Eurasian tree sparrow- Passer montanus- characterised by chestnut crown and black patch below eyes.
Was seen feeding on ground small insects,worms and seeds from weeds in Rangapahar, Nagaland
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Author: bindyamc
AVIAN HUES
Join my group board, Nature, on Pinterest! https://pin.it/2qqfASH
Grey wagtail
Motacilla cinerea is a bird with grey dorsal side and yellow ventral, males having dark throat. They are seen in meadows near pools of water as pairs or groups, feeding on insects.
They are often seen in Andaman during cool months like December,January, February with short, sharp shrilling calls. So their sighting indicates advent of winters.
Indian robin
Seen near small rocks, feeds on insects
Red WHISKERED BULBUL
These birds are found solitary or gregarious in forests and gardens, foraging on fruits and insects. They are brown dorsally and white ventrally with red colour near ears, they have a head crest. Gets along well with other birds like babblers and myna, so not pugnacious.
Red Whiskered Bulbul
This bird is found solitary or gregarious in gardens and forests. They are seen on fruit trees, feeding on insects and worms. They have brown upper parts and white underparts and black crest on head, a red coloured plumage near the ears.Seen getting along with other garden birds like red vented bulbul, Robins, Babblers and Myna. We can hear them chattering in groups while foraging.
Males and female birds look alike, the younger ones will have shorter crests.
Yellow billed babbler and the chirpy mornings
While some of us are called as babblers when we talk excessively, yellow billed babblers can be seen chattering continuously especially when they are in groups foraging.
They are seen in scrub areas and gardens feeding on insects, fruits and sometimes food scraps that humans dispose.
They love taking bath in broad water containers outdoors and preen themselves with their partners.
Brown – capped Indian Pygmy Wood pecker
When I saw this bird first, I thought its a barbet, as it is small in size, until I googled to find details about it. It was found on a tree in the garden, perched not much away from ground level. I was amazed to find a pygmy wood pecker. I painted this picture using watercolor.
It has white striations on its back, a small red patch on its crown, greyish beak, and brown head.
To Fight or Flee??
Have you ever found yourself in a situation, where you were just being yourself and then you are surrounded by a horde of intimidations of various sorts? What would you have done in such testing times? Though you may be competent enough to beat them and tackle them singly ,if given a chance, when they crop up in huge volumes, what would be your response?
Many of the best advice I have heard is to fight them all. But that’s not very easy to extinguish a mob of problems, especially when you are singled out.
I once witnessed a similar situation among birds. It was dawn, there were bird calls that invited my attention. I saw a fallen branch of Acacia tree, on which different varieties of birds were perched. I identified black hooded Oriole, sunbirds, Red Whiskered Bulbul, Common Myna, and House Crow. All of them staring annoyingly at something that I thought was inanimate object, it then came across me that there was a cryptic Owlet in the midst of the noisy mob.
Why were those birds restless and intimidating an owlet. Well, I conjectured, the owlet is a carnivore, may be preying on their eggs and hatchlings. Then what about the House Crow? They too are known for their stealing nature. Are those stories that ‘Crows and Owls’ are enemies, true? or may be it’s because Owls prey on Crow’s eggs too. But what if we were to ask the owl? It would say “I’m just being myself”. That’s how I am programmed to live.
But to remain frozen in the present locus is dangerous. As the situation was getting worse with the Crow calling out it’s friends for majority, the Owlet takes a decision, TO FLEE. It flew to a nearby tree hole and hid within.
We in our life may have come across similar situations, were fighting the grueling abuse is energetically costly at that moment, but fleeing temporarily the hostile circumstances is the ideal choice. The insecure mob in that way will lose their targeted focus.
CITATION:
Fight, flight, freeze: What this response means- Medically reviewed by Timothy J Legg. PhD, CRNP-Written by Kirsten Nunez on Feb 21, 2020.
AVIAN HUES 