Daphnis minima

My daughter called me that day to photograph a moth which she thought was Oleander Hawk-moth(Daphnis nerii). When I went close to take photograph I realized that it was not Daphnis nerii. It was looking very similar to Daphnis nerii, but was brownish all over instead of the bright camouflage green Oleander Hawk-moth had. You can see Oleander Hawk-moth here as well as in my Macro Stitching a Moth post. You can also see its caterpillar at Metamorphosis.

I photographed this moth using my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM on Canon EOS 5D mark II with Rayflash fitted to Canon Speedlite 580EXII Flash. All photos were taken hand held at an awkward angle perching on a wooden stool as the moth was sitting close to fluorescent tube light outside my house. Ant which passed by during the shoot gave nice dimension of scale to the photograph.

Daphnis minima

Later going through identification I found that it did not even resemble another likely candidate Daphnis hypothous. Later at Indian Moths Yahoo Group I found out that it is Daphnis minima. This species is endemic to the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. I thank Dr Ian J. Kitching and Roger C. Kendrick For helping me out in identification.

For more details on Daphnis minima check this link.

I am Hungry

hi, I am a Blue-tailed Bee-eater. They call me scientifically Merops philippinus. I belong to great bee-eater family called Meropidae. We bee-eaters rank among the most delightful birds on Earth and possess startling grace and beauty.

Yummy Nice Bee

My species very similar and is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater (Merops persicus). We live throughout South East Asia. We are strongly migratory.

Let me remove his sting

Like other bee-eaters, I am a richly-colored, slender bird with predominantly green; my face has a narrow blue patch with a black eye stripe, and a yellow and brown throat; the tail is blue and the beak is black. I can grow to a length of 23-26 cm, including the two elongated central tail feathers. Even though we have confusion in our sexes as both sexes are alike we manage to breed along.

Wow that was delightful

We love to breed in sub-tropical open country, such as farmland, parks or rice fields. My favorite spots are near large water bodies. Like other bee-eaters our main food are insects. I love bees, wasps and hornets. I enjoy catching them in the air by sorties from an open perch. I like to eat bees and dragonflies in roughly equal numbers. The insects that are caught needs to be beaten on the perch to kill and break their exoskeleton.

Ugh here comes my bee snatcher

We bee-eaters are gregarious, make nesting colonially in sandy banks or open flat areas. A relatively long tunnel in which the 5 to 7 spherical white eggs are laid. Both the male and the female take care of the eggs. We also feed and roost communally.

My photographs were taken with Canon EOS 7D and Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM lens. If you liked my story please send me your comments.

White-cheeked Barbet

The sun was very high on the sky on that day. Light was too harsh for photography. Summer was trying push away those few days we call here as winter. My daughter wanted to play and asked me to come under the shade of this huge mango tree (Mangifera indica). It was a nice respite from the afternoon heat. As we went closer to the tree we saw two different barbets on different branches. I initially thought this one was a Juvenile Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) but on closer inspection I found out it is White-cheeked Barbet (Megalaima viridis). Barbets are always heard in India, but seldom seen as they camouflage well under the leaves.

I had my trusty Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM on not so trusty Canon EOS 7D. I would have loved to have Canon EOS 5D mark II which would have coped with harsh contrast better than Canon EOS 7D. But the 1.6x crop factor of the Canon EOS 7D was the bonus. Even tough I was using 300 mm lens, because of this crop factor I was really shooting with effective focal length of 480mm in 35mm terms. This had advantage in the “shoot the bird” territory. Also the superior focusing ability of 7d, I was able to capture these birds sharply.

Afternoon sunlight produces dark shadows and bright highlights thus producing a contrasty situation. Getting a right exposure without having these distracting elements inside the picture is many time impossible. I have seen many photographers who hate to go out when it is cloudy, during early morning or late evening. They are under an impression that you need to have bright light for good photograph. But the truth is just the opposite. They don’t know what they are really missing. So called “golden hours” of morning and evening are the best times of the day when the light is directional and soft thus creating much pleasing texture as well as depth which transforms your ordinary shot into a great picture. Cloudy day is also best time to shoot as cloud acts as large soft-box diffusing light.

To lessen the effect of contrast of the afternoon harsh sun I chose a vantage point which had much lesser sunshine. Even then the branch where the bird was sitting was unevenly lit and caused lot of distraction.

The White-cheeked Barbet or Small Green Barbet (Megalaima viridis) is a species of barbet found in southern India. It is very similar to the more widespread Brown-headed Barbet (or Large Green Barbet) (Megalaima zeylanica) but this species has a distinctive supercilium and a broad white cheek stripe below the eye and is endemic to the forest areas of the Western Ghats and adjoining hills. Like all other Asian barbets they are mainly frugivorous although they may sometimes eat insects and they use their bills to excavate nest cavities in trees.

Like many other barbets these are green and sit upright and still on a tree perch making them difficult to spot. During the breeding season at the start of summer their calls are loud and constant. The call, a monotonous Kot-roo … Kotroo... starting with an explosive trrr is not easily differentiated from that of the Brown-headed Barbet. During hot afternoons, they may also utter a single note wut not unlike the call of Collared Scops Owl (Otus lettia) or Coppersmith Barbet(Megalaima haemacephala).

Coppersmith Barbet

The Coppersmith Barbet, Crimson-breasted Barbet or Coppersmith (Megalaima haemacephala), is a bird with crimson forehead and throat which is best known for its metronomic call that has been likened to a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer. It is a resident found in South Asia and parts of Southeast Asia. They are mainly fruit eating but will take insects. As you can see this barbet had its mouth fully stuffed with seeds probably it was carrying to its nest. They are frugivorous like rest of barbets.

This species of barbet is found to overlap in range with larger barbets in most of South Asia. In the Western Ghats, it also overlaps with the Malabar Barbet (Megalaima malabarica) which has a very similar size and a more rapid call. The red forehead, yellow eye-ring and throat patch with streaked underside and green upperparts, it is fairly distinctive. Juveniles are duller and lack the red patches. The sexes are alike. This is the Megalaima haemacephala indica subspecies (Latham, 1790) that is found in the Indian Subcontinent from northeastern Pakistan and extends into Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The Sri Lankan form has more black on the face, more red on the breast and darker streaks on the underside.

Keeps solitary, pairs, or small groups; larger parties occasionally on abundantly fruiting Ficus trees. Fond of sunning themselves in the morning on bare top branches of tall trees, often flitting about to sit next to each other. The flight is straight, with rapid flaps.They compete with other cavity nesting birds and frugivores. Blue-throated Barbet (Megalaima asiatica) have been noted to evict them from their nest holes, while Red-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus cafer) have been seen to indulge in kleptoparasitism, pirating berries that the males bring to the female at the nest.

The nest holes are also used for roosting and some birds roost alone in cavities and these often roost during part of the day. Immatures will roost with the parents but often return to roost early so as not to be prevented by the parents from entering the roost cavity. The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk, reminiscent of a copper sheet being beaten, giving the bird its name. Repeated monotonously for long periods, starting with a subdued tuk and building up to an even volume and tempo, the latter varying from 1.5 to 2 per second. The beak remains shut during each call – a patch of bare skin on both sides of the throat inflates and collapses with each tuk like a rubber bulb, with much body and tail shaking. Not very vocal in cold weather – a spell of rain or cold immediately silences them, but it is one of India’s most familiar sounds in the hot season.

Male Black-hooded Oriole

The Black-hooded Oriole, Oriolus xanthornus, is a member of the Oriolidae family of passerine Old world Oriole birds. It is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia. The New World orioles even though similar in appearance to the Oriolidae, belong Icteridae family and are unrelated to the Old World orioles.

It is a bird of open woodland and cultivation. The nest is built in a tree, and contains two eggs. The food is insects and fruit, especially figs, found in the tree canopies where the orioles spend much of their time.

The male is striking, with the typical oriole black and yellow coloration. The plumage is predominantly yellow, with a solid black hood, and black also in the wings and tail centre.

Male Black-hooded Oriole

The female Black-hooded Oriole is a drabber bird with greenish underparts, but still has the black hood. Young birds are like the female, but have dark streaking on the underparts, and their hood is not solidly black, especially on the throat.

The black head of this species is an obvious distinction from Golden Oriole, Oriolus oriolus, which is a summer visitor to northern India. Orioles can be shy, and even the male may be difficult to see in the dappled yellow and green leaves of the canopy.

The Black-hooded Oriole’s flight is somewhat like a thrush, strong and direct with some shallow dips over longer distances.

Indian Palm Squirrel

The Indian Palm Squirrel (Funambulus palmarum) also known as Three-Striped Palm Squirrel, is a species of rodent in the Sciuridae family. It is found abundantly in Indian subcontinent. More recently, the it was accidentally introduced into Western Australia where it has become a minor pest that is actively eradicated due to its lack of natural predators.

Palm squirrels are about the size of rats with a bushy tail which is slightly shorter than their body. Their back is a grizzled grey-brown colour with five conspicuous white stripes, three of which run from head to tail. The two outer stripes run from the forelegs to the hind legs only. They have a creamy white belly and a tail covered with interspersed long black and white hairs. Their ears are small and triangular.

Indian Palm Squirrel

Gestation period is 34 days. Litter size averages 2.75 (viviparous). Breeding takes place in grass nests during autumn. Litters of two or three are common. The young are weaned after about ten weeks and are sexually mature at nine months.

Indian Palm Squirrel

These squirrels eat mainly nuts and fruits. They are fairly vocal, with a cry that sounds like “chip chip chip” when danger is present. They are opportunists in urban areas, and can be easily domesticated and trained to accept food from humans. Naturally active, their activity reaches levels of frenzy during the mating season.