Crow Pheasant

Crow Pheasant (Greater Coucal): we call this 'Coobo pakhi' here in Bengal. This is because they make deep resonant call 'coob coob' in succession!

This bird is of cuckoo family and is very shy. They can't fly much. You find them most of the time walking on the ground looking for insects and other things to eat.

You can find this relatively large bird almost all over India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar (Burma), especially in the rural areas of these countries.

Photo: Shankar Sinha, Panskura

Location: Panskura, West Bengal, India

Swallow

Who is this sitting on the wire? A swallow! This one is perhaps a Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) which is the most widespread species of Swallow in the world.These birds are very rarely found in the Indian plains. However, they are found in plenty in the countrysides of Europe and North America. They like to breed or stay in manmade structures like stables and barns. This fellow swallow was found sitting on an electric wire in 'Uttarey' in Western Sikkim.

Note added: Doro's friend Subhamon recently went to Sikkim with his parents and took this shot over there.

Photo: Subhamon Supantha, Kolkata

Writing: Subhamon Supantha.

Asian Openbill

Wikipedia says:

"The Asian Openbill or Asian Openbill Stork, Anastomus oscitans, is a large wading birdin the stork family Ciconiidae. It is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from Indiaand Sri Lanka east to Southeast Asia....."

We call this bird 'Shamukh Khol' or 'shamukh bhanga' possibly because it feeds molluscs ('shamukh' in Bengali and 'khol' is cover). They also catch frogs and insects while moving in and around the wetlands.

Yesterday we went to visit nearby water bodies (lakes you can say) where we found fishermen catching fish by traditional nets and on country boats. And then off the water, we found this pair of birds and a couple of egrets, drongos and some other common birds.

Photo: Abhijit Kar Gupta, Kolkata