Tailed Palmfly

Around 1:30 AM after a really late night call at my hospital I was returning back home for a well deserved sleep, I saw this butterfly sitting on a dry vine near corridor of my house. I could make out that it was a butterfly from the way it was sitting with wings folded. Dim light of corridor did not help me to identify it. Once I saw the butterfly all my tiredness vanished and I wanted to photograph it. I slowly tiptoed into the house to grab and assemble all my macro rig without waking my family.

Tailed Palmfly Closeup

Once I got my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM fitted with ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter on a Canon Speedlite 580EX II, I headed back to the butterfly. I use a led headlight to illuminate the butterfly so that I can focus in such a dark night. For macro photography I prefer manual focus over auto. Using the led headlight I can fine tune focus setting. For macro focusing I use a simple trick. I rotate the focus ring of the lens to a nearest focus position and then move my whole camera towards the subject till it is in perfect focus. If I overshoot, I back off till I get subject in full focus and then squeeze the shutter release. This allows my left hand to be free. I use my left hand to stabilize the branch where the subject is sitting so that I get a steady shot in case of a breeze. That night there was no breeze and the butterfly was sitting without moving hoping that it gets unnoticed in that darkness.

Tailed Palmfly

It was a Tailed Palmfly(Elymnias caudata). In the past this butterfly was considered as caudata subspecies of Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra caudata). Now Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra) and Tailed Palmfly(Elymnias caudata) are considered separate species. It is the most common and widely distributed Palmfly and the only one found in South India. Common in jungles and palm plantations. Avoids bright sunlight and rarely comes out into the open. Occurs in the plains and up to 1700 m in the hills. Active through out the year in South India. With weak flight,settles for a long time on leaves or trunks of palm trees at some height from the ground.

Tailed Palmfly

It lays its eggs on palm trees belonging to Arecaceae family like Coconut (Cocos nucifera), Areca Nut (Areca catechu), Rattan Palm (Calamus rotang), Loureiro’s Date Palm (Phoenix lourerii) Oilpalm (Elaeis guineensis), Yellow or Golden Cane Palm (Dypsis lutescens) and Chinese fan palm(Livistona chinensis).

This butterfly species is dimorphic, males and females do not look alike. Males exhibit black colored upperside forewings with small blue patches and reddish brown color on upperside hindwings, while the females mimic butterfly species of the genus Danaus. Sine I could not visualize the upperside of this specimen I am not sure whether it is male or female.

Juvenile Yellow-billed Babbler Cropped

That day I was returning after some macro shooting, I saw these group of babblers hopping around in the shrubs. I have covered these Yellow-billed Babblers (Turdoides affinis) earlier in three blogs here, here & here. Each time I had opportunity to use different lens and cameras.

Juvenile Yellow-billed Babbler

These are very familiar birds in Mangalore and Manipal area. But are absent in my native place which is very close to Mangalore. These birds jump and hop so much that it is rarely possible for me to get a clean closeup of them sitting. So when I saw this juvenile Yellow-billed Babbler which was sitting very close to me acting as a sentinel on duty, I started photographing without thinking about the rest of the group. When I reached home and checked photo on larger monitor I realized that it looked very close to the Jungle babbler(Turdoides striata). If it was not for the other adult Yellow-billed Babblers which have paler head and nape as compared to the body color, I would have mistook this for Jungle babbler(Turdoides striata). Thanks to my good friend Shiva Shankar whom I depend for most of my bird identification for clarifying the same.

Juvenile Yellow-billed Babbler

That day I was carrying my usual macro & tele rig consisting of Canon EOS 5D mark II fitted with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM & Canon EF 2X II Extender. For the 600mm range I was getting, the bird was quite close. Due to that proximity you can see even at f/8 aperture I was getting the tail of the bird out of focus. Just to highlight the feather detail which is captured by the camera and the lens combination, I have cropped the first picture to almost 50% of the original.

Juvenile Yellow-billed Babbler

The Yellow-billed Babbler lives in flocks of seven to ten or more. It is a noisy bird, and the presence of a flock may generally be known at some distance by the continual chattering, squeaking and chirping produced by its members. One member often perches high and acts as a sentinel while the remaining members of the flock forage on or close to the ground. They feeds mainly on insects, but also eat fruit, nectar and human food scrap. They do not fly long distances, they usually gain height by moving up a tree or tall shrub.

Yellow Bush Dart

One late evening I found this whitish bodied damselfly resting on a dry twig in the garden. It was quite dark outside. So I picked up my macro rig which consisted of Canon EOS 5D mark II fitted with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM. For illumination I used ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter fitted on to Canon Speedlite 580EX II flash. It was sitting almost close to the ground in a very tight corner. As focusing was difficult, I used my Canon Right Angle Finder and photographed this damselfly almost lying down on the ground. If I had flippable live view finder like Canon EOS 600D it would have been wonderful. Due to the low light I was not able to see the damselfly properly. Fortunately the white body of the damselfly helped in my focus. Even though I was very close to the ground, the background was not clear as it was surrounded by bushes. I could later identify that it was a Male Yellow Bush Dart damselfly (Copera marginipes)

Yellow Bush Dart

Male Yellow Bush Dart is little larger than female. Characteristic feature of Yellow Bush Dart is a black band which extends from eye to eye. Male Yellow Bush Dart has eyes which are black above, greenish on sides and beneath with black equatorial band. Thorax is bronze black with fine yellow lines on sides. The stripe on sides is narrow and pale greenish yellow. Legs are bright yellowish orange. Wings are transparent. Wing spot is brown. Abdomen is bronzed black above. Segment 3-6 with a pale stripe along the side and a narrow pale greenish white ring at the end of each segment.

Yellow Bush Dart

The specimen I had was more whitish than brown that was because the damselfly was in the teneral phase. Teneral is the period when the adult insect is newly emerged from the pupal case or nymphal skin. During the teneral period, the insect’s exoskeleton has not hardened or darkened, leaving it vulnerable. The term comes from the Latin tener, meaning soft, young, and tender.

Yellow Bush Dart

Female Yellow Bush Dart’s ground color is dark with varying shades of brown. Eyes are similar to the male but has a brown cap. Thorax is brown. The black stripe above is similar to that of males and black stripe on sides is irregular. Legs are brownish. Wings are transparent. Wing spot is pale brown. Abdomen is brown above with broad rings towards the end. Half of 8th segment and the whole of 9-10th segments pale brownish white.

Yellow Bush Dart

Found along ponds, puddles, canals and streams. Flies less than a meter above the ground. It breeds in shallow water collections, such as rainwater puddles and backwaters of streams. Flight season is from August to November. Distributed throughout the oriental region.