Rose Ringed Parakeet

We make it a practice not to completely harvest our fruits and vegetables, a large portion is left for our backyard wildlife. The rose ringed parakeets (Psittacula krameri) are one such beneficiaries of this practice. They visit us every monsoon and the last year they were attracted to our corn,  This year they have taken a liking for the overgrown drumsticks. Rapid fliers and shrill voiced, they add some more green to the already lush green landscape. 

Rose Ringed Parakeet

Ma had grown eight corn plants in her small vegetable plot. The corn were growing well and were a few days away from harvest. One day she found a few of the cobs neatly peeled and all the corn gone. She wondered who the thieves were; the usual suspects were the squirrels. The next day, a few more corn cobs were cleaned neatly and the saga continued for a few more days. She then handed over the investigation of the corn robbers to me. The thieves turned out to be so pretty, that I did not have the heart to chase them off. The day I clicked these photographs, they were feeding on the last corn of ma's garden.

Rose ringed Parakeet; why you eat my corn ?? ( The above photograph is the Female Parakeet- the ring is missing in the ladies)

An innocent bystander, this one visits our home in Mangalore everyday. 

Alexandrine Parakeet

Its been quite some time since my last posting, I was sailing on the high seas on a tanker and hence without any net access. During this time I did manage to Photograph a lot of birds and marine life, which I will start regularly posting from today. As before I will be posting on every odd date on this blog and the even dates are reserved for my other photography blogs.
On the day I was suppose to join this ship, I got a days halt at Mumbai and I used the opportunity to visit Hanging gardens (A park in South Mumbai) where I saw a colony of these Alexandrine Parakeets (Psittacula eupatria). The distinctive feature of the bird is its maroon patch on each shoulder. The one photographed above is a female the males have a rose-pink and black collar  around their neck. The birds were very noisy and the entire park was filled with their chatter.