Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Tricky Bird To Photograph..........

The bird you see in these photos is Brown-headed Barbet/Megalaima zeylanica/. Its diet consists of fruits and berries. This bird doesn't come down to the ground, blends perfectly on the foliage of a tree, and very vary. All these factors make it quite a task to take a decent photo of this bird.

PhotobucketAny way, a good many days ago, I noticed one of these repeatedly coming to perch on a dead Bael   tree in the garden next door. So I kept my eye on her a for a while, and I noticed that her actual destination was a Breadfruit tree next to the Bael. She will perch on the Bael tree for a while, then move on to and disappear in to the foliage of the Breadfruit tree, fly off after a while, come back to the Bael tree, the ritual went on and on. There was only one explanation. She had a nest in the Breadfruit tree. So I stared waiting at a point where I could have a good view of her to take some photos at some points of her visits. Imagine my surprise when I realize that It was actually two birds doing this thing! It's either that both male and female birds of this species feed their young, or two female birds have nested in the same tree. I didn't find enough data online to confirm either of the two hypothesis.

After many days of keeping watch at my vantage point, making god knows how many attempts to photograph them, I manage these shots, though not very satisfactory yet.  I'll keep trying!



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A post for World Bird Wednesday and Wild Wing Wednesday

24 comments:

  1. I'd be happy with those pics Amila - particularly like the last one peering at you from behind the branch.

    Cheers

    Davo

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  2. Great photos. The bird's coloring makes it blend into the background so well.

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  3. Fanatastic colours!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  4. Lovely captures, and an unusual looking bird. Such a big beak.

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  5. A lovely bird Amila. Beautiful colours and what a big beak. Great images.

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  6. It's amazing bird, difficult to spot indeed! I love it!

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  7. Wow, Amila, I think you did an amazing job photographing that bird. She's so well-camouflaged.

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  8. Interesting bird! So short and stout with such a heavy beak! Almost like a kingfisher except they eat fish, of course.

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  9. WELL you got some amazing shots!! What a cool looking bird that beak is SERIOUS!!

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  10. Wonderful post Amila! What an exciting study. You have come away with so many great shots. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. A great story coupled with a rare and exotic looking bird. It doesn't get much better. Bravo!

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  11. What a cute bird, awesome sighting and photos. It is hard to tell with the photos how big is it?

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  12. You did OK with this bird, lots of my shots look exactly the same..........

    The last one is the best I think.

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  13. What an interesting looking fellow. Love that last shot. Glad you linked up :)

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  14. No wonder it is hard to see - it looks like the leafs on the tree.

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  15. a strange bird indeed. It looks like it is dressed in leaves. I would like to see this one. :)

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  16. What an interesting bird...I think you got some good shots, considering the challange. I agree that the last one is the best.

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  17. Hi Amila,
    I think you've done an excellent job capturing her!
    Those lovely green feathers certainly do help hide her among the foliage.
    It will be interesting to see the outcome and I hope too we'll see the babies.

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  18. Beautiful bird! I'd love to have those flying around here.

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  19. What a great-looking bird.. very well camouflaged too.

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  20. A bird the same color as leaves is just wonderful! I hope you'll get a photo of the fledglings after they hatch.

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  21. Hi everybody,I'm so happy to see that you all like this bird,for it's one of my favorite too!


    Eleen,The bird would roughly be the size of Common Mynah.

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  22. Splendid captures of this very interesting bird!

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  23. I can imagine that they are hard to get. Hard to find to, I think :D

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  24. Hi Kala and Nicole, So nice to hear from you!:)

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