Birding at Hebbal lake,Bangalore

  Let me tell you about hebbal lake first. It was created by kempegowda way back in 1537. The park is maintained under public-private partnership and the management allows birdwatchers and photographers freely between 6.30 AM to 9.30 AM without any restrictions. So its a very good place for amateurs to learn.

 The habitat is favoured by many species of birds such as the Spot-billed Pelican, Eurasian Spoonbill, Shoveller, Pintail, Garganey, Little Grebe, Coot and Spot-billed Duck. We can also find sandpipers and other waders as well as Purple Moorhens, Purple Herons and Grey Herons in the shallow zone.

Ashy prinia

  Inside the park we can easily spot pale billed flower pecker, parakeets,ashy prinia, great-tit, white eye, kingfisher,tailor bird and all species of sun birds.With a standard zoom lens we can easily take good pictures. Birds inside the park are not at all shy, with little bit of patience we can get close up pictures, these pics are shot with sigma 70-300mm lens without any tripods.

female sun bird

 Make sure that you visit on weekdays to skip weekend photographer crowd, if you want to get suggestions from others, visit on weekends and feel free to talk to others, most of them are kind enough to help the beginners and they will share their tricks and techniques.

Male sun bird

After few visits you will get to know where to wait for, to spot particular species, there are many bird nests inside the park and if you are lucky enough to get the pictures of birds with hatchlings you can walk out of the park proudly with bunch of fabulous pictures. Hebbal lake is noteworthy for bird watchers.

pale billed flower pecker

  Stay tuned for my next post which includes water birds from hebbal lake.

  © srivathsa.s
  The photographs that i publish in this blog are copyrighted.
  Contact me for full resolution pictures. srivathsaaa@gmail.com.
  Indian wildlife photography.

Coppersmith Barbet

  Coppersmith Barbet  is a bright colored sparrow sized bird,which is more heard than seen. It has a gorgeous green plumage which serves as an effective camaflouge in greenery. Barbet's call is very familiar for any one lucky enough to have a fig tree around their neighbourhood. The call is a loud monotonous ringing. The barbet gets its name because the call resembles a coppersmith hitting a piece of metal constantly at a distance.It is ventriloquistic in nature . So the bird is hard to locate when it perches high above in a fig tree and makes this peculiar sound for hours at once. Most of my friends told they have never seen it(Funny thing->I have seen like 6 to 7 barbets which are regular to fig trees in our campus)
 

                                      Male coppersmit.
Captured it when it was feeding on a tree.

                                     Barbet entering the nest to feed.

The parents bring back figs, insects as regularly as possible. The nest will be usually in a fig tree and other berry trees.

 

                                This moment is the best.

The Barbet coming out of the hole makes the shot beautiful, all u need is some patience(another word for wildlife photography) and a decent camera. Nest is a cylindrical hole with horizontal entrance made in a dead log of tree. Male and female both share the domestic duties. Sometimes the old abandoned nest will be renovated by them.

 

                                

This pic seems like they are kissing eh? The scenario is actually one parent is leaving the nest, another is waiting to get in.

In photography, sometimes, things are not always what they seem. . Atleast the chances are less in wildlife photography unlike artistic and other photography.. I remember Calvin telling Hobbes " thats what i love in photography, people always think the photos tell the truth".

© srivathsa.s

These wildlife and artistic photographs that i publish in this blog are copyrighted.
contact me for full resolution pictures. srivathsaaa@gmail.com

sun bird family

One day we were roaming around a village to take photos of a peacock (needless to say a villager misguided us). After sometime we were disappointed n planning to leave the place. We found a nest which was hanging to a lantena in a shrubby area. Our faces were lit and we wanted to check out the nest.

 

Sunbird chick

I touched the nest gently n we heard some faint sounds and we saw the hatchling(chick) opening its beak . At this moment i took some snaps, n my camera was too close to the nest,So with limited light the image came out less sharper










Male sunbird

 The male is a beauty. Male helps in feeding the young .The male was very careful when it was around the nest, it used to take 2 min to approach the nest.

It was metal glossy and dark purple,it was spectacular.Sadly there was much shade around the nest. So we couldn't do much.

  






Female sunbird
 Female builds and incubates. Female alone builds the nest.Breeding season mainly from March to May.
mainly it feeds spiders and small insects to its chick. You can see the spider in the beak if u observe properly.











Male feeding
The frequency of feeding in the day time is too high. We noticed the . birds returning to the nest within 5 to 6 min. You can see the shiny body of the male,its just gorgeous.










Female feeding
 I could see only 2 hatchlings, i guess  there was another. I decided to take the  shot close since i had 72mm digital  camera. The optical zoom was not  enough to frame the birds.













The way i took these shots

We planned to make some hide using surrounding natural stuff, we collected some arecanut leaves . I sat down on the ground with dried foliage all over me. Bird did not recognize any of the changes.

© srivathsa.s

These wildlife photos that i publish in this blog are copyrighted.
contact me for full resolution pictures. srivathsaaa@gmail.com