A romantic call!

I happened to hear a slow, sonorous bird call of a Black hooded Oriole from the tree in our lawn. It was musical and enticing. I wondered whether it was a call for mating!

I noticed one other oriole, a short distance away with an erotic response in its plumage, perched in a banana tree a little distance away. 

I noticed that the Oriole from the banana tree and another one perched in the Custard apple tree, which I had not noticed, arriving to be perched near to the Oriole, who was engaged in repeated enticing bird calls. The three of them flew away together leaving me to guess that  there will be pairing! I shall look out for a pair of Orioles in their  courtship in our garden. 

What got me to look for the Oriole was a bird call that sounded different from the usual bird calls in our garden. These Orioles might have adopted our garden for their flight station recently. Having been away for ten days, I got time this morning to be in the garden, which is when I noticed the Oriole engaged in its musical calls. It is often the male birds that sing tunefully at the mating season. 

A bird has in its instinct a particular time to choose its partner for  mating. It adapts its behaviour to communicate that intent. Birds communicate different moods and intent through the bid calls. Those different calls differ in decibels, frequency of sounds,  the duration of each call and frequency of the calls. 

The birds learn to modulate the calls corresponding to the mood and season. It is the inner language that a bird communicates through its calls. 

One interest that I have had for a while, was to learn to categorise the bird calls of the common birds,  visiting our garden. I have no musical orientation or skill. It has been therefore difficult to appreciate the musical tone and tune of the calls. What I am beginning to know about the mood of the birds from the calls is by learning from the duration, frequency and the loudness of the calls. 

The Bulbuls resident in our garden, some of them in pair, know where our dining room is located. They also know that the fruit bowl is usually located in the shelf next to it. One or two Bulbuls would come as a messenger and sing tunefully with short duration, as if it is calling for attention. They do it when the feeding bowl needs refilling in the garden. The common Myna too has a habit of coming to the lawn and making bird calls when the feeding bowl is empty. I like these social gestures from birds resident in the garden. 

I have also noticed that some Bulbuls sing in a chorus when I leave the garden, as if they are calling me back. On a few occasions when I went back, they became quieter and returned to be noisy when I went back  to the cottage. 

The birds bring a message to me to grow in listening, seeing and observing the movements. I get a sense that some birds even perform acrobatics in the air, when they know that they are being watched. 

I know from experience of some pre-school children, whose parents were willing to let them feed birds regularly in their garden, the impulsivity of children decreased and their attention and awareness increased. 

I come to know now, that bird watching is more than a hobby; it brings  interior calmness and silence promoting attentiveness and observational skills. Those who are musical would find the bird calls profoundly interesting and can learn to know the language hidden in the bird calls. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)