Thursday, April 29, 2010

Eurasian Spoonbill

This photograph was supposed to have been uploaded, in a previous post but due to oversight missed it out. So uploading it today as a new post rather than amend the old one.
Photographed at the Ranganathittu bird sancutary, the crest is acquired by the bird during its breeding season.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Bronze Winged Jacana - Adult

Today I managed to spot an adult Jacana, it was pretty far from where I was perched, but felt good nevertheless. I will try to get a better shot at the bird soon, but seems like the juveniles are more camera friendly than the adults.
I learnt today that the female Jacana is polyandrous, a very rare breeding system in birds. Hence in this case a female will copulate with multiple males, but lay eggs for only one of them.
Nature truly is amazing, the more I learn about it, the more ignorant I feel.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Bronze Winged Jacana






Its been more than a month since my last post here. I have been busy with my captains exams which I finally got done with, hopefully I can now get back to what I most enjoy doing.
Navi Mumbai is a hot-spot of wading birds, and in one of the swamps I spotted these Juvenile Jacana's (Metopidius indicus). I was surprised at how comfortably they walked with their enormously elongated spider like toes. The widely spreading toes help to distribute the birds weight and helps it to walk along with ease over floating leaves and stems. I could not spot an adult today, may be some other time. I stayed at a far off distance since it appeared to me that the birds were wary of my presence. I seriously felt the lack of a longer lens today or at least waterproof boots to walk in the swamp.