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Almost a year ago (see Nandi Hills, April 2008) I was fortunate enough to go up to the Nandi Hills, about an hour’s drive north of Bangalore (or Bangaluru, as it’s more properly known now) with ex-pat Brit Mike Prince (he of Bubo listing).

We saw what at the time seemed to me to be [...]

The Asian Open-billed Stork Anastomus oscitans (sometimes referred to as simply the Asian Openbill) is a resident breeder around inland wetlands in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Southeast Asia. These three birds were photographed at Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, southern India in December

Like all storks it flies with its neck outstretched [...]

When I was at Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary in southern India a few weeks ago one of the species of waterbird I couldn’t have missed if I’d tried was the Indian Pond Heron Ardeola grayii. Known colloquially as the “Paddybird” this rather familiar and lovely little heron is found in almost any ‘wet’ habitat from small [...]

Vedanthangal (pronounced Ved-uhn-tangle) Bird Sanctuary is about 85km south-west of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, southern India (which sounds all sounds very exotic don’t you think?), and is centred around a 30ha ‘tank‘, an artificial lake used for crop irrigation, that is visited by tens of thousands of breeding waterbirds in late-winter.

It’s actually India’s [...]

The Common Hawk Cuckoo Cuculus varius occurs in Punjab, Pakistan east across most of the Indian peninsula from about 800m in the Himalayas south; Bangladesh; Sri Lanka. It is generally resident but where occurring at high altitudes and in arid areas is locally migratory.

This bird was photographed at Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary in December 2008.
 

Also known [...]

A friend of mine just mailed me and asked me to blog about the latest research regarding the disappearance of India’s vultures. As it’s something I get particularly excised about I’m happy to do so. We’ve actually posted a number of times about the catastrophic decline in the population of India’s vultures - according to [...]

The Greenish Warbler Phylloscopus trochiloides is an abundant insectivorous Palearctic migrant breeding from eastern Europe across a broad swathe of the Boreal zone as far east as the Chinese coast. Birds winter in a far narrower area of the tropical deciduous forests of India, Sri Lanka, and east Asia. A small, slender, insectivorous species found [...]

I really enjoy going to India - the birding is great, the people (not that I’ve met all of them of course) are friendly and have a great enthusiasm for life, and travelling inside the country is always - how can I put this, er, ‘interesting’. Perhaps I’m getting more relaxed as I slide slowly [...]

I’m just back into the hotel after an excellent morning’s birding in Bangalore’s Nandi Hills with the extremely likeable and very knowledgeable Mike Prince (he of Bubo Listing). I’ll get a post online soon (I’m in rather desperate need of some sleep first), but highlights included the regionally-endemic Yellow-throated Bulbul, Indian Scimitar-babbler, Grey Junglefowl, a [...]

March 2nd. Another overnight flight, and another dawn - this one in Chennai (or Madras as it was once called) on India’s south-west coast, the capital of Tamil Nadu, home to almost 8 million people, and the third Indian city I’ve visited this year already (the other two being Delhi and Mumbai). The two trips [...]

“Sleep can wait, I’m going birding”. As a way of life it’s a pithy summary, a clear statement of intent, and an expression of bravado that hints at the Damoclean Sword awaiting the foolhardy birder who really thinks that he can do without “A chamber deaf to noise and blind of light”…or it’s the resigned [...]

The Oriental (or Small) Skylark Alauda gulgula is clearly closely-related to the better-known and more widespread Eurasian Skylark Alauda arvensis (the well-loved songster of farmland and fields across the Palearctic). As it’s English name suggests gulgula is smaller than than arvensis - which can be difficult to assess on individuals in the field - but [...]

Standby time again and after three days of staring out of a hotel window onto a wet car park - and seeing no birds - while I waited for the airline’s scheduling team to give me a ring (it’s very glamorous sometimes this airline job of mine) I finally got a call: a ‘night-stop’ [...]

White-cheeked Barbet Megalaima viridis
Bangalore, western India. 18 November 2007
 
A fairly small barbet, with a typically loud and insistent call (”tocc-tocc-tocc” in this case), this is a western Indian endemic. I photographed these two birds in Lalbag Park, Bangalore where they were easy to find in any area with large trees.
 

 
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All photographs copyright Charlie Moores

The taxonomy of the “Black Kite” Milvus migrans is a complicated affair. It appears that there may well be three species within the traditional Black Kite grouping: Yellow-billed Kite, consisting of both M. (m.) aegyptius and M. (m.) parasitus (breeding in northeastern and southern Africa, respectively); Black Kite M. (m.) migrans which breeds through Europe [...]

What’s all this about then? An essay on the subtle differences between the calls of various species of Sylvia warbler? No. How about a story all about searching for an elusive ficedula that was almost certainly a new bird for science? Not this time. Well then what Charlie? My friends, in “talking tuk-tuks” we’ll be [...]

If you’d flown to Bangalore*, southern India, literally not slept all night, and then gone straight out to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens on what turned out to be a beautifully warm but very crowded Sunday morning, I’d understand that you’d probably want to see as many birds as possible before you fell asleep in the nearest [...]

Yellow-billed Babblers Turdoides affinis affinis
Chennai, southern India. 18 January 2006
 
The nominate form of this common babbler is found only on peninsular India (roughly south of the Krishna River), and differs from the Sri Lankan form taprobanus by its paler crown, darker body feathers, and darker tail tip. Both forms show a pale grey panel in [...]

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
18 January 2006
 
I’ve not been to Chennai (or Madras as it used to be known) in Tamil Nadu, south-eastern India, for many years. Our trips here are very short with just one free day available, and that coming after a long flight that only gets into Chennai at some horrible time [...]

The green side of Kolkata…: Kolkata, India
15 September 2005
 
‘In 1690, Job Charnok, an agent of the East India Company chose a site for a British trade settlement. The site was carefully selected, being protected by the Hooghly River on the west, a creek to the north, and by salt lakes about two and a [...]