RADventure2
Wayanad -Wild & Wonderful (Part7)
Small Bee Eater
(Verdure Wayanad)
Here are a few of my spotting at Wayanad. I have attached a little bit of explanation to make it an interesting read.
Most people visit a forest to see a Tiger! I have heard many a times people saying there is no wildlife here. Recently, I met a family who had spent quite a fortune to visit a forest and were greatly dissapointed at the end of the visit, because they could not see anything apart from a few deers or an elephant in captivity. Whereas the forest as such was full of action happening all around. This post is to excite the explorer within you. There is so much happening around, you just have to activate your senses, have patience and simply observe.
Its an awesome feeling when you capture a species in your camera and thereafter learn more about the species. Suddenly the world around you becomes informative, interesting and captivating. Not just the animals or reptiles, you can explore birds, spiders, butterflies, trees, flowers, each one of them have a huge story to tell.
Most of the observations below happened in and around Verdure Wayanad (Kalpetta), the resort where we camped.
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| Scarlet Minivet (Male) (Verdure Wayanad) |
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| Scarlet Minivet (Male) (Verdure Wayanad) |
The scarlet minivet (Pericrocotus speciosus) is a small passerine bird. This minivet is found in tropical southern Asia from the Indian subcontinent east to southern China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They are common resident breeding birds in forests and other well-wooded habitats including gardens, especially in hilly country. The scarlet minivet is 20–22 cm (7.9–8.7 in) long with a strong dark beak and long wings. The male has black upper parts and head, and scarlet underparts, tail edges, rump and wing patches. The shape and colour of the wing patches and the shade or orange in the male varies across populations. The female is grey above, with yellow underparts (including the face), tail edges, rump and wing patches.
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| Blue Throated Barbet (Verdure Wayanad) |
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| Blue Throated Barbet (Verdure Wayanad)
The blue-throated barbet (Psilopogon asiaticus) is an Asian barbet having bright green, blue & red plumage, seen across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Barbets and toucans are a group of near passerine birds with a worldwide tropical distribution. The barbets get their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills; this species eats fruits and insects. They frequent evergreen forests, deciduous forests, gardens, orchards, teak forests and cities with fruiting trees.
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(Verdure Wayanad)
The little green bee-eater (Merops orientalis) is an exquisite little bird with bright emerald green plumage. The little green bee-eater can be identified by a narrow black stripe on its throat, known as a ‘gorget’, as well as a black ‘mask’ that runs through its crimson eyes. Also distinctive are the two central, long, narrow, black tail streamers. The wings are largely green, sometimes tinted with gold or reddish-brown, and have a black trailing edge. The crown may be green, or may be strongly tinged with reddish-brown, and the bill is long.
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| Oriental Magpie Robin (Male) (Verdure Wayanad)
The oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) is a small passerine bird now considered an Old World flycatcher. They are distinctive black and white birds with a long tail that is held upright as they forage on the ground or perch conspicuously. Occurring across most of the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia, they are common birds in urban gardens as well as forests. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as cagebirds. This species is 19 centimetres (7.5 in) long, including the long tail, which is usually held cocked upright. It is similar in shape to the smaller European robin, but is longer-tailed. The male has black upperparts, head and throat apart from a white shoulder patch. The underparts and the sides of the long tail are white. Females are greyish black above and greyish white. Young birds have scaly brown upperparts and head. It is the national bird of Bangladesh.
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| Blue-Winged Leafbird or Gold-Fronted Chloropsis (Verdure Wayanad) |
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| Gold-Fronted Chloropsis - in flight (Verdure Wayanad)
The golden-fronted leafbird (Chloropsis aurifrons) is a species of leafbird. It is a common resident breeder in India, Sri Lanka, and parts of Southeast Asia. The southern Indian race, has a narrower yellow border to black face. The throat is black and it has a blue sub-moustachial stripe and duller orange forehead. Its habitat is forest and scrub. This species eats insects and berries.The adult is green-bodied with a black face and throat bordered with yellow. It has an orange forehead and blue moustachial line, but lacks the blue flight feathers and tail sides of blue-winged leafbird. Young birds have a plain green head.
The golden silk orb-weavers (Nephila) are araneomorph spiders noted for the impressive webs they weave. Nephila consists of numerous species found in warmer regions around the world. They are also commonly called golden orb-weavers, giant wood spiders, or banana spiders. Nephila spiders vary from reddish to greenish yellow in color. Like many species of the superfamily Araneoidea, they have striped legs specialized for weaving (where their tips point inward, rather than outward as is the case with many wandering spiders). Their contrast of dark brown/black and green/yellow allows warning and repelling of potential predators to whom their venom might be of little danger.
The major difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is their antennae. Grasshoppers have short antennae, whereas crickets have long ones. Additionally, grasshoppers stridulate (i.e. sing or chirp) by rubbing their hind legs with the wings. Crickets make chirping sounds by rubbing their wings together.
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| Juvenile Pea Fowl (Muthunga WLS)
The peafowl include two Asiatic bird species (the blue or Indian peafowl originally of India and Sri Lanka and the green peafowl of Myanmar, Indochina, and Java) and one African species (the Congo peafowl native only to the Congo Basin) of birds. The pheasants and their allies, known for the male's piercing call and, among the Asiatic species, his extravagant eye-spotted tail covert feathers which he displays as part of a courtship ritual. The term peacock is properly reserved for the male; the female is known as a peahen, and the immature offspring are sometimes called peachicks.
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| Red Jungle Fowl (Female) (Muthunga WLS)
The red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) is a tropical member of the family Phasianidae. It is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken, with some hybridisation with the grey junglefowl. The red junglefowl was first domesticated at least five thousand years ago in Asia.
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| Sparing Spotted Deer (Muthunga WLS)
The chital also known as spotted deer or axis deer, is found in the Indian subcontinent. A moderate-sized deer, male chital reach nearly 90 centimetres and females 70 centimetres at the shoulder. While males weigh 30–75 kilograms, the lighter females weigh 25–45 kilograms. The species is sexually dimorphic: males are larger than females, and antlers are present only on males. The antlers, three-pronged, are nearly 1 metre long. Sparring between males begins with the larger male displaying his dominance before the other. The opponents interlock their horns and push against each other, with the smaller male producing a sound. The fight terminates with the males stepping backward, or simply leaving and foraging. Fights are not generally serious.
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| Lone Tusker (Muthunga WLS) |
Next - Part 8 : Kumarakom (backwaters of Kerala)
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