Over 1,000 volunteers systematically surveyed 4,000 locations in each of two seasons - dry season (January-March) and wet season (July-September) - across Kerala for over 600 days across five years. The KBA is Asia's largest bird atlas in terms of geographical extent, sampling effort and species coverage.
February 21, 2022The black drongo is one of the few birds that practically everyone knows, though we are, as a nation, singularly unaware of the creatures that share this India that is Bharat with us, and the charm they lend to life here. It is not a big bird, but it is bold and black and energetic, …
Continue reading "Twisting and turning at top speed"
February 25, 2018ON April 1, as I was sipping my morning coffee, I heard someone imitating the call of the Indian cuckoo (Cuculus micropterous) repeatedly, and was astonished by the sheer whimsy of the performance-imagine anyone imitating a forest-loving bird in the heart of congested Madras! The imitation was good, so good in fact that I would …
Continue reading "Not a wandering voice"
February 18, 2018A power outage was reported in some parts of the US city of Houston caused by a bird, according to a local power company. A spokesperson with Texas New Mexico Power Company on Sunday said about 8,900 homes and businesses in the southeaster part of the city were without power, reports Xinhua news agency. It …
Continue reading "Bird causes power outage in US city"
June 19, 2017Scientists have discovered the most complete specimen of a tiny dinosaur-era bird, trapped in 98 million-year-old amber, that has exceptionally well preserved feathers, talons and other features. Excavated from a mine in Myanmar, the piece of amber holds the specimen of a group of extinct toothed birds called enantiornithines, which died out at the end …
Continue reading "Tiny, feathery bird trapped in 98-million-year-old amber found"
June 11, 2017Early every summer, when the coral tree (Erythrina Indica) near my compound wall bursts into scarlet flower, two orioles visit my backyard, a cock and a hen, both adult and always in a pair. For the Last four years I have been noticing them, and while I cannot be sure that it is the same …
Continue reading "Not gold but golden"
May 6, 2017If the purpose of the peacock broom is to save the lives of small insects by sweeping them away, what about saving the life of the peacock itself and changing it to cotton or even plant stalks, asks
December 3, 2016