LESSER NECKLACED LAUGHING THRUSH- OIL PASTEL

I was woken up in the morning by the whistles and chuckles of birds that were not visible to me in the first instance. On scrutiny of my backyard forest, I got a glimpse of a flock of brown backed birds with black ‘necklaces’. They were scurrying through the thick undergrowth. Though I maintained my gaze into the sparsely lighted forest with leaves of different shades of green crisscrossed with trunks and offshoots of varying thickness I couldn’t identify them. Before I could do so they took wings afar and vanished.

By late morning I happened to spot one of them alighted for a siesta on a branch . With more details of the bird, such as white supercilium above the eyes, black eye ring …. coming into light, I was able to recognize the bird then and take snaps. My reference book for birds suggested the name Lesser Necklaced laughing thrush. ‘Laughing’? In retrospect, I recalled the cacophony of chuckling sounds I heard previously. Subsequently, I drew the bird on a paper with oil pastel.