Chestnut-tailed Starling

That Saturday, there was a cacophony of birds in my garden. As I went out I saw a White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis), a paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) and a pair of Chestnut-tailed Starlings (Sturnus malabaricus) were having their own private hunting party. So I picked up my Canon EOS 1D Mark IV fitted it with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM & Canon EF 2X II Extender and climbed the top floor of my hospital from where I could get a good canopy view of these birds. Daylight was harsh and through the tree canopy there was patch of dark and bright light sprinkled all around these birds.

Chestnut-tailed Starling

As I waited for these birds to come near me I was also worried of blown out highlights and very dark shadows of the canopy making a proper exposure a very big hurdle. Fortunately the longer magnification I gained using the 2x convertor on 300mm gave me a better reach towards the birds. After about half an hour of waiting I gained the confidence of these birds so that they could approach me closer. I used ISO of 800 to 1250 as the dark areas were not lit well. My aperture was wide open (when using 300mm & 2x extender) at f/5.6 and the speed was above 1/250th. I was supporting this rig using carbon fiber Monopod.

Chestnut-tailed Starling

I found a Chestnut-tailed Starling (Sturnus malabaricus) reaching close to me and I took several photos. Most pictures had bad light sprinkled all around the bird, so had to reject it. This harsh light resulted in over exposing part of the bird and those under shadow were underexposed creating a unusable mosaic pattern. No amount of post processing can salvage those photos. Bright mid noon sunlight was really a bad time to take good photos.

The Chestnut-tailed Starling or Grey-headed Myna (Sturnus malabaricus) is a member of the starling family of perching birds closely related to Myna’s. It is a resident and partially migratory species found in wooded habitats in India and Southeast Asia. Even though the species name Sturnus malabaricus refers to the bird from Malabar region (western coast of India), It is a resident of north-eastern India and migrates to south only during the winter. The sub species Sturnus malabaricus blythii is resident in Malabar region and is often treated as a full species, the Malabar Starling (Sturnus blythii) thus increasing confusion.

Chestnut-tailed Starling

There are three subspecies of the Chestnut-tailed Starling:

• Sturnus malabaricus malabaricus: It is the nominate species. North-eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and north-western Burma.
• Sturnus malabaricus nemoricola: Southern China (incl. Taiwan), Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.
• Sturnus malabaricus blythii: Western Ghats in India.

The bird I had on that day was Sturnus malabaricus malabaricus. It is resident in North-eastern India and sometimes migrates to south India during winter during its non breeding season.

Chestnut-tailed Starling

Sturnus malabaricus blythii is sometimes considered a valid species, the Malabar White-headed Starling or White-headed Myna (Sturnus blythii), instead of a subspecies of Sturnus malabaricus. As Sturnus malabaricus malabaricus only visits the range of blythii during the non-breeding period of winter, the two are not known to interbreed.

The adults have a total length of approximately 20 cm (8 in). They have grey upperparts and blackish remiges, but the colour of the remaining plumage depend on the subspecies. In the nominate subspecies and blythii, the underparts (including undertail) are rufus, but in nemoricola the underparts are whitish tinged rufus (especially on flanks and crissum). The nominate and nemoricola have a light grey head with whitish streaking (especially on crown and collar region). In blythii, the head and chest are white. All subspecies have white irides and a yellow bill with a pale blue base. The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts and just chestnut tips to the tail feathers.

Chestnut-tailed Starling

The Chestnut-tailed Starling’s nest is typically found in open woodland and cultivation. The Chestnut-tailed Starling builds a nest in hole. The normal clutch is 3-5 eggs. Like most starlings, the Chestnut-tailed Starling is fairly omnivorous, eating fruit, nectar and insects. They fly in tight flocks and often rapidly change directions with great synchrony.

Brown Shrike

That Sunday evening as I was returning from my photography round, I found this Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) sitting on an Indian Almond (Terminalia catappa) Tree. I was quite far away from the bird and there was no way I could approach the bird without startling this vigilant bird. I was holding Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens fitted with Canon EF 2X II Extender. Evening light was quite weak. I used a higher ISO of 800 to capture this bird. The pictures presented here are cropped by around 50%.

Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for “butcher”, and some shrikes were also known as “butcher birds” because of their feeding habits. Shrikes in general have a variety of names that arise from people’s observations of the bird’s feeding and food storage strategy. In Africa they are called as fiscals. That name comes from the Afrikaans word fiskaal (“public official”, especially a hangman)

Brown Shrike

This species is solitary except when breeding. They are found in open habitats where they can be seen sitting on a prominent perch like a treetop or a telegraph pole. A sit-and-wait hunter, they “hawk” or pounce on their prey, which includes large insects, small birds, reptiles and mammals. These birds use their feet to hold smaller insects whilst they rip them into bite-sized pieces. Larger prey are impaled upon a sharp point, such as a thorn or the barbs of barbed wire so they can be ripped open with the bird’s hooked bill. This also serves as a cache so that the shrike can return to the uneaten portions at a later time. As this looked like butcher’s larder, the name “butcher birds” was given to it. The distinctive black bandit like mask through the eye also might have influenced this name.

Brown Shrike

The Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) and Isabelline Shrike (Lanius isabellinus). Like most other shrikes, it has a distinctive black “bandit-mask” through the eye. It is found mainly in open scrub habitats, where it perches on the tops of thorny bushes in search of prey. Several populations of this widespread species form distinctive subspecies which breed in temperate Asia and migrate to their winter quarters in tropical Asia. They are sometimes found as vagrants in Europe and North America.

The Brown Shrike is a migratory species and ringing studies show that they have a high fidelity to their wintering sites, returning to the same locations each winter. They begin establishing wintering territories shortly on arrival and their loud chattering or rattling calls are distinctive. Birds that arrive early and establish territories appear to have an advantage over those that arrive later in the winter areas.

Brown Shrike

The timing of their migration is very regular with their arrival in winter to India in August to September and departure in April. During their winter period, they go through a premigratory moult. Their song in the winter quarters is faint and somewhat resembles the call of the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and often includes mimicry of other birds. The beak remains closed when singing and only throat pulsations are visible although the bird moves its tail up and down while singing.

Brown Shrike

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.