Thattekad | Year End Birding

For the year end holidays we visited thattekad one of my favourite birding destinations. Here is a contemplative looking female minivet in morning light. We saw flocks of these minivets both male and female in morning light.

Female Minivet | Thattekad

This is asian blue fairy bird. Another beautiful bird from thattekad. Fairy blue birds seems to have a confusing lineage. Based on appearance looks like they were associated with roller family then with drongo then with orioles and bulbuls finally based on dna matching the association got narrowed down with leaf bird family.

Asian Fairy Blue Bird | Thattekad

One of my favourite birds from thattekad , the beautiful Flame throated bulbul. In the last trip to thattekad i had made some images but was not happy. This time got a chance to make some better images.

Flame Throated Bulbul | Thattekad

The lovely whistling thrush came out to fix itself a drink and quick bath after some hesistancy.

Though the original showed lot of shine in the feathers to get a overall visibility of the bird had to lighten the mid tones during processing.

Malabar Whistling Thrush | Thattekad

Our bird guide pulled this flycatcher out of no where. I seriously have difficulty spotting the bird and this one was no exception. Luckily spotted this flycatcher before it decide to take off. 

White Bellied Blue Flycatcher | Thattekad

This is another gem from Thattekad. Image made in morning light. Made some eye level images when the bulbul was foraging for some berries.

Yellow Browed Bulbul | Thattekad

One of the satisfying images from the thattekad trip. Common subject. Made the image close to the pond where we stayed.

Common Kingfisher | Thattekad

Another super colorful western ghat endemic that is very popular with birders. Very silent and very shy as well. The amazing thing was this male was perched at the same place for 30 mins which almost never happens. One explanation was since this was a juvenile looks like it did not mind being in open. It is a pity for that 30 mins it sat on an electric wire. Here is an image that shows the "classic" trogon pose head turned to the side, relaxed with crouched back. The bird kind of adjusts itself and settles into this pose.

Malabar Trogon | Thattekad

Blue Throated flycatcher is another migrant seen around western ghats. Looks very similar to Tickell's blue flycatcher which is more prevalent and common through out India. So when we sighted this bird at the watering hole we slightly discounted our sighting thinking it is Tickell's blue. We were wondering why make more images of Tickell's blue when we have many images from other places as close as Nandi hills near bangalore. Since the light and setting seemed good independent of what the bird would turn out to be I tried making some images. Only after showing the image to the guide he pointed the mistake in our understanding. Looks like the orange under-coloring in tickells blue extends all the way to the beak which is not the case in Blue throated flycatcher. So only that aspect turns out to be a differentiating factor.

Blue Throated Flycatcher | Thattekad