Oriental Honey Buzzard

-

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Gujarati Name : મધીયો બાજ

Hindi Name : Madhuya

Ahmedabad gets really hot in summers ( around 45-48 deg Celcius). Even though we stay indoors, it becomes unbearable without air conditioners. Even animals around our house, dogs, cats and birds reduce all their activities post 11 am only to resume at around 4 or 4.30 pm. So, it is unusually quiet in the garden in afternoons in this season. Last week, while busy with my meeting online one evening, sitting near a window, I saw a shadow of a large bird flying by. Suddenly, all the birds dispersed frantically for shelter. It was definitely a predatory bird which had come for surveillance. I wanted to leave the desk and investigate but that would seem so unprofessional.


Oriental Honey Buzzard

So, once I was disengaged, I leapt for my camera to take a chance and see if the bird was still around. Fortunately, things had not returned to normal out there. Changing into dull earthy colored clothes, lest I highlight my presence, I went on a lookout. Perched on a sparsely leafed Gulmohar tree was a handsome raptor, waiting patiently before swooping down on its prey. It did not look like a typical eagle, with a grey head, slightly greyish brown wings, white underbody and tail and a dark band at the tail end. Due to these features I had initially identified it as a Grey Headed Fish Eagle. But according to bird lovers with years of experience, the second picture, showing long neck and small head like a pigeon was diagnostic of it being an Oriental Honey Buzzard.



In Indian mythology, raptors have a special status of ‘Garuda’, vehicle of God Vishnu and an associate of Indra and the Sun. According to one story, Garuda stole the pot of amrut ( nectar), obtained from churning of the oceans, from Lord Indra. Indra chased him and hurled a thunderbolt at him. It did not harm Garuda one feather, instead it broke the bolt.






Location: Mitthi, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 382210, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bird Sanctuary - Sarojini Naidu

-
Image
The Bird Sanctuary  Feeding on millet In your quiet garden wakes a magic tumult   Of winged choristers that keep the Festival of Dawn,   Blithely rise the carols in richly cadenced rapture,   From lyric throats of amber, of ebony and fawn. The bulbul and the oriol, the honey-bird and shama Flit among high boughs that drip with nectar and with dew, Upon the grass the wandering gull parades its sea-washed silver, The hoopoe and the kingfisher their bronze and sapphire blue. Wild gray pigeons dreaming of a home amid the tree-tops, Fill their beaks with silken down and slender banyan twigs, But the jade-green gypsy parrots are only gay marauders, And pause upon their sun-ward flight to plunder red ripe figs. In your gracious garden there is joy and fostering freedom, Nesting place and singing space for every feathered thing, O Master of the Birds, grant sanctuary and shelter Also to a homing bird that bears a broken wing.   -Sarojini Naidu   Sarojini Naidu, a freedom fighter, a women's
Read more

Greater Coucal

-
Image
Greater Coucal Deep resonant calls , ‘coop, coop, coop’ often heard in the warm morning hours in our garden. The call is loud with good bass, enough to make one feel it emanating from some musical instrument. And just as a peacock scream is repeated by its fellow mates at different locations within the vicinity, similarly this sound is also carried forward to distant birds until the sound fades away. Acting on a childish instinct, I had tried imitating the call and it responded. This continued for a while till I saw the gardener from the neighboring  house prying to see the new kid in the area. This shy bird remained hidden from my view for many days before I spotted it hopping cautiously from the branches of a mango tree to Shirish. A fairly large bird with black head, purple black upper mantle and undersides, dark copper brown wings , ruby red eyes, short thick black beak and long black feathery tail. It is a very common bird in the Indian subcontinent and is an inhabitant of almos
Read more