My Bird Photography...

     A beautiful and thought provoking quote "The bird of paradise alights only on the hand that does not grasp." -John Berry

     So in line with this quote this particular blog is completely dedicated to my vivid collection of beautiful birds...and by birds I meant the actual flying, and few non flying, ones and not the ones that most of the urban homme would wanna peep onto.

   

     What started as a brief encounter and experimental stuff at the beautiful sun-setting Powai lake in early 2008 later on turned into a very dedicated form of photography during the brief part of my life spent at a remote but beautifully natural and naturally rich place named Baramati and still continues, especially at instances whenever am free to reach out for some breathtaking places or off for some other reasons to some unknown place.

     The actual photographing and understanding or recognizing each and every bird clicked started off as a leisure activity during the mundane/ boring weekends of Baramati. Being loaded with various types of birds and ease of spotting them made it easier for me to enjoy the whole activity just from photography point of view, but when I had to edit those and share it on the social media, it felt stupid for me just to share the photos without knowing its name or nature of their origin, thats when I started trying to not only capturing the frame but also observing them, understanding them and also doing some research upon the name and their behavior thanks to the internet and forums like www.indianaturewatch.net and www.indiawilds.com and above all the first reference point, earlier, being the vast collection of database created by Sir Vijay Cavale on a website www.indiabirds.com. 
     An urge to make a collection of the bird photography probably started after visiting the whole database of this particular website. But then whenever I had any form of difficulties in identifying any new bird, i clicked, users/experts from indianaturewatch and indiawilds always came in handy along with few suggestions as off how to improve or what is the right way of doing it. This way of inputs helped me not only learn a hell loads of stuffs but also keep in track the improvements I had been inculcating into myself.
     

     Well this wild habit of recording birds did make me look like a freak and its not hard to believe that when any of my friends' attention gets carried towards any bird or spot a strange bird, they always recall me and sometimes even call me up sharing details of the bird or if am around, call me to the spot where they spotted it, for me to capture few snaps. This craziness gave me a name by my ex-colleagues of Piaggio as 'PakshiMitra', i.e., A Friend of birds... Well this whole evergrowing collection is dedicated first of all to The Almighty for creating such beautiful creatures, later to my parents for their support and ofcourse my relatives and friends for encouraging, supporting and most importantly for bearing me ;P...

     Below is the variety of birds from my collection, arranged,roughly, in alphabetical order...

001. Ashy Prinia...Had got this injured beauty long back during my life in Baramati while returning from Kanheri temple
Unfortunately succumbed in a day and half

002. Ashy crown sparrow lark...a beautiful bird, almost similar to the sparrow
this capture was a beauty as had went pretty close to this bird and yet it was cool and calm enjoying its feast

003. Asian Koel(Male) Recently captured this at my uncle's place, this athletic one was enjoying some summer fruits

This one is a baby(my guess based on the reddish inside of the beak) Koel, female...a male is generally completely black while the female looks like this

A female Koel(cuckoo)

004. An Asian Openbil stork
named after the awkardly looking beak of the stork
Captured this one in Bhigwan where loads of migratory birds drop in

One off the group

Another one just taking off

005. Asian Pied starling, Not a very clear shot though, was spotted near Dombivli

006. A Babbler, very commonly seen in an around Pune, always seen in groups and making hell of a coarse
noise, probably thats why its called a Babbler

Hai hum sharma gaye... ;P

007. A Barn Owl, this guy visited our neighborhood, actually my neighboring balcony.

008. A Baya weaver, an expert bird in building beautiful nests

009. Black headed Ibis, again spotted this one in Diksal, Bhigwan. Luckily it graced with the most gracious take off

010. Another one from the Ibis family, A Black Ibis. A funny one with the pink-ish skull cap but if closely observed, is a bit ugly and to some extent horrifying

011. Black Redstart(felame), Well another latest addition to my collection, had spotted this at my uncle's residence and had a real nightmare tyring to capture it as it used to hide behind some or the other bush taking the autofocus onto a ride to hell. Finally got this with manual focus on

012. Black tailed Godwit, well have spotted them in great no.s again in Diksal and these like to keep safe distance from humnans hence not many close shots of them

A close shot of the Godwit

013. Black winged stilt, again spotted in Diksal, these are seen in great no.s and varieties too, here u can see two types of them

014. Blue capped rock thrush(female)..well thats what the experts shared and also seemed similar when googled. Had spotted this birdy in the outskirts of Baramati and was not too bothered with my presence around it

015. Blue rock thrush, had spotted this one at Purrandar, during our trek. initially I confused it to be a startling but the long beak made me curious, but the lighting was not proper but in the lower image, also captured at the same place with better lighting could get a better picture of the similar bird(probably the above one is a female while the lower one is a male)

016. Blue tailed Bee Eater, spotted this beauty during my visit to my native place long back. Below is one of my favourite capture, also captured in my native place. These are marginally bigger than the green bee eaters normally seen in the outskirts of Pune

017. Blyth's Reed warbler. spotted this at the recent visit to Diksal. Was very difficult to spot it as could only hear its sweet voice, but after some effort to locate the source of the sound finally spotted it

018. Brahmin kite, very commonly seen in the southern coastal region, had captured this frame again in my native place. Always love to see this bird as it almost replicates one of the species of Eagle(The Red Backed Sea Eagle)

019. Brahmin starling(myna/salunkhe), spotted mostly/ commonly in the outskirts of Pune and very commonly seen in Baramati, this is a slightly smaller but vibrant variety of a Myna.

020. Brown breasted flycatcher, Again spotted at the outskirts of Baramati, this was a cute bird with almost cartoon character type proportions but a very shy one

021. Cattle egret, very commonly seen along with the cattle, this one had given me a visit at my residence and was pretty calm until I could get good amount of snaps of it

022. Common Coot, again a migratory bird, very commonly seen in any form of remote water reservoir, in groups

023. Common Iora, well actually its not as common as the name suggests but has a very distinctive and sweet whistling voice, about the size of a sparrow, its always a delight to hear it and spot it

024. Common Blue Kingfisher, Again not a common bird to spot, but this dwarf beauty is so small and so alert that its very though to get close to it, somehow I could manage to sneak in pretty close to it

025. Coppersmith barbet, probably named after the distinctive coppersmith sort of sound, this colourful bird is again a delight to spot except for the slightly disturbing whiskers around its beak

026. Clamorous reed warbler, pretty close to a sunbird but had spotted just once so am not so known to this bird

027. Drongo, locally(Maharashtra) known as Kotwal, is an elegant bird mostly seen catching the insects

028. Dusky Craig Matin Swallow, very commonly spotted almost in every terrain and specially among human population. Generally we see them just flying around at some height enjoying the insects

029. Emu, though not captured in a natural open environment, this one was captured at a Emu farm near Malegaon. Such farms are in great demand as the eggs laid by these birds, almost the size of a rugby ball, is known for very high amount of proteins and gross hefty returns especially in international markets

030. Eurasian Blackbird, spotted this just momentarily while the trek to Sajjangadh, confused it to a starling family

031. Eurasian collared Dove, spotted this frequently at the outskirts of Baramati, just about the size of the normal pigeon

032. Eurasian Golden Oriole, This marvelous bright yellow beauty was initially at my native place, it was pretty curious about me and my camera and hence kept on posing for more clicks

 

033. Fantail, a very common sight in Baramati but very hard to spot, except for in our office, but then prohibition of camera in premises killed me. Finally one fine day it turned up in the neighbouring building's parking lot, trying to catch few flies.

034. Flamingo, one of the most auspicious bird, for me, specially because of its graciousness and the atmosphere that gets formed in the presence of the group, with the ability to grow upto 5ft

 

035. Francolin, the latest addition to my bird photography collection, this one has made me work really hard especially due to its nature to run away swiftly into the bushes on spotting any form of threat

036. Franklin Gull, again commonly spotted in Diksal or any fresh or sea water bodies

037. Glossy Ibis, one of the smaller member of the Ibis family, again if seen closely these birds look pretty creepy

038. Great Tit, well this is almost like a black and white version of the sparrow but is slightly different in overall structure and have a beautiful sound

039. Greater Coucol, probably belonging to the cuckoo family, these beefy birds are about the size of a crow except for a long tail. These birds have a deep sound and sometimes similar to the hooting of an owl

040. Green Bee Eater, a very commonly spotted bird on the outskirts of Pune, these are very beautiful birds, mostly move around in groups, and always busy catching bees and other insects

041. Grey bellied cuckoo, spotted this at my previous company' premises, hence the mobile shot, this had a very sharp sound that could penetrate through the wall of the office, which made us curious what was the source of that noise leading to this bird, had real hard time capturing the image as its hyperactive and would fly off once it realizes we were around

042. Grey heron, one of the members of the heron family, have commonly encountered these tall migrators in Diksal and also near any slightly remote water bodies around Pune

A peeping tom ;P

043. Grey shouldered kite, a member of the kite family, these are most interesting birds, about or slightly smaller than a crow, who have the unique ability to hover over a single point in air

These birds have really bright red eyes, unfortunately due to improper lighting and its direction could not capture those beautiful eyes.

044. Grey wagtail, commonly spotted o grass filled grounds catching insects, these birds probably get their name for their typical habit of wagging its back end

045. Hopoe, an exotic bird and had been difficult to spot it, the best part being when the bird opens up the set of feathers on the back of the head

046. Indian Courser, another interesting bird, again spotted at the outskirts of Baramati

It has an interesting behavior, when it spots any threat it sits down on the dry land almost merging with the surroundings making it difficult to spot from distance

047. Indian GreyHornbill, this beauty, almost the size of a crow, is commonly spotted in Pune and this one was spotted right in front of my balcony.

 

048. Indian Pond Heron, very commonly seen at any fields or water reservoir

049. Indian Robin, again commonly spotted it in Pune and Baramati areas, this, slightly smaller than sparrow, is a male with dark black color and bright reddish orange butt, female are generally dark brownish in colour

050. Indian Roller, this migrating bright peacock blue bird was spotted at the outskirts of Baramati and also recently also around Pune too

051. Indian Silverbil, again spotted at the outskirts of Baramti, these small beauties generally move around in groups and are pretty shy, luckily could manage this shot

052. Kite, very commonly seen all around (atleast in the southern part of India including Maharashtra)

 

053. Large billed crow, not that easily spotted but this, slightly bigger than a normal crow, is completely black

054. Large belled crow, spotted it in my native place, its slightly bigger than the normal babbler

055. Laughing Dove, a variety of dove but quite smaller in size than the normal dove

056. Lesser Flamingo, a shorter form of flamingos generally spotted along with the greater flamingos

057. Little cormorant, very commonly spotted waterly bird, mostly in groups.

058. Little tern, generally spotted along with another bird of the tern family, these birds move around water bodies rich with fish

059. Marsh Harrier, from distance its almost similar to a Brahmin Kite but much bigger and seen along the banks of water bodies. Had spotted this one along the banks of Indrayani river

060. Myna/Starling/Salunkhe, very commonly spotted along the suburbs,are mostly spotted in couples. They have a very distinctive eye, as if the eye is surrounded by LEDs

061. Nightjar, This unfortunate nocturnal beauty had landed in the premises of my previous company. Injured from inside it could only survive two days until succumbing to injury and hunger(my guess)...was heartbroken on the day of its death

062. Northern Shoveler, Again a migratory bird, have been spotting them in Diksal very frequently and mostly in groups

063. Night Heron, One of the rare species of heron, this nocturnal beauty had landed upon my neighboring building's tree and had started a family and later flew off along with the extended family. Too hard to spot among the dense tree had to strive too hard to get this restricted shot

Here its taking off late in the evening

064. Oriental Magpie Robin, Very commonly spotted in the suburbs, this beauty was captured very early in the morning at my native place. These are known to imitate a variety of whistles

065. Oriental White eye, a delightful bird to watch at specially due to its bright colour, tiny size and that white maskara around is eye, had to wait for a long time to get a snap of it

 

 

066. Osprey, This particular bird is just spotted twice in my past 5 trips to Diksal. This hefty predator is known for relishing on fish and is way bigger than the normal kites seen around in cities.

067. Paddy Field pipit, a husky bird very difficult to spot especially in the dry weather due to its ability to mix with the surroundings

068. Painted Stork, a migratory bird again very commonly spotted at Diksal and few water bodies around Pune.

069. Parakeet/Parrot, a very commonly spotted bird almost all around India

070. Plum Headed Parakeet, spotted this rare beauty during the Trek to Rajgadh. Though not very clear in the image, this species of parakeet have reddish brown coloured head

071. The National Bird, Peacok along with the Peafowl. well not a very clear shot of this marvelous bird, but had several close encounters with this beauty during my stay in Baramati, unfortunately these mighty birds are too swift on feet and hence most of the time couldnot capture them on frame

072. Pied Bushchat, a very small bird, smaller than sparrow, commonly spotted in the outskirts of Pune and Baramti. This bird has a peculiar voice which can be heard from several meters away from it. Over here it is spotted while making htat typical sound.

073. Prinia, this particular one was slightly bigger than the normal ashy prinia and was busy checking out fruits to relish upon just at the beginning phase of a monsoon.

074. Pied Kingfisher, a black and white version of a Kingfisher, this is commonly spotted near water bodies, generally rich with fishe. These are very swift while flying and is the most exciting thing to watch, especially when they spot a fish and start diving to catch it

075. Purple Sunbird, these tiny swift beauties are generally spotted wherever there are flowers in abundance.

076. Purple Rumped Sunbird, another variety of the sunbird, these beauties have a fluorescent yellow body

077. Purple heron, another variety of the grey heron, these long necked species have a ting of yellow and blue alongits body

078. Purple swamphen, this is the very first bird photograph I had ever taken, spotted at the Powai lake, this Juvenile was a bit surprised to see me and also a bit curious, later running away for safety.

A group of swamphen spotted at Diksal

079. Red vented Bulbul, this is one of the most common bird spotted all around Mumbai, Pune and Baramati, and proabably also at most of the southern states of India.

080. red Whiskered Bulbul, a rarer variety of the Bulbul, these are spotted at the outskirts of Pune. This particular one was spotted at my native place

081. Red avadavat/ red Munia/Strwberry Finch, was spotted near Kamshet and almost seems to be similar to the Red bird of the angry birds game

082. Red Wattled Lapwing, another bird commonly spotted at the outskirts of Baramati as well as Pune, is commonly known for a typical sound and hence a local name as 'Titwee' If it spots any predator or any unknown thing or a person it starts making an alarming sound while revolving around the unknown/alien thing

083. River Tern, as the name suggests this is commonly spotted along the rivers catching fish.

 

084. Rock pigeon/Pigeon, the most commonly seen bird, specially in cities

085. Rosy Starling, the migratory siblings of the starling or myna, this particular bird are always spotted is large groups ranging from 30-60.

Here is an example of the rough size of a general group. A dried off tree is completely filled with it

086. Rufous Bush Robin, again a bird spotted during the trek to Purandar

087. Rufous Treepie, spotted at my native place, this almost a crow sized bird, has a typical long tail which are of two different width(as seen below) making it feel as it the extended tail has been later added to the bird

088. Scaly breasted Munia, a member of the Munia family, not easily spottable bird, but does exist in most of the cities as well as villages. These bird are smaller than sparrows and are very swift in flying and most commonly spotted carrying blade of a grass or any long leaf for building nests

 

Well this particular photograph was shortlisted and put on exhibition at Aryanwaak's photo exhibition in 2011.

089. Sea Gull, very commonly spotted migrant, have spotted them in Diksal, few water bodies in Pune as well as in Mumbai, generally in big groups feasting on fish

One of the series of images, Taking off of the Sea Gull

090. Skyke's lark, very commonly sighted in outskirts of Baramati and also Pune, seen very commonly in places which is very husky as these can get camouflaged easily in it

091. Ruddy Shelduck, Commonly spotted at Diksal as well as the outskirts of Baramati

092. Shrike, another commonly spotted birds in the suburbs of Mumbai and also at the outskirts of Pune and Baramati.

Here's one of the shrike making some loud calls, probably alarmed by my presence around it

093. Shikra, almost the size of a pigeon and looking similar to a laughing dove during its flight, this predatory bird was spotted just next to the place of my residence in Baramti

094. Small Minivet, this small beauty was spotted at one of the garden's of Baramati, too curious with my presence it just kept on coming closer to me and hiding away in one o f the bushes.

Another one of the Minivet's seen along with the above one

Here is the frame where it was peeking from behind the branch of a neem tree

095. Small Indian Pranticole, this beauty was spotted at Diksal and here is the frame which actually was a blank shot by me, you can see how well these get camouflaged with the environment

096. Sparrow, the most commonly seen bird of one time, now a bit rare to spot especially in cities.

097. Spoonbilled stork, known for the shape of its beak, these migratory bird was spotted at Diksal and us those special beaks for capturing fish

098. Spotted Dove, very commonly seen in Southern India, this one was captured at my native place

099. Spotted Owl, probably an owlet over here, was spoted among the branches at a farm house at Malegaon, outskirts of Baramati

100. StoneChat, a beautiful curious(in this case) bird spotted at the outskirts of Baramati.

101. Tailorbird, as the name suggests, these small birds are expert in weaving beautiful nests

102. Thawny Eagle, my first catch of the eagle family, again spotted at Diksal

Well this image is one of my favorite as the whole event of the take off is captured

103 Wood Sandpiper, recently spotted it near Dombivli, know very less bout this bird...hope to have few more encounters

104. White browed Wagtail, this was captured at a rare moment when the bird, probably tired of the long flight, just dropped in right in front of my previous room in Baramati

105. White rumped munia, spotted at my native place and captured from quite a distance, leading to poor quality of the image, was actually along with a big group over the farm land, but the moment I went closer for a clear capture they flew off.

106. White throated kingfisher, Very commonly spotted kingfisher, often seen catching variety of insects other than the fish.

 

107. Woodpecker, spotted this for a very brief moment of a trip to a nearby village in Baramati, special thanks to Satish, my roomie, for stopping his bike and letting me the opportunity to capture this beauty

108. Wooly necked stork, a stork with really thick wool like padding around its neck. Again spotted very commonly in Baramati and Pune

109. Yellow eyed babbler, a recent addition to the list of birds, this one was spotted during my trip to Baje Caves.

     Well currently the list stops over here, but this surely shall continue for another hundreds or thousands...seriously praying for that milestone, atleast by the end of this life, afterall India itself sees over 1200 species of birds all around it...

   
     I am very thankful for your patience and the precious time to go through the whole Humungous blog, the id of each and every bird might not be very accurate, in case you feel any of the bird is accompanied by any wrong id please do feel free to leave the correct id in the comments below. Otherwise, do feel free to express your views, thoughts, any ways for improvement or even any location details that you feel u have spotted any particular thats not in the above collection and last but not the least any form of critics on improving the content, layout or anything related to this blog is seriously accepted and rather eagerly awaited.

P.S. This collection is not related to any photography skills, its just a compilation of the birds I have encountered so do bear with me if few of the photos are really of poor standard, ofcourse with my upgraded equipment I am on to get better pics of all the above birds and other new birds.