House Sparrow (female)

Photo: Abhijit Kar Gupta

Location: Lake Gardens, Kolkata

Indian Grey Horn bill

We feel so good that we are back to our animal blog again after a long gap!
Here is Lieutenant Puskar Basu of Indian Army who came across our blog and appreciated so much. We are (Doro, his friends and Doro's father) indeed so happy. Puskar Basu (Puskar uncle) has sent us a set of wonderful photographs that he clicked at different times; we would love to put them in our blog.
Here is one of them.

This Photograph is of an Indian Grey Horn bill. Lieutenant Puskar Basu writes: I have found him in the branches of tall trees surrounding the campus of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. At first he was very camera shy, but offering him some delicacies, helped me to bribe him and earn his friendship.

These Indian Grey Horn bill birds are around 2 ft long, they have grey feathers all over their body. They can be found in the Himalayan foothills and up to certain height of Himalayas, on trees, in jungles but not in deep forests and sometimes in urban areas too, generally seen in small groups. What do they eat? They love to eat fruits, but occasionally they eat insects also. The Horn bill has a harsh cry, and an undulating flight, with alternate flapping and sailings.

For More details on Indian Grey Horn bills, click here and here.



Photo: Lieutenant Puskar Basu, Kolkata
Place: Dehradun, India

Tailor Bird ('Tuntuni' in Bengali)

We reappear once again after a long gap!
Here is one special announcement!!

This entry is the 100th entry of our blog. So we are very happy and celebrate with this Tailor bird. Tuntuni as we call. Our friend Shankar Sinha has captured this near his home at Panskura.
This bird is one of the most difficult birds to photgraph, not because of its tiny size, but it can not just sit at one place for more than a few moments and can not decide which direction it will look at! It always appears excited! We all love this bird and this is immortalized in our folk tales by legends like Upendra Kishore Raychowdhury.
Tuntuni's weave neat small nests by floding a leaf and sewing it by collected fiber! Truly a tailor bird!
More you can find in this beautiful site over here.



Photo: Shankar Sinha
Location: Panskura
Camera: Nikon D90

Green Bee Eater ('Banspati')

Hello! We were absent for some months! Sorry for this. Now we are back with more pictures. Please send us pictures and write ups...
This Green Bee Eater bird was spotted over a pond when we went to visit a flower nursery at a village near Kharagpur.

Location: 'Pushpanjali' Rose Garden, Jakpur (near Kharagpur), West Bengal, India
Photo: Abhijit Kar Gupta

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth: Hemaris thysbe, the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth or Common Clearwing (wingspan 38-50 mm), readily visits flowers by day throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, where it ranges far to the north, even into the Yukon.
It is not difficult to see why many gardeners would mistake an Hemaris thysbe moth for a small hummingbird as it hovers, sipping nectar from flowers through a long feeding tube. The moth hovers briefly, sipping for only a few seconds before darting off to a new flower. Green body "fur" and burgundy wing scales suggest a small ruby throated hummingbird.

You can see the very similar species in India called Hummingbird Hawk Moth. So next time when you are in a garden watch for it!

Photo: Sanjib Bhattacharyya, France
(Our friend Sanjib has contributed this who also writes this up.)