Happy Holidays

Hi All,

I just thought I'd wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I'm away on holidays at the moment and will not be able to post any new images on the blog as I do not have access to Photoshop. However, expect a whole lot of new posts from mid January covering  Flycatchers, Drongos Indian Rollers and a whole lot more.

Cheers,
Dev

White-rumped Munia

The White-rumped Munia or White-rumped Mannikin (Lonchura striata), sometimes called Striated Finch in aviculture, is a small passerine bird from the family of waxbill "finches". More info inside.
The White-rumped Munia is about 10-11cm in length with a stubby grey bill and a long black pointed tail. Adult birds are brown above and on the breast and lighter below. Sexes are almost impossible to distinguish in all subspecies.

The bird is a resident breeder ranging from South Asia, to Southern China, East to Taiwan and South to Sumatra. It frequents open woodland, grassland and scrub and adapts well to agricultural land use. It is a gregarious bird which feeds mainly on seeds, moving through the undergrowth in groups. The nest is a large domed grass structure in a tree, bush or grass into which 3-8 white eggs are laid. It is a common and widespread species across a large range and is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.
Source-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-rumped_Munia

I photographed this bird in our garden. It was having a drink in the bird bath when I noticed it and luckily the camera, with the 100-400mm, was with me. I had to push the ISO to 1600 as it was late evening and the light wasn't good. The fact that the birdbath was in the shadow of a tree didn't help matters either. I'm pretty happy that I managed to capture a sharp image of the bird using a shutter of 1/40, handheld.

Red-rumped Parrot

The Red-rumped Parrot is a medium sized slender parrot found in the south-east of Australia. More images and info inside.

The adult male, shown above, is bright green with a blue green head, a red rump and yellow shoulders and belly. The female is a duller olive green with a green rump and faint yellow or light green scales on the belly. Young birds of both sexes are duller in colour. It is similar to the Mulga Parrot.

 

The Red-rumped Parrot is found in open grassland or lightly timbered plains, as well as along watercourses and in mallee farmlands with access to water. These Parrots feed in pairs or small flocks on the ground preferring to feed on seeds and leaves of grasses. They will also feed on fruits and flowers in trees. They can be seen feeding with other Parrots, including Eastern Rosellas and Galahs.

These birds mate for life. The female chooses and prepares the nesting site, usually a hollow in a eucalypt tree or, as shown above, in hollows found in wooden beams of buildings. Eggs are laid on a decayed wood bed and the female incubates the eggs while the male regularly feeds her. The young can be fed for a while after they fledge.
Source- http://birdsinbackyards.net/bird/104

The images in this post were taken at one of our friends farms in the Northern Hunter region of New South Wales. The birds are not easy to approach and I had to use a car as a hide to capture the images above. I was pretty lucky with the light as it was an overcast day. The female was perched in the shade under a roof and, as a result, the highlights in the background were blown.

Scaly-breasted Munia

The Scaly-breasted Munia is a common bird found throughout Sri Lanka, ascending to the highlands where it may be seen in the same habitat as the endemic Black throated Munia. More info after the jump.

The Scaly-breasted Munia, also known as the Nutmeg Manikin or the Spice Finch, is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia and the Philippines. It has also been introduced to Puerto Rico where they are already widespread in lowland agricultural areas. It feeds on seeds and can been seen foraging on grasslands and crops and is therefore considered a pest.

A typical clutch consists of 4 - 10 eggs which are laid in an untidy and dome shaped nest. It will move into gardens to occupy suitable nesting habitats. They move around in restless flocks, seldom staying in one place for long. The sexes are similar, juveniles have light brown upper parts  and have uniform buff under parts.

I found a small flock of these birds near the Thalangama tank one morning. They were moving about in the undergrowth feeding on seeds in the grass when I came across them. They move around a lot and it took a bit of patience to capture the image above. The bird in the image perched on a stick and paused for a little while to look around before disappearing into the undergrowth. Fortunately there was enough time for me to lock focus and capture the image.

White-browed Bulbul

The white browed Bulbul is a shy member of the Bulbul family of passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in Sri Lanka and the coasts of peninsular India. More info after the jump.

The white-browed Bulbul is about 20cm in length with a long tail. The upper part of the bird is an olive gray while the under parts are whitish. This species of Bulbul is identified by the white supercilium, the white crescent below the eye and the dark eye stripe. It also has a yellow vent, which is not always seen. The sexes are similar in plumage. It feeds on fruits, nectar and insects. It builds a cup shaped nest in a tree and typically lays two eggs per clutch.

The bird is usually detected by its characteristic call, a "loud rattle of sweetish notes", which is a familiar sound in the dry zone forests of Sri Lanka.

This photograph was taken at the Thalangama tank. I was out looking for Kingfishers when I came around a bend in the road and found it perched on a branch about 6 feet off the ground. It was very close to where I was standing and surprisingly it did not fly off or hide. I took these images at a focal length of 400mm. The light wasn't the best so I had to crank up the ISO to 1600. I was using the 400D at the time and wasn't too happy about increasing the ISO that much. At least I got a half decent image though!

Superb Fairy-wren

The Superb Fairy-wren is the most widespread of the ten species of fairy-wren found in Australia. Their range extends along the south eastern coast of Australia from Brisbane to Adelaide. It was once an abundant species and was once common in urban areas. More images and info inside.

The Superb Fairy-wren males defend a territory of between 0.5 and 2 ha. They live in family groups with the young of the previous years remaining in their parents' territory and contributing to the care of the younger siblings. During the non-breeding period the males moult into brown plumage similar to the females except for the tail which remains blue. The males also have a black beak while females and juveniles have chestnut coloured beaks.

Fairy-wrens have been described as the "least faithful birds in the world" because DNA fingerprinting has revealed that more than three quarter of the young within a "family" group are sired by males form outside the group. Females prefer "high quality" males and therefore, 4% of the males in an area sire 50% of the offspring. The attribute of the male Superb Fairy-wrens most related to their attractiveness to females is the duration they hold their bright blue breeding plumage. Older males are more attractive than younger males. Some "top quality" males moult directly from breeding plumage to breeding plumage.

I spent a fair amount of time trying to photograph these birds. They move around a lot in the undergrowth and therefore it is pretty hard to actually lock focus on them. To get a crisp image of them a relatively fast shutter speed has to be used. I could have increased the ISO but I wanted to produce images which had minimal noise. I guess using a hide would have been an option but I never had a hide or a substitute for one available.

 

The last two images show the actual colour of the Superb Fairy-wrens breast. It is a very dark blue but is often mistaken for being black.

 

I will update this post with images of a female Superb fairy-wren when I actually capture one!

Green Skimmer

The Green Skimmer is a widespread dragonfly in Sri Lanka. It is frequently found hovering near ponds, water ways, paddy fields and streams. More info inside.

This image was taken at Arankelle near Kurunegala. We were travelling up to Dambulla at the time and had planned to stop at Arankelle for breakfast as we wanted to have a look at the ruins of the ancient monastery. As I approached one of the ponds in the complex I noticed that it was teeming with dragonflies. The majority of them were either Green Skimmers or Scarlet Baskers. I sat on the steps leading down into the pond and waited a couple of minutes until this Green Skimmer settled on one of the reeds in the water. Fortunately I had the 100-400mm lens on the camera and was able to capture the image above without having to move any closer. The light was fairly good and I was able to shoot at 1/1000th of a second.

I also noticed a pair of dragonflies in the wheel position in flight but was unable to capture an image of them. I managed to lock focus on them but they moved before I could release the shutter.

I'm still not very good at identifying dragonflies and had actually thought that this Green Skimmer was a Sri Lankan Forktail. Thankfully Amila was able to correct me.