Sacred Ibis External link . In Madagascar it occurs in the west where it is largely confined to lowland habitats in saline and brackish coastal zones, mainly mudflats, estuaries, mangroves and shallow brackish coastal lakes.
THRESKIORNIS
(Threskiornithidae; † Sacred Ibis T. aethiopicus) Gr. θρησκεια thrēskeia religious worship < θρησκευω thrēskeuō to worship; ορνις ornis, ορνιθος ornithos bird; the Sacred Ibis was venerated by the ancient Egyptians, who, by reason of its crescent-shaped bill and bright white plumage, considered it to represent Thoth the moon god. Cabard & Chauvet 2003, relate that Thoth was also the patron of scribes, and that the long bill of the ibis represented the pens or quills with which they wrote; "Ibis, I. æthiopica, Lath. should form the type of a distinct division, to which I give the name of THRESKIORNIS (1842).
Charles Joseph Rosalie Alphonse Bernier (1802-1858) French Navy, surgeon-naturalist, collector in Madagascar.

02/05/2024

How these Rhesus macaques are turning into crab eating macaques

Rhesus macaque hunting and eating crab in Sunderbans

09/04/2024

2007 Eagle Nest....

29/03/2024

The Blue Duck (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos hymenolaimus) is ,now considered Endangered, though they previously considered Near Threatened as numbers very reduced and declining. Formerly widespread, now rare or absent in majority of territory, dispersed in small, isolated populations in widely scattered locations in North I and South I. Population currently considered by BirdLife International to be 1200 mature individuals within overall range of 54,800 km2, but another recent estimate suggested the presence of 640 pairs on North Island and 700 pairs on South Island, with largest numbers in catchments of Bay of Plenty, C North Island, Northwest Nelson, West Coast and Fiordland, but an exhaustive survey of Arthur’s Pass National Park found only six birds in Feb 2011, down from c. 50 in early 1980s.
This pair were photographed in Hastings, North Island New Zealand

Hymenolaimus
Gr. ὑμην humēn, ὑμηνος humēnos membrane; λαιμος laimos throat (cf. genus Hymenolaimus G. Gray 1843, blue duck).
malacorhynchos
Gr. μαλακος malakos soft; ῥυγχος rhunkhos bill; ex “Blue-grey Duck with a soft bill” of Cook 1777, and “Soft-billed Duck” of Latham 1785

29/03/2024

The New Zealand Fernbird Poodytes punctatus is New Zealand’s only member of the Locustellidae. Its taxonomic placement has proved difficult, having been treated in either the genus Megalurus or the monospecific Bowdleria until comparatively recent times. True to the family, it is a medium-small, thickset, and usually skulking (but not necessarily shy), mouselike warbler with a very long tail.

22/03/2024

Vultures coming out of the deep ravine at the 'Vulture Point' from Panna Tiger Reserve.

15/03/2024

Just another pair of amorous Tigers. From Panna, March 2024

14/03/2024

https://youtu.be/KFUe5QpQYRELearnt how to take slow motion video...Thanks to Canon Experience Center - Kolkata

06/03/2024

A lazy male, very early in a misty morning, from Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh< March 2024

21/02/2024

A flock of Waybills and one Red Knot, from Miranda NZ

01/02/2024

A Flesh-footed Shearwater (Ardenna carneipes), from Marsden Cove pelagic trip, doing a fly by.

This large, dark shearwater barely reaches Neotropical offshore waters, occurring rarely during migration and winter off northwest Mexico, and strictly as a vagrant elsewhere in the region. It breeds on islands in the southern Indian Ocean and southwest Pacific, ranging regularly into the northeast Pacific from Alaska through central California, becoming notably rare south of there. Distinguished with caution from Sooty Shearwater by larger size, slower wingbeats, entirely dark underwing coverts, and pinkish bill with dark tip.

Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae. They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season.

These tubenose birds fly with stiff wings and use a "shearing" flight technique (flying very close to the water and seemingly cutting or "shearing" the tips of waves) to move across wave fronts with the minimum of active flight. This technique gives the group its English name.







Bream Bay Charters

31/01/2024

An early morning pelagic trip gave us this Antipodean Albatross (Gibson's) Diomedea antipodensis gibsoni.
It has the most amazing graceful flight, one can sit for hours watching them gliding over the sea.

18/12/2023

It was a good year for birding, crossed my previous high of 1581..
Though the year has not come to an end, I doubt if I will up this number of 1616...
A big thank you to all who travelled with me and made this possible

05/12/2023

Another shot of the common brown lemur from masagascar

05/12/2023

Common Brown Lemur
From Andasibe

05/12/2023

Blue Coua from Iharoaka Trail Madagascar

05/12/2023

Giraffe Weevil from Madagascar

23/11/2023

Indri, from Andasibe National Park Madagascar

23/11/2023

Panther Chameleon, from Madagascar

20/11/2023

The iconic and with a very pretty face... the Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta), from Anja community Reserve, Madagascar, enjoying a good chew.
Known locally in Malagasy as Maky (Maki)
It is omnivorous, as well as the most adapted to living terrestrially of the extant lemurs.

04/11/2023

Mada kids

04/10/2023

King Bird-of-Paradise (Cicinnurus regius)
CICINNURUS
(Paradisaeidae; Ϯ King Bird-of-Paradise C. regius) Gr. κικιννος kikinnos ringlet, curled lock of hair; ουρα oura tail;
regius
L. regius royal, kingly, rega

04/10/2023

Magnificent Bird-of-Paradise (Cicinnurus magnificus), from Arfak Mountains, posing for the female.

Cicinnurus Gr. kikinnos ringlet, curled lock of hair; oura tail.
magnificus L. magnificus splendid.

04/10/2023

Pink-spotted Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus perlatus), trying to gobble down a fruit bigger than its head, Nimbokrang

Ptilinopus Gr. ptilon feather; pous foot.
L. perlatus perlated, pearly

04/10/2023

Red Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea rubra), showing off its dance moves.
Paradisaea Late L. paradisus paradise
(> Gr. paradeisos paradise, pleasure ground of the
Persian kings > Old Persian pairi-dae walled
garden).
rubra ( ruber) being red
West Papua

04/10/2023

Buff-faced Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta pusio); 8 cm in length; 10–15 g in weight. feeds on lichen, bark fungus, and probably termites; insect remains, tiny black seeds, yellow fruit flesh and flowers in stomachs.
From Nimbokrang
Micropsitta Gr. mikros small; Mod. L. psitta parrot
(Puiso) small boy.

04/10/2023

12 Wired Bird of Paradise (Seleucidis melanoleucus)

seleucides / Seleucidis L. seleucides migrant birds
sent by the gods to destroy locusts (i.e. birds from
paradise)
melanoleucos / melanoleucus Gr. melas black;
leukos white.  “ ( the describer was probably colourblind, or received a bleached specimen)

Nimbokrang, West Papua 2023

03/10/2023

Rio Brazil 2022