A Grey Imperial Pigeon !

I had no idea that a grey Imperial Pigeon can actually swallow a nutmeg with its maize in one gulp, till I watched it in our garden. 

Its search continued a nutmeg which had the shell split with partially exposed maize and nut! Its acrobatic body movements were a pleasure to watch. Its searching look was evident in its intense search. 

Most birds have a fixed places they go to find their feed. I noticed the imperial pigeon on a few occasions in the Nutmeg tree, but did not pursue it beyond a photographic interest. This time as it kept moving from branch to branch, I had a suspicion that it was looking for freshly formed nutmegs or the flowers! I was therefore surprised to find that it was looking for ripe nutmeg fruits. 

The Nutmeg trees have a few ripe fruits as the season of gathering them is over. Now all the trees are in the flowering stage. But the pigeons know that a few fruits are still left in the trees. On those occasions I watched the Imperial pigeons, I noticed that they moved only between the nutmeg trees in the garden. 

The bird dropping of the nutmeg in another garden would perhaps sprout to make another tree. So pigeons can scatter the seeds through the bird dropping in places such trees do not exist normally. 

So birds add to the vegetation in a garden through their bird droppings.  We have three jack fruit saplings and few papaya saplings, not planted by us, but coming up on their own,  probably from bird droppings. 

Birds are also givers! They are not takers alone!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)