Which bird is this?

Nick-H

You are very lucky: we get just a few, but tailor birds and sunbirds come in our garden too. Last year we used to get Prinias (prynia?) too.

Note the distinctive angle of tailor bird tail: tail in the air is tailor bird!

The real reason for its name is that it stitches leaves together to make a nest. See my photos here and here.

jituyadav

It’s an amazing bird. But Nick, I have a different experience of its nest making. I had some Ashoka trees outside the house where this bird used to make nest every year (on alternate trees, wonder why ). The intriguing part was that it used to take out the spider web and stick the leaves together, not stitch them. And it was impossible for anyone to even get the hint of the nest. I had my bedroom window opening towards the tree so I watched this bird for hours as it made nest, gave eggs and its offsprings where out for the first time. Awesome!!

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Nick-H

What an amazing thing to see! I'm very envious

Maybe we have different species? There is a weaver bird too, that makes another, remarkable kind of nest, but I don't remember what that looks like.

RWeHavingFunYet

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I guess, you mean the Baya Weaver Bird.

Nick-H

What a lovely bird that is --- and what a wonderful photo!

mridula

Nick the nests look beautiful. I now realize that I have seen this before in my previous workplace but did not know what it was.

And which bird is this? I am also a little scared if I am asking about some bird that I have listed before but her beak is too small for it to be Purple Sunbird! But I am wondering if this is tailor bird from another angle??

Attached Thumbnails

 

Nick-H

Sunbirds have long, curved, thin beaks that they can insert into flowers to drink the nectar. This fellow has, I think, a grain-eating beak.

I don't know what it is, though. Over to Noriko --- I mean RWeHavingFunYet

snonymous

Is it a Munia?

And someone please tell me who this cutie is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4274134...pool-snonymous

He was in my balcony recently.

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Nick-H

He looks like the sort of person you don't want around your small birds! Thinking of lunch

snonymous

No he wasnt, he was a perfect gentleman! He came around 6pm and stayed for a good 20min, even agreeing to pose for this photo.

jituyadav

Mridula ,Looks like blackcap (female) to me.

Nick, just to increase the jealousy, will tell another beautiful incident
There was another small bird that made nest on a tree outside the house. The nest was about 5 feet from ground, which was unusual. It was monsoons time and the rains were heavy so I covered the nest with a small sheet so that the water does not destroy the nest. One day in the morning I saw that the eggs had hatched and to my surprise, the bird couple came and sat on a branch feeding the little one, without even bothering that I was watching and so close to nest. One night I heard loud bird sound close to my window. The same birds were flapping wings and shouting. The moment I came out, they flew towards the nest and I saw a cat sitting below the tree. I shooed away the cat and after that whenever the cat came, the birds would come to my window and shout. One day when I heard the shout very early morning and thought that the cat had come again, to my surprise, the small babies had left the nest and were on the creeper enjoying themselves. The parents were happy and perhaps wanted me to see the kids . For three days the kids just stayed on the creeper and practised flying and on fourth day became a full fledged bird and flew away.

Snonymous, looks like a Goshawk kid and nick is right about it being better off away from small birds..

Mridula, we must have a part of royalty if you publish a book on birds...

Nick-H

That's a lovely story of your bird babies. We chase the cats (even our own) away from the crows, even the crows are pretty capable of looking after themselves and even chase us when they are nesting. Once a cat got half way up the tree in the night, and the crows were making such a din. I chased the cat off with a long stick.

For two days the crows remembered I was on their side and didn't shout --- then I started again.

They are very insistent on chasing off prey birds, and I nearly had to rescue one from them one day.

Sama

beautiful! I love raptors! a small hawk here, or a larger kestral.

I have hawks diving into my yard for the songbirds and I would never chase them off -- they have to eat too!

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Nick-H

Sure... and I'm certain yours is the more ecologically sound viewpoint, but, rather like the cat-eating people, I tend to think that, yes, they have to eat, but not my friends!

Mind you, I'm very fond of lizards and frogs... but I don't chase the kingfishers away.

Sama

I DO chase away the neighbor's cat who comes into my yard looking for the birds I feed...they are sitting ducks (no pun intended) for that cat and that's not fair....