Foggy winter mornings are here. With low visibility for a good part of the morning, it’s the sounds that are clear and crisp. No matter what the state of fog is, birds continue to call and sing and delight our hearts. As the Sun peeks out during the day, watching some of these winged friends becomes easier. Sitting in any of the numerous parks in the colony, one can easily spot these small wonders on the wing. Ashy Prinia is one of the most common small birds flitting around. With a long tail, small grey head, and rusty brownish-yellowish body, it calls incessantly from the sidewalks and dense shrubs. Purple Sunbirds are the other beautiful and common birds, commonly confused with hummingbirds by many. Just FYI, hummingbirds don’t occur in our country, but the sunbirds are equally spectacular in their colours as they shimmer in the Sun. In our region, Purple Sunbirds can be seen feeding on nectar from flowers. Males during the breeding season, acquire deep purple colour all over, while in non-breeding season (read winters), they return to yellowish plumage with a dark stripe running down its throat. Females are perennially yellowish.
If you listen carefully around dense canopies late afternoon, a faint chweep chweep can be discerned. Flocks of 3-5 extremely cute Indian White-eyes (earlier called Oriental White-eyes) can be seen aggressively feeding and moving. These are stately but tiny green birds with bold white eye rings. Other small wonders of the colony are migratory. Lesser Whitethroats with their chuck calls, Hume’s warbler with its 2 note call and a quiet Black Redstart with its hyperactive twitching tail are all long-distance migrant birds common in the winter. These come from Central Asian Steppes to winter in our region and it’s a delight as well as a responsibility for us to be gracious hosts and let their habitats remain intact.
