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.

Plum-headed Parakeet

On a rainy day I saw this female Plum-headed Parakeet (Psittacula cyanocephala) perched on a slender branch. I was standing very close to the tree. If you are in such a situation then the photos will come out like what I have here today. It shows that you have shot them from a lower angle. When you photograph any animal, it is advisable to be at the eye level of your subject to produce a better perspective. For birds which are perched high up on the tree, it is difficult to follow that principle. Here is a trick I usually follow. Go away from the bottom of the tree the bird is perched, so that you are around 45 to 60 ° angle from the bird. By using long telephoto lenses the photos you take will look as though taken at the eye level. Telephoto lenses have two distinct advantages. They allow higher magnification of the subject as well as they compresses the perceived depth in the photo. So the subject looks far closer than it actually is. This compression fools our eyes that we feel that we are almost near the eye level of the subject. Unfortunately in my case when I left the tree to photograph from that angle parakeet flew away and I was not able to get the view I wanted.

Plum-headed Parakeet

That day I got the overcast white cloudy sky as the background. Metering is tricky in such a situation. If you are using Matrix metering then your camera meter is going to evaluate all the areas in your photograph. Since the sky is brighter than your subject, it will under expose the subject while exposing sky correctly. These are the times when you need to override the meter. You use the exposure compensation setting and dial in exposure shift as you want.

Rule of thumb in overriding meter is as follows.

• If your overall image is whiter than grey, then over-expose from the meter reading.
• If your overall image is darker than grey then under-expose from the meter reading.

How far you need to override meter depends on the brightness or darkness of the scene you are shooting. Spot metering is another option which is better than Matrix metering in such situations. Spot metering usually measures the center 3% of the screen and if you put your subject there and meter you get accurate meter reading of the subject. This allows you to avoid pitfalls of matrix metering.

Plum-headed Parakeet

The Plum-headed Parakeet is a mainly green parrot, The male’s head is red, becoming purple-blue on the back of the crown, nape and cheeks. There is a narrow black neck collar and a black chin stripe. There is a red shoulder patch and the rump and tail are bluish-green, the latter tipped white. The upper mandible is orangish-yellow, and the lower mandible is dark.

The female has a grey head, corn-yellow upper-mandible and lacks the black neck collar, chin stripe and red shoulder patch. Immature birds have a green head and both mandibles are yellowish. The different head colour and the white tip to the tail distinguish this species from the similar Blossom-headed Parakeet (Psittacula roseata). The Plum-headed Parakeet is a gregarious and noisy species with range of raucous calls. The usual flight and contact call is oink? repeated now and then. The Plum-headed Parakeet is a bird of forest and open woodland.

Plum-headed Parakeet

Lesser Whistling Duck

Driving down to my home town from Mangalore, I saw these Lesser Whistling Ducks in a nearby paddy field. They were wading in the shallow rainwater filled paddy field far off from the main road. I chose my Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM fitted with Canon EF 2X II Extender on my Canon EOS 1D Mark IV body. As the ground was soggy with rain I was not able to place the mono-pod on the ground. So leaving the mono-pod on the car I tried to hand hold the heavy rig and waded towards these ducks. Despite being shy I was able to get quite a few photos. Despite not using a good support, I was able to get few satisfactory photos due to higher shutter speed I used. At around 5kilo weight, the rig is quite heavy to handhold for very long time. What I usually do is to rest it on my folded elbow till I need to photograph and then lift and get the photo. This gives enough rest for your wrist to cope up with the heavy camera.

Pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks

The Lesser Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna javanica), also known as Indian Whistling Duck, is a small sized whistling duck which breeds in south and south-east Asia. It was called the Lesser Whistling Teal in the past. Called whistling ducks because of their call, they are also sometimes called tree ducks because they are seen often perching on trees near water bodies. Some nest in Tree holes too.

Lesser Whistling Duck

Lesser Whistling Ducks eat aquatic vegetation by dabbling on the water surface in shallow water. Like other waterfowl, they have a highly sensitive, fleshy tongue which has a spiny surface. To efficiently sift for edible titbits, the tongue is worked against rows of horny lamellae that line the mandibles. This produces the typical chattering sound of feeding waterfowl. They also dive frequently for underwater titbits. Lesser Whistling Ducks feed mostly at night, in small family groups.

Pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks

Their call is described as a three-note whistle, the last note highest pitched and prolonged. The call is a wheezy, whistling “seasick, seasick”, call, uttered in flight. Shy and nervous, they fly off at the slightest hint of danger. A flock will fly quickly, and in a direct manner, usually in chevron formation. This duck flies like a goose with its long neck sticking out and drooping below the body, and wings beating rapidly. Lesser Whistling Ducks are different from other ducks in having longer legs, a squarish head and an erect goose-like posture when alert. Their wings are also rounder and broader. Unlike other ducks, males and females look similar, and there is no special breeding plumage.

Pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks

Lesser Whistling Ducks prefer a nest site near freshwater with dense vegetation nearby where their chicks can immediately reach the water after hatching. Usually in a bed of tall reeds, sometimes in a hollow log, or even an abandoned heron’s nest. They build a shallow cup of grass, on or close to the ground. They may rearrange surrounding vegetation to form a roof with a side-entrance. Sometimes they nest in trees. 10-12 creamy white eggs are laid. If the nest is closer to the ground, parents will distract predators by faking a broken wing and moving away from the nest.

Pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks on Paddy field