Oriental White Eye

Photo taken at Baroda

Oriental White-eye,
(Zosterops palpebrosus)

• Description: This bird is small (about 8–9 cm long) with yellowish olive upper parts, a white eye ring, yellow throat and vent. The belly is whitish grey but may have yellow in some subspecies. The sexes look similar. The taxonomy of the group is still unclear with some island populations being distinctive while some subspecies are not well supported. The population from Flores, Indonesia for instance is found closer to the Pale White-eye. The family itself is now questioned since they are nested along with the Stachyris babblers. About eleven subspecies are well recognized. These include the nominate form (type locality Bengal, India) which is found from Oman and Arabia, Afghanistan, northern India and extends into China and northern Myanmar.

• Distribution: The species is found in a wide range of habitats from scrub to moist forest. They sometimes occur on mangrove areas such as in the Karachi area. And on islands they may lead a more insectivorous life. They are somewhat rare only in the drier desert regions of western India. A feral population was detected in San Diego, California in the 1980s and subsequently eradicated.

• Behavior and Diet: These white-eyes are sociable, forming flocks which only separate on the approach of the breeding season. They are highly arboreal and only rarely descend to the ground. The breeding season is February to September but April is the peak breeding season and the compact cup nest is a placed like a hammock on the fork of a branch. The nest is made of cobwebs, lichens and plant fiber. The nest is built in about 4 days and the two pale blue eggs are laid within a couple of days of each other. The eggs hatch in about 10 days. Both sexes take care of brooding the chicks which fledged in about 10 days. Though mainly insectivorous, the Oriental White-eye will also eat nectar and fruits of various kinds.

White Eye Buzzard

White-eyed Buzzard
(Butastur teesa)

Photo taken at Tadoba - Andhari Tiger Reserve

• Description: This slim and small sized hawk is easily identified by its white iris to the eye and the white throat and dark mesial stripe. A white nuchal spot is sometimes visible. When perched the wing tip nearly reaches the tip of the tail. The ceres are distinctly yellow and the head is dark with the underside of the body darkly barred. In flight it shows rounded but narrow wings with black tips to the feathers and the wing-lining appears dark. The upper wing in flight shows a pale bar over the brown. The tail is barred with a darker subterminal band. Young birds have the iris brownish and the forehead is whitish and a broad supercilium may be present.
  

• Distribution: This species is widely distributed in South Asia, throughout India in the plains and extending up to 1000 m in the Himalayas. It is a resident in Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is absent from Sri Lanka and is probably absent from the Andamans. It is a summer visitor in northeastern Afghanistan. It is mainly found in the plains but may go up to 1200m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The usual habitat is in dry, open forest or cultivation. They are numerous in some areas but declining. A survey in the late 1950s estimated about 5000 birds in the vicinity of Delhi in an area of about 50,000 km².

• Diet and Breeding: The feed mainly on locusts, grasshoppers, crickets and other large insects as well as mice, lizards and frogs. They may also take crabs from near wetlands and have even been reported to take larger prey like the Black - naped Hare (Lepus nigricollis).

  The breeding season is February to May. The nest is loose platform of twigs not unlike that of a crow. The usual clutch is three eggs. Both sexes share nest-building and feeding young; female alone incubates.

Knob billed Duck (Comb Duck)

Photograph taken at Thol wild life sanctuary- Ahmedabad

Knob-billed Duck
(Sarkidiornis melanotos)

• Description: This common species is unmistakable. Adults have a white head freckled with dark spots, and a pure white neck and underparts. The upperparts are glossy blue-black upperparts, with bluish and greenish iridescence especially prominent on the secondaries (lower arm feathers). The male is larger than the female, and has a large black knob on the bill. Young birds are dull buff below and on the face and neck, with dull brown upper parts, top of the head and eye stripe. The adults are unmistakable. Immature Knob-billed Ducks look like a large grayish female of the Cotton Pygmy Goose (Nettapus coromandelicus) and may be difficult to tell apart if no other birds are around to compare size and hue. If seen at a distance, they can also be mistaken for a Fulvous Whistling - Duck. However, Knob-billed Ducks in immature plumage are rarely seen without adults nearby and thus they are usually easily identified too. The Knob-billed Duck is silent except for a low croak when flushed.

• Distribution: It breeds in still freshwater swamps and lakes in the tropics. It is largely resident, apart from dispersion in the wet season. Knob-billed Ducks often perch in trees. They are typically seen in flocks, small in the wet season, up to 100 in the dry season. Sometimes they separate according to sex. The Knob-billed Duck is declining in numbers locally, but due to its wide range it is not considered globally threatened by the IUCN.

• Diet: Konb-Billed Ducks feeds on vegetation by grazing or dabbling and to a lesser extent on small fish, invertebrates, and seeds. It can become a problem to rice farmers.

Shikra

Shikra

(Accipiter badius)

• Description: This bird is a small raptor (26-30cm) with short broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to fast manoeuvring. The normal flight of this species is a characteristic "flap – flap – glide". The adult Shikra has pale grey upperparts, and is white, finely barred reddish below. Sexes are similar except that female is larger than the male. The juvenile is brown above and white, spotted with brown below. It has a barred tail.

• Distribution:

  The Shikra is a widespread resident breeder throughout south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Shikra is a bird of open woodland including savannah and cultivation. It nests in trees, building a new nest each year. It lays 3-7 eggs.

• Diet:

  Its hunting technique is similar to other small hawks such as Sparrow hawk, A. nisus relying on surprise as it flies from a hidden perch or flicks over a bush to catch its prey unaware. The prey is lizards, dragonflies, and small birds and mammals.

Dragon Fly

A dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. Dragonflies are similar to damselflies, but the adults can be differentiated by the fact that the wings of most dragonflies are held away from, and perpendicular to, the body when at rest. Even though dragonflies possess 6 legs like any other insect, they are not capable of walking.

Dragonflies are valuable Predators that eatmosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants, and butterflies. They are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands because their larvae, known as "nymphs", are aquatic.

Life Cycle :

Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water, often on floating or emergent plants. When laying eggs, some species will submerge themselves completely in order to lay their eggs on a good surface. The eggs then hatch into nymphs. Most of a dragonfly's life is spent in the naiad (that is, nymph) form, beneath the water's surface, using extendable jaws to catch other invertebrates or even vertebrates such as tadpoles and fish. They breathe through gills in their rectum, and can rapidly propel themselves by suddenly expelling water through the anus. Some nymphs even hunt on land, an aptitude which could easily have been more common in ancient times when terrestrial predators were clumsier.

The larval stage of large dragonflies may last as long as five years. In smaller species, this stage may last between two months and three years. When the larva is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs up a reed or other emergent plant. Exposure to air causes the larva to begin breathing. The skin splits at a weak spot behind the head and the adult dragonfly crawls out of its old larval skin, pumps up its wings, and flies off to feed on midges and flies. In flight the adult dragonfly can propel itself in six directions; upward, downward, forward, back, and side to side. The adult stage of larger species of dragonfly can last as long as five or six months.

Common Jezebel

 

    

Common Jezebel

(Delias eucharis)

• Description: Upperside of male white or bluish white with prominent black veins and black outer discal band in both wings. Marginal black band with arrow of white sots in forewings and light pink spots in the hindwings. Female dull white with yellow and pink tinge. Veins and spots heavily marked in the forewings. Underside hindwingspale yellow ( rarely dark ) with black veins and a row of white ringed red or pink marginal spots, bordered black on both sides in both the sexes. Wingspan 66-83mm. Only species of Delias, widely distributed in our country with unmistakable bright colours on the underside of the wings unlike other butterflies to warn the predators. Weak flier fluttering about but on the wing throughout the year. 

Upperside

• Distribution: In most of its range, this species is common. Generally found all over India, except in the desert tracts, and up to an altitude of 7000 feet in the hills. The butterfly may be found wherever there are trees, even in towns and cities, flying high among the trees and visiting flowers.

• Habits: It is commonly seen in gardens. The females can be seen flying amongst the trees in search of its foodplants, while the males are more frequently observed visiting flowers for nectar or mud-puddling. It rests with its wings closed exhibiting the brilliantly coloured underside. The Jezebel often flies high up in the canopy and usually comes lower down only to feed on nectar in flowers. Due to this habit apparently, it has evolved a dull upperside and a brilliant underside so that birds below it recognise it immediately while in flight and at rest.

Caterpillar

• Reproduction: The Common Jezebel, like the Pioneer, but quite unlike other Whites and Yellows, is a butterfly which lays eggs in batches, instead of laying them singly. Each batch consists of about ten to twenty eggs, although in rare cases up to a hundred eggs may be laid together. They are usually laid on the underside of leaves. the eggs are oval, shiny, and bright yellow. All the eggs from one batch hatch together. the new-born caterpillars devour the eggshells and then move on to eat fresh leaves. They live and feed together and always stay in a disciplined army fashion: all resting side by side with their heads in one direction, and whatever they do they do together.

• Host Plants: The host plants are various species of small shrubs which are plant parasites growing on branches of trees such as Loranthus. Their ability to form dense aggregations as caterpillars and to feed on Loranthus has led to suggestions that they could be used for control of this parasite.

Common Rose

Common Rose

(Pachliopta Aristolochiae Fabricius)

• Description:  

• Male: The Upperside of male is velvety black. Fore wing with well-marked pale adnervular streaks on the discal area that do not reach the terminal margin, the latter broadly velvety black; the streaks beyond end of cell extended inwards into its apex.Hind wing with elongate white discal markings in interspaces 2-5 beyond the cell.In dry-weather specimens these markings are very short and do not nearly reach the bases of the interspaces; beyond these a curved series of subterminal lunular markings in interspaces 1 to 7 dull crimson irrorated with black scales, the spot in interspace 1 large, irregular, diffuse, margined interiorly with white.On the Underside of the males, the ground-colour and markings is similar, but the red subterminal spots on the hind wing much brighter;it is not irrorated with black scales, better defined, the anterior four subquadrate, the next two crescentic, sometimes quadrate also, the spot in interspace 1 triangular and pointed. Antennae, thorax and abdomen above up to the preanal segment black; the head, sides of prothorax above, and of the whole of the thorax and abdomen beneath vermilion-red; anal segment vermilion-red.

• Female: Female is similar the males; they differs from the male only in the comparatively broader wings and this is most conspicuous in the fore wing. 

• Distribution: Common Rose is distributed all over the Oriental Region and is very common throughout India. It is found mainly in open, cultivated areas, scrubs and deciduous forests. A common Visitor to garden flowers, it is also seen in most crowded cities. it is more frequent during very cold or very hot period of the year.

• Habits: It is the commonest of the large tailed butterflies of India and one of the most interesting butterflies for the Indian amateur naturalist to observe. The red body, slow peculiar flight, bright colouration and pattern of the wings are meant to indicate to predators that this butterfly is inedible, being well protected by the poisons it has sequestered from its larval food plant. It also emits a nasty smelling substance when handled to further enhance its unappealing qualities. Hence it is rarely attacked by predators, a strategy so successful, that edible butterflies have evolved to mimic it, the classical example being that of the female morph of the Common Mormon that is Papilio polytes, female form stichius. The Common Rose is active much earlier in the mornings than most butterflies and remains so throughout the day until dusk. It flies just as readily in the shade as in the sun, and frequently visits flowers. In drier regions around noon, the butterfly rests in thickets to avoid the mid-day heat. Here, it will rest and ventures forth only in the late afternoon once again. In the evenings, it retires into wooded areas or thickets in search of dead twigs or small branches on which to roost. It prefers sites that are 10 to 15 feet above ground, below the canopy in trees with sufficient cover from the elements, where it frequently roosts in the company of others of its type, and, sometimes, in the company of the Crimson Rose.

• Reproduction: The female has been observed inspecting the host plants and selecting healthy plants with verdant growth to ensure adequacy of food for its voracious caterpillars. It lays round and reddish eggs with fine black markings. The eggs are laid singly on top, the underside of leaves or even on shoots. The caterpillar is a beautiful velvety maroon colour and has a beautiful white band on a segment on its middle reminiscent of a belt or collar. It has numerous fleshy red-tipped white protuberances on the body. It is bulky and slow in its movements. It is a beautiful caterpillar. The Pupa is brownish with various shades of brown and pink markings. It is attached to its support by the tail and held at an angle by a body band. The support is usually a stick. The distinguishing feature of the Common Rose pupa is the presence of large semi-circular projections on the back of the abdomen, thorax and head.

Caterpillar of Common Rose

Pupa of Common Rose

• Host Plants: The larvae feed on creepers and climbers of the genus Aristolochia, Family Aristolochiaceae and they sequester toxins such as aristolochic acid in their bodies. This makes the adults toxic to vertebrate predators such as birds and reptiles. However the Braconid wasps which parasitise the caterpillars have apparently co-evolved with the butterfly and are not affected by the toxins. Larval foodplants include :-
  • Aristolochia bracteolata ( Kitamari)
  • Aristolochia indica. [Isarmul {Hindi}, Sapsanda {Marathi}]