Butterfly at work!

Photo: Arunangshu Sinha, Kolkata

Location: Kolkata

Black-Hooded Oriole -II

We once published a photo of this Black Hooded Oriole here in this site. This one is one of our favourite birds. You can see them mostly during spring around the rural areas. Locally, we call them 'Halud pakhi' (because of the colour) or 'Istikutum pakhi' (because of the sound it makes).

Photo: Shankar Sinha, Panskura, WB, India

Location: Panskura

The weird and wonderful beauty of nudibranchs

(via flickr.com)

This blurry image shows the closest (to my knowledge) I've ever come to a Nudibranch ("nude-gilled" marine mollusc), separated only by a glass wall in the Monterey Bay Aquarium a year ago when I accompanied Sanzari's class on a field trip. It was but a small splash of bright color among a mess of other critters in a corner of the rocky tidal shore area of the exhibits (if I remember correctly). It wasn't even specifically identified on the info panel on its enclosure - I only discovered later what it was. And I remembered this image today when I saw this fantastic gallery of Nudibranch portraits at National Geographic. Go check them out. They just might brighten your day too!

Photo: Madhusudan Katti, Fresno, California, USA

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.