28 June, 2020

The missing palm leaves!




I noticed today morning that some leaves in the palm tree above,  which is in our front garden, looked damaged as if its leaves were stripped away. I had a suspicion that it might be a bird, collecting this for a nest. So I decided to sit in our portico and watch for a while. 

Sure enough, a crow pheasant arrived in the scene. Even before I could get the camera out, it had torn a strip of the green leaf and was ready to fly away.  



It returned in a less than a minute for the next trip, this time working on the yellow leaf. 



I watched the bird fly away to the nutmeg tree and disappeared in to the thick foliage.


While this was happening another crow pheasant was perched in the adjacent tree watching the movements of its pair. They kept communicating with each other with regular bird songs.

 
The post monsoon is the time for mating for some birds. For those of us who like watching the cycles of bird life, watching the mating behaviour and nesting pattern are significant events. Usually one bird takes the lead to make the nest. 

These events which take place in nature tell us a lot about the need to preserve the environment to keep it bird friendly. We have few other bird families in our garden, Magpie Robin, sunbird, Babbler and Kingfisher.

If different birds are around in a garden, it is due to the territorial adjustments they are willing to make. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)



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