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.)

Hoopoe - the colourful bird!

Photo: Shankar Sinha
Location: Panskura, West Bengal, India

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