Malabar Whistling Thrush

As there was a brief break from incessant downpour I wanted to get as much of photo opportunity as possible. I, with my family and my friends Dijiraj Nair and Shivashankar Nayak headed to Kudremukh National Park. I will show you few of the great shots we took in subsequent blogs. Afternoon following lunch at Kudremukh town we spotted a bold Malabar Whistling Thrush (Myophonus horsfieldii) sitting on a old metal gate and singing. While we all clicked at it using our big lenses it was singing without any hesitation and giving us great poses.

The Malabar Whistling Thrush (Myophonus horsfieldii) is a whistling thrush in the thrush family Turdidae. They are also known locally by the name of Whistling Schoolboy for the whistling calls that they make at dawn that have a very human quality. The species is a resident in the Western Ghats and associated hills of peninsular India including central India and parts of the Eastern Ghats.

Malabar Whistling Thrush On a old gate

This large thrush appears blackish with shiny patches of blue on the forehead and shoulders. The blue becomes visible only in oblique lighting. The bill and legs are black. The sexes are indistinguishable and juveniles are more brownish and lack the blue forehead.

The species is found all along the Western Ghats south of the Surat Dangs with some populations in Mt. Abu, Rajasthan. They are also found along the Satpura range to northwestern Orissa.

Frontal View of Malabar Whistling Thrush

Malabar Whistling Thrushes are usually found in dark undergrowth and dense riverine forest. Half an our later we spotted another bird in the middle of the town and another female bird bathing nearby. We had great and extremely close look. I was trying Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM with Canon EF 1.4x II Extender on Canon EOS 7D. Excitement of seeing bird at a such a close range, I had forgotten to check the auto focus setting of Canon EOS 7D. AI servo tracking sensitivity was turned too high. This resulted in the camera hunting focus when I try to focus in AI servo mode. Because of this I could get only few shots which were clearly in focus. I realized this mistake only the next day after seeing the photos. The “fast” tracking sensitivity setting means that when you’re shooting low, the camera will bounce a lot between the target and the background.

Quote taken from the canon site http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/technical/eos_7D_custom_functions_explained.do

“The focus tracking sensitivity refers to how the camera responds and switches to another subject during focus tracking. This response sensitivity refers to how long the camera waits before switching to a new target subject when the current target subject escapes an AF point. It doesn’t adjust how quickly the autofocus tracks.”

Shiva who was equipped with Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS USM Lens and much more experience in bird photography than me has captured the same birds excellently. Check his photos here – Malabar whistling thrush #1, Profile of whistler.., Portrait of whistler.. and Video of Whistler’s call. You can also check Diji’s capture using Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM here.

Malabar Whistling Thrush On a old gate

They are omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, crabs,frogs, earthworms and berries. They are usually seen singly or in pairs. This is a bold species and is often found close to human habitation. The male sings its varied and melodious whistling song from trees during summer. They may song for long early at dawn but at other times of the day they often utter sharp single or two note whistles. They were once popular as cage birds, with the ability to learn entire tunes. They bathe frequently in water usually in the mornings and evenings but at midday during hot weather.

Female Malabar Whistling Thrush bathing in a stream nearby

Female Common Mormon - 100mm macro

After I got my Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens, I wanted to use it as single lens for both birding as well as macro. I have used Canon EF 300mm f/4.0L IS USM successfully in the past and got pretty good result. It was a great macro lens but the reach for bird photography was not there as its performance 1.4x teleconverter was average. 2.0x convertor was bad. f/2.8 lens was great with both these convertors and remained as sharp as original. This prompted me to try it as single all in one lens.

As a test I tried shooting female Common Mormon Butterfly (Papilio polytes)sitting on rose leaves during rain. You can check the details about the butterfly in article Male Common Mormon Butterfly.

The photo on the top shows my presently favored approach. It is shot using Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS II USM using ExpoImaging Ray Flash Adapter on Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash. The exposure using flash ring adapter gave a nice even light and ISO 200 with aperture of F/14 produced nice deep (in macro terms) depth of field. I was working nearly a feet away from the butterfly. Some insects get intimidated by such proximity of humans and it is difficult to capture them. If you notice the flash also made the background dark as the ambient light was very low. This can help to isolate your subject from cluttered background. But it also produces an unnatural look to the photo. Some shy critters will not allow you to approach this close.

Female Common Mormon - 300mm f/2.8

Here in my second photo I used Canon EOS 7D with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM Lens on Canon EF 1.4x II Extender. The light was pretty low as it was raining heavily. So I used ISO 3200 to get hand holdable speed of 1/180th of second exposure at f/4 aperture. This setup gave me a sufficient working distance of around 3 meters from butterfly. I was standing under shade of roof and shooting this butterfly which was protecting my gear from rain. The safe distance allows you to get those shy type of critters easily.

There is price to pay for this comfort (I am not talking about the price of the lens here ) The lens is heavy, depth of field is very shallow. As you can see at f/4 aperture which was possible under the existing light butterflies antennae are out of focus even though the eyes are. Since the camera is far off I can’t use the flash and ring adapter to light up also. I can now use the naked Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash to throw as much light at the subject. Light reaching subject will be low. I can use either Better Beamer flash extender to concentrate the light on the butterfly or I can keep the flash off camera close to the subject. In the field this is difficult to achieve with fast moving subjects.

As you can see there is no easy shortcut to take for macro photography. Dedicated macro lens has advantages and several plus points. Using such an lens can achieve a great magnification and closeup shot of the subject. In the future blogs let us see how we can use extension tubes to alter minimum focusing distance and thus increasing magnification.

Coppersmith Barbet

I had written earlier about Two Barbets. I had opportunity to follow same Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) which was at that time building a nest. I was able to observe their nest at close quarter for over 1.5 months. I saw them raise their two chicks which finally flew off as healthy juveniles. I had use my Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM with Canon EF 1.4x II Extender on Canon EOS 7D to take these series of photos as my 300mm f/2.8 was still not available.

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. Like other barbets, they chisel out a hole inside a tree to build their nest. They are mainly fruit eating but will take sometimes insects, especially winged termites.

Emerging out of Nest

This bird belonged one of the nine sub species called Megalaima haemacephala indica (Latham, 1790) which is found in the Indian Subcontinent form northeastern Pakistan and extends into Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

This Coppersmith had built its nest in a small tree hole of a Mango Tree (Mangifera indica) Courtship involves singing, puffing of the throat, bobbing of the head, flicking of the tail, ritual feeding and allopreening. They breed through much of the year with local variation. The breeding season is mainly February to April in India. Both sexes excavate the nest on the underside of a narrow horizontal branch. They may also roost inside the nest holes. Three or four eggs are laid and like in many hole nesting birds the incubation period is not well known but has been estimated to be about 2 weeks. Both sexes incubate. Often two broods are raised in quick succession.

On a Branch

Throughout their wide range they are found in gardens, groves and sparse woodland. Habitats with trees having dead wood suitable for excavation is said to be important. Birds nest and roost in cavities. In the Himalayas it is found mainly in the valleys of the outer Himalayas up to 3000 feet. They are rare in the dry desert zones and the very wet forests.

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.

Inspecting nest hole

They compete with other cavity nesting birds and frugivores. Megalaima asiatica have been noted to evict them from their nest holes, while Red-vented Bulbuls have been seen to indulge in kleptoparasitism, robbing the male of berries brought 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.

Fly away

The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk (or tunk), 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 108 to 121 per minute and can continue with as many as 204 notes. They are silent and do not call in winter.

Fly away

Prefers Banyan, Peepul, and other wild figs, various drupes and berries, and the occasional insect, caught in aerial sallies. Petals of flowers may also be included in their diet. They eat nearly 1.5 to nearly 3 times their body weight in berries each day.

Feeding Chicks