Charming whistlers: Common Iora
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| Common Iora Male |
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| Common Iora Male |
Gujarati Name: શૌબિન્ગા, શોબિગી Hindi Name: शाऊबीगी
What would you do when you are chatting with a close relative, discussing ‘Lockdown’, and you spot an unfamiliar bird few feet away across the French window, in the garden? Cutting short would have been rude and the conversation was nowhere close to an end. So, keeping the person engaged in our talks through monosyllables and on speaker, I tried to get a better glimpse of the bird, all the while remaining indoors.
Over my last few months of studying behaviors of various birds, I have noticed something which was very unusual or rather unknown to me. Birds also like to follow a 'Schedule' and 'Pattern'. Post my first sighting of Iora on my purple Kachnar tree at around 4pm, I kept a check on their visit in the same place at around same time. And I was pleasantly surprised to see them visit it again, almost daily. Due to the temperature going up, their timings have altered a bit but the visits continue.
Almost the size of a sparrow, the male has bright yellow face and under-body, black wings with streaks of white. The female is dull green in color, has greyish brown wings with a bar of white on them. Sweet nectar of the last bloom of our Kachnar tree was probably their main attraction and I wish they find newer one in Mitthi, soon. Moving about frantically from one tree to the other, they were trying to make a platter of insects, nectar, berries for their nestlings (my guess). Having known them a little more, now it is easy to identify their presence through their extremely melodious call ‘twiii… tuiiiii… tuiiii’.
Have read that Iora males put up a great acrobatic show during the breeding season. Eagerly waiting to witness it.
What would you do when you are chatting with a close relative, discussing ‘Lockdown’, and you spot an unfamiliar bird few feet away across the French window, in the garden? Cutting short would have been rude and the conversation was nowhere close to an end. So, keeping the person engaged in our talks through monosyllables and on speaker, I tried to get a better glimpse of the bird, all the while remaining indoors.
Over my last few months of studying behaviors of various birds, I have noticed something which was very unusual or rather unknown to me. Birds also like to follow a 'Schedule' and 'Pattern'. Post my first sighting of Iora on my purple Kachnar tree at around 4pm, I kept a check on their visit in the same place at around same time. And I was pleasantly surprised to see them visit it again, almost daily. Due to the temperature going up, their timings have altered a bit but the visits continue.
Almost the size of a sparrow, the male has bright yellow face and under-body, black wings with streaks of white. The female is dull green in color, has greyish brown wings with a bar of white on them. Sweet nectar of the last bloom of our Kachnar tree was probably their main attraction and I wish they find newer one in Mitthi, soon. Moving about frantically from one tree to the other, they were trying to make a platter of insects, nectar, berries for their nestlings (my guess). Having known them a little more, now it is easy to identify their presence through their extremely melodious call ‘twiii… tuiiiii… tuiiii’.
Have read that Iora males put up a great acrobatic show during the breeding season. Eagerly waiting to witness it.
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