Winter migrants from the Himalayas

It’s that time of the year again! One can suddenly hear an unfamiliar call of a bird in the trees, quite different from the regular mynas and bulbuls we are used to. These little fistfuls of feathers, have flown into winter in our city from the Himalayas, and are the cause of much excitement among bird lovers in Bengaluru.

As they are winter migrants, they have started arriving mainly on the outskirts of the city and for the next couple of months, there will be a spectacular array of a variety of bird species to look out for, excitingly in our own back-yards.

Satyaki Hosamane an IT professional and avid bird photographer, who lives on Kanakapura road, talks about the five migrant birds from the Himalayas that can be found in the Nandi Hills in the forests surrounding the Valley School and in other parts of the city.

The first being the colourful Indian Pitta (Pitta brachyura) which is very shy, tough to spot and difficult to photograph, as they hide in the undergrowth. But looking at their spectacular plumage, one understands the excitement to get a picture of the bird.

The Indian Blue Robin (Larvivora brunnea) is another winter visitor from the Himalayas to southern India. Nandi hills and Valley school are good spots to find them in Bangalore. The birds are not very shy, but rarely come out in the open says Hosamane. Usually hidden in the foliage, they can be very tough to photograph, but patience is the key.

Often birders wait for hours in silence to get a good shot of the bird they are looking for. To get his picture of the Indian Blue Robin, Hosamane waited for close to an hour. Something spooked the bird out of the foliage he said and he got lucky with only a few seconds, to take the shot with his Canon 6, before it flew back into the undergrowth.

The Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassinus ) has an intense blue plumage. It is the most beautiful, most sought after and most photographed bird from the Himalayas and it’s foothills. While walking around in the forest in Valley school, Hosamane caught a glimpse of a streak of blue fly into a tree in front of him. It took some patient waiting before he got a shot with the green foliage and red berries of the tree which contrasted with its copper-sulphate blue plumage.

The Blue Capped Rock thrush(Monticola cinclorhyncha) can be spotted in the Nandi Hills every winter. Not very shy, the bird perches rather high up, making it difficult to ‘shoot’ it. Patiently waiting for an opportunity, the bird flew to the ground to snap up an insect and missed it. This gave Hosamane time to focus his shot.

The fifth migrant is the endearing Red-Breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva) which is usually found in wooded areas. The bird is not very shy and sometimes sits in the open, even with humans present. Birders wait for the distinct flycatcher call —chip-chip-chr-rrr —which helps locate its presence.

Birding requires patience and a split second trigger finger.

But is a great stress buster and gives the growing army of Bengaluru birders, immense pleasure and all for free.