It was summer, the heat was picking up and the noise levels at home were rising too, with the kids being on holiday. It seemed like an opportune time for a quick family outing. As we broached this idea with one of our closest friends ( BFFs, in fact 馃檪 ) from Chennai, they concurred on a similar situation at their place and immediately agreed on a summer jaunt. Deliberations on which place to go to, began....
Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus) is an iconic bird found in the subtropical and cloud forests of the Andes spanning a wide range across South America from Venezuela to Bolivia. The male cock-of-the-rock stands out with its brilliant red-orange plumage, black-and-white wings, and a large fan-like crest, with its bill sitting under the crest and completely hidden. Known as聽tunki聽in Quechua, the region鈥檚 indigenous language, this bird is considered the national bird of Peru and is related to other distinctive tropical fruit-eaters such as the聽Banded Cotinga,聽Long-wattled Umbrellabird and聽Bearded Bellbird....
Hummingbirds are a highly diverse, brilliantly coloured and mesmerizing group of birds native to the Americas. There are known to be around 360 different species of hummingbirds across the North and South Americas, however, the density of these birds is quite high in the tropics around the equator. They are known as hummingbirds owing to the humming sound created by their beating wings which flap at high frequencies. They hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates, which vary from around 12 beats per second in the largest species to around 80 per second in small hummingbirds....
Red necked falcon (Falco chicquera) is a relatively small but a powerful bird of prey in the falcon family. This bird quite stands out with its聽chestnut, red coloured crown and nape. The moustachial stripe and the bright yellow ring around its eye are very distinct too. There are known to be two disconnected populations of Red necked falcons, one in India and the other in Africa. The Indian subspecies (Falco chicquera chicquera) is found across the plains of the Indian Subcontinent....
White-bellied sea eagle is a rather large bird of prey found predominantly along the coastal belts and also sometimes along other major water bodies over a wide geographical range, right from India, Sri Lanka through Southeast Asia, all the way to Australia. With an imposing size, presence and an impressive wingspan of around 2m, it is a majestic bird indeed. On my birding outing to Andamans in Feb 2018, had a wonderful encounter with this eagle....