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The Green Ogre

Nature’s layers unravelled

The Seychelles are a gift from nature. A scattering of islands about 1500 km east of mainland Africa, they host a bewildering richness of biodiversity. From the iconic fruit of the Coco-de-Mer palm, a conversation-starter for its unique shape, to the older-than-your-great-grandpa Aldabra Giant Tortoises, or the stunning Seychelles Black Paradise Flycatcher and Black Parrot that are confined to a few islands in the archipelago, the endemic wildlife is alluring to tourists. But all is not well with these paradise isles. Climate change and ocean acidification threatens the coral reefs. Native forests have given way to plantations and monocultures, and invasive species have overrun most of the islands. How can we save the Seychelles? For a start, by being conscious travellers and responsible tourists. #responsibletravel #responsibletourism #seychelles #seychellesparadiseflycatcher #seychellesisland @TheSeychellesIslands @seychellestourismindia9136

Wild Seychelles - An island paradise in peril?

Would you believe it, the cute Little Rock hyrax is most closely related to elephants, dugongs and manatees! Go figure! #hyrax #africanwildlife

Who is the Rock Hyrax’s closest relative? 😲 #cutecritters #amazing facts ng

Winged ants are called alates. The male and female alates mate during their nuptial flight

What do you call a Winged Ant? #backyardwildlife #ants

This amazing spider mom is guarding her egg sac

Spider Mom’s the word! #backyardwildlife #spiders #moms

The Common Hawk-Cuckoo has an interesting song — a series of melodious whistles that builds up to a frenzied crescendo, which probably sounded like “brain fever, brain fever” to malaria-afflicted Britishers who heard the bird singing on moonlit nights during its breeding season. For this, it is commonly called the Brain-fever Bird. While the cuckoo is fattening up for the breeding season, it preys on insects and favours hairy caterpillars. Why is it called a Hawk-Cuckoo, though? In shape and appearance, this cuckoo mimics a hawk. The flight pattern is extremely similar to a Shikra, and a hawk-cuckoo in flight can set off alarm calls from other birds and even vigilant mammals like palm squirrels. Adult hawk-cuckoos even have a banded chest as Shikras do. These birds are brood-parasites, which means they don’t make nests of their own but lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, known as hosts. The host (unfortunate name for an exploited parent!) brings up the chick of the brood parasite and doesn’t realise until much later that it’s been taken for a ride.

Why is the Brain-fever Bird or Common Hawk-Cuckoo so named? Here’s the answer

The Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca), also known as the Eurasian Teal or Common Teal, is a winter migrant to the Indian subcontinent. It is among the more common ducks to be found in our wetlands between October and March. In the winter, male and female birds sport dowdy, understated colours, but as the season progresses, male birds begin to develop a very attractive breeding plumage. We caught this handsome drake (as a male duck is called) as it foraged at Varthur Kere, a wetland in Bangalore. Note the bird’s feeding behaviour known as dabbling. The Green-winged Teal is a dabbling duck, preferring shallow waters where it upends itself as it searches for food underwater.

A handsome male Green-winged Teal dabbling at Varthur Lake, Bangalore

The eyes of raptors tell us a lot about their identity. Often, they are clues to the bird’s age and sex. In the case of Black-winged Kites, which are commonly seen hunting small birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects near grasslands and wetlands, the eyes are a clue to the bird’s age.
This young Black-winged Kite has yellow eyes. When you consider this along with the bird's pale plumage, you know that you are looking at an immature bird. As the bird nears adulthood and maturity, the eyes will darken to a deep red.

What do a Black-winged Kite’s eyes say about its age?

Once quite widespread as winter visitors across the Indian subcontinent, White Wagtails (Motacilla alba) have become uncommon with every passing year. This year, we were glad to see one at Saul Kere, our neighbourhood lake.

White Wagtail - An uncommon winter visitor in Bangalore

The Yellow-billed Babbler, also known as White-headed Babbler, is a medium-sized sociable babbler. Flocks of 4-9 birds can be seen foraging on the ground noisily, pecking and turning over leaves and mulch as they hunt insects and small invertebrates. At any given time, one member of the flock usually chooses a higher perch as it keeps a watch for predators and other threats. This bird was seen singing as it fidgeted about on a low tree branch.

Listen to this Yellow-billed Babbler Singing | Birds of Bengaluru

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Nature's Layers Unravelled, since 2006. Original content only. Do not reuse without permission

A Taiga Flycatcher and I once met in a copse of s

A Taiga Flycatcher and I once met
in a copse of subabul
We waited for each other
And our eyes met
When no one was looking
We romanced through that winter
In drizzle and shine
When spring came
That throat darkened to a burnished red
She/her became he/him
And my heart grew roomier
The poetry of love is gender-fluid

#taigaflycatcher #birds #genderfluid🌈

Read the post. Link in first comment.

Everyone else: We headed to Varthur to see the Bar

Everyone else: We headed to Varthur to see the Bar-headed Goose.
Us: We headed to Varthur for a wild goose chase, because the goose had headed to the bar.

Har har.

Cyclone Fengal probably brought the geese in. The rain drove the birders out. Except for some that made the mistake of reaching in the afternoon after all the action was over, and tramping for seven kilometres through eight-inch-thick Varthur mud in the quest of half a goose, or a quarter of a duck, or even a stray feather.

No show.

Thanks to @canva for the AI therapy to soothe bruised birder egos.

#varthur #barheadedgoose #birdingfail

Take a white bird and dress it up, and give it a f

Take a white bird and dress it up, and give it a fancy French name. Then diminish it. That’s the Little Egret for you. Every now and then, it shows off its true colours — and they’re all white. A lot like that Cat Stevens song:

I built my house from barley rice
Green pepper walls and water ice
Tables of paper wood, windows of light
And everything emptying into white

#egret #waterbird #catstevens #birdsforasong #backyardbirds #birdsofinstagram

The third episode of @quantumgrandma Jennifer’s

The third episode of @quantumgrandma Jennifer’s book tour series ‘Ink On The Move’ is out on The Green Ogre (link in bio and first comment). Catch up with the previous episodes and make sure you get a copy of No Half Measures.
Interestingly, the author is in Bengaluru at @bicblr today for a conversation with @priyavenkatesh of @thenaturalistschool. Incidentally (or accidentally) Jennifer made a smashing entrance into the city on her way from the airport with two totalled automobiles to show for it. Talk about a road show!

Let’s take stock of your Stork Quotient! Play a

Let’s take stock of your Stork Quotient!
Play a game: https://www.greenogreindia.org/are-you-being-stalked-by-a-stork-lets-play/ #stork #birdgames #birdquiz #quiztime #crossword #puzzles

We have a brand new quiz for Bird Nerds. This time

How does the Marabou Stork get its name? Look up t

How does the Marabou Stork get its name? Look up the latest post on The Green Ogre. Link in bio

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a gift for bir

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a gift for birders, with more than 20 endemic species for the taking. Some of these require devoted travel and effort to see, but others are right at the doorstep. On a birding tour in April with @andaman_bird_tour led by @prasanth_sarthy I enjoyed watching these endemic Andaman Teal on the outskirts of Port Blair. The birds occupy freshwater and brackish wetlands, and are seen alongside Lesser Whistling-ducks and Cotton Pygmy-geese, the other resident duck species on the islands. The wetland habitats where these birds live are under threat from rampant destruction under the aegis of development, and they may be lost in a few years. For an enlightening and sobering read on the environmental threats to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, I recommend a series of books by @pankajsekhsaria
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#birding #andaman #andamans #andamandiaries🌴🌊🏄🐳🐡 #andamanislands #birdsofandaman #birdsofinstagram #birdsofindia #andamanandnicobar #andamanandnicobarislands #latergram

We’ve stacked up new bird games at The Green Ogr

We’ve stacked up new bird games at The Green Ogre! From CrossBird to Birbles to Go Jigsaw, your weekend is all set!
Tell us which one is your favourite!
(Link to games in the bio)

Many of us start off being confused by white egret

Many of us start off being confused by white egrets but get better with a little field experience. But what of dark morph egrets? In all naïveté, I thought that if I could tell apart the Pacific and Western Reef Egrets, I’m on firm ground.

Until I visited the coast of Zanzibar where I met a dark morph heron which I was told was not a reef egret but a Dimorphic Egret. I’m still not sure if this bird is a casualty of a lumper-splitter tug-o-war or a species of merit. Read the post at the link (and I’m eager to know what you think)

https://www.greenogreindia.org/dimorphic-egret-meet-this-east-african-mystery-bird/

#birds #egret #heron #eastafrica #birdsofafrica #birdsofeastafrica #birdsoftanzania #tanzaniabirds #birdidentification #birdwatching #birding #mysterybird

This is a quiz about baby birds with senior-grade

This is a quiz about baby birds with senior-grade toughness! Go for it!

The beautiful Emerald Dove is usually a skittish c

The beautiful Emerald Dove is usually a skittish customer on the mainland. It shies away from approaching humans as it forages on the forest floor. It is not so shy in the Andamans. I was surprised to come across this one right outside the front office at the resort where we stayed on Havelock Island. While on the ground, the bird is quite hard to spot. Its browns and greens merge with leaf litter and shadows. I happened to flush this bird unknowingly and it flew up into the low branches of a tree. After I gave it some space, it was back on the ground looking for fallen fruit.
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#birds #andamanislands #birdwatching

This is a Brown Rock Chat, a songbird that is absu

This is a Brown Rock Chat, a songbird that is absurdly common in the northern subcontinent down south to about western Telangana. Winters are incomplete without its warm dusky presence on ledges, boulders, and ramparts of rock forts. On a work trip to Bhopal in March, I came upon plenty of these birds. At Sanchi, the site of the beautiful Buddhist stupa, I found myself distracted from the archaeological structures occasionally as this curious bird, which seemed very interested that I was watching it, hopped ridiculously close to me.
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#birds #birdofindia #birdsofinstagram #birds_adored #birdphotography #birdwatching

On foot, escaping the heat of an island sun that h

On foot, escaping the heat of an island sun that had begun to hammer down at 6 AM with sheer contempt for an imposed time zone, I crept into the shore forest to seek relief. A loud drumming reverberated through the dense woodland, like a message being tom-tommed by a forest spirit. It was eerily familiar — I had once sought a similar drummer in the steamy jungles of the Western Ghats, and I recalled the excitement of that discovery. All around me, that primal percussion played out, yet the source of it was hard to locate. I returned after an hour to the sun-baked highway, sweating and disappointed. The next day, back in the forest, luck favoured me. A shadowy shape drifted through the mid-storey and clung to the leprous bark of a smaller tree next to the gnarled trunk of an impressive Padauk, one of the most exploited forest trees of the island. Catching my breath, I clicked a hurried photograph before my shy subject slipped behind the tree. An Andaman Woodpecker — a female. So similar in appearance and behaviour to its mainland cousin, the White-bellied Woodpecker. This one too stopped my heart for a tick. When I breathed again, it was gone.
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#birds #birdsofinstagram #birdsofindia #birdsofig #woodpecker #woodpeckers #birdsofandaman #andamanbirds #birdingphotography #birdsonearth #wildlifeonearth #wildlifeplanet #wildlifeofindia

Even after the most fulsome of vacations, there’

Even after the most fulsome of vacations, there’s some room for unfinished business. After 9 days in the Andamans, this sight of a bird in an enclosure left me wanting more. This is a Nicobar Pigeon, one of two or three individuals in an aviary at the Chidiyatapu Biological Park in South Andaman. I’m not normally one to photograph a bird in a cage but I’ve done so on occasions when the chance of seeing the species in the wild is practically impossible. The Nicobar Pigeon is thought to be the closest living relative of the extinct Dodo, and is found in the wild on Little Andaman island in addition to Nicobar. It’s a large bird, almost the size of a spring chicken, with exquisitely ornate plumes and a very fetching purple-grey plumage with iridescent highlights that trap the light. I can only imagine what it might be to chance upon a wild bird like this on the forest floor, on a remote island where it has evolved to inhabit its unique ecological niche. Thanks to @prasanth_sarthy and @andaman_bird_tour for indulging my tiny detour from watching wild birds.
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#birds #birdofindia #birdsofinstagram #birdsofandaman #birdstagram #pigeons #wildbirds #andamanbirds #nicobarpigeon #birdsoftheworld #islandbirds

March is a painting. March is a poem. March is whe

March is a painting. March is a poem. March is when spring sets fire to the trees. The Flame Of The Forest (Butea monosperma) or Palash is almost entirely devoid of leaf but its fiery orange blooms lick the sky like many burning tongues. And the birds arrive in droves to drink themselves silly on nectar. The bar is open all day until sunset.
In Bhopal, birding along with @bruceleemani @seema_seth @btrptmusic @thara.m.thomas @beatbuck and others, we were treated to a variety of barflies including Rosy, Brahminy, and Pied Starlings, Rufous Treepies, Drongos of two species, Red-vented Bulbuls, Sunbirds, Yellow-throated Sparrows, and even an Indian Bushlark framed against these exquisite flowers, whose fiery beauty lasts but a few weeks before the trees revert to their unassuming selves.
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#birds #trees #flameoftheforest #buteamonosperma #bhopalbirds #centralindia #treesofindia #floweringtree #floweringtrees #treesofinstagram

In the heart of the beautiful city of Bhopal is Sh

In the heart of the beautiful city of Bhopal is Shyamala Hills, a forested ridge that has been usurped for all kinds of tourism. The grounds of Manav Sangrahalaya (Museum of Human Civilisation) has ample wilderness areas within it, and the bird life kept me quite distracted from the art exhibits. As I was trying to pick a patch of shade in the hot afternoon, a White-browed Fantail appeared and put up a little performance, shimmying and sashaying as it uttered little melodic monosyllables. At one point it looked a lot like a pole dancer in peak seduction mode. Charmed!
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#birds #backyardbirds #urbanwildlife #birdsofinstagram #birdstagram #birding #birdsofmadhyapradesh #birdsofindia #birdsofindiansubcontinent #birdsofig

Spring in the northern subcontinent gave me a glim

Spring in the northern subcontinent gave me a glimpse of the Common Iora’s nuptial rituals. The splendidly attired male sings from the treetops and launches himself up into the air to come parachuting down. A few other males were vying to outdo this one but our star performer was also the gutsiest, not hesitating to pick an open perch and singing many variations of his love song. All the while, he fluttered his gorgeous little wings!
#birds #birdwatching #iora #birds_adored #birdsofinstagram #birdstagram #springtimebirds #birdsofindia #birdsofmadhyapradesh #birdsofindiansubcontinent

An all-beige warbler with a short, dark bill, a di

An all-beige warbler with a short, dark bill, a distinct pale eyebrow, and a short, raspy call, the Booted Warbler is a winter migrant to the Indian subcontinent. As is the case with warblers (a group of passerine birds that many British birders dismiss as LBJ — Little Brown Jobs), telling one apart from its cousins in the field can be quite stressful and challenging for those new to birdwatching. The Booted Warbler can be confused with the similar Sykes’s Warbler and the Blyth’s Reed Warbler. Pay heed to the field identification marks — a uniformly pale, unmarked body sans wing-bars or crown stripes, a slight pot-bellied appearance, a pale supercilium (eyebrow) that appears to cut partially through the eye line and continues behind the eye as a stripe, and a preference for open country with bushes and shrubs. Unlike the Sykes’s Warbler, it can often be seen foraging on the ground. With time, you’ll learn to listen for its calls as well. Thank me next winter when you start identifying them correctly!
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#birdwatchers #birdwatching #winterbirds #winterbirding #warblers #winterwarbler #birding #birdguide

The abundance of Yellow-footed Green-pigeons in no

The abundance of Yellow-footed Green-pigeons in northern India fills me with a delicious, delirious envy. They quite practically seem to grow on trees here! I can never tire of watching them. That lovely, grass-green form clumped on fruiting Ficus trees on a mellow March evening at sundown is a welcome sight.
Saw this one in a flock at Surajpur Wetland earlier this week with @quantumgrandma

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