Midweek Musings 46 28.10.26

 Backyard Birding in Basavanagudi 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse

Bless my luck, sighted a baby crow pheasant in the wooded area of my house in Basavanagudi today over my morning cuppa coffee.

Basavanagudi is a suburb in Bangalore that is considered charming, well planned, conservative with old world charm oozing out of every nook and cranny. Tile roofed villas and Bungalows with open courtyards, lofty fruit trees in huge plots of land, well laid out roads and pavements, storm water drains in place, pavements on tree lined avenues, green gardens, where the telephone cables are never dysfunctional, water supply and sewerage infrastructure never overlap nor cross paths. Power supply infrastructure remains solid and perfect; only the power supply company officials have become so corrupt that pilferage is the norm not the exception.

I live in a green villa in Basavanagudi and learnt birding in my backyard staring at the trees. But today was a great blessing. I actually saw a baby crow pheasant on the Gulmohar tree canopy in front of my house. Resident birds on the trees in my house are:

1.       Asian Koel

2.       Rose ringed Parakeets

3.       Red whiskered Bulbul,

4.       Ed Vented Bulbuls,

5.       Yellow browed Bulbul

6.       White browed Bulbul,

7.       Orange throated Bulbul,

8.       White throated Kingfisher,

9.       Black Kite,

10.   Coppersmith Barbet,

11.   Pitta,

12.   Ashy Prinia,

13.   Tailor Bird,

14.   Sun birds

15.   Song Bird,

16.   Purple rumped Sun Bird

17.   Mynas,

18.   Crow pheasant

19.   Pea Fowl / Pea Hen / Peacock

20.   Barn Owl

21.   Green Bee Eater

22.   Motted Owl

23.   Shikra / Osprey

24.   Paradise Flycatchers

25.   Tickell’s blue Flycatcher

26.   Warbler

27.   Partridge

28.   Forest Magpie

29.   Oriole

30.   Baja Weaver,

31.   Grey hornbill,

32.   Herons,

33.   Swamp Moorhen

34.   Geese

35.   Cranes

36.   Egrets

37.   Darter

38.   Cormorant

Indian Roller / Blue Jay

39.    




                    

But to be able to have a hatchling of a crow pheasant grow up in my garden is truly a blessing. For: Crow Pheasants or Greater Coucal is a pyramid avian species a hunter which thrives on hunting reptiles and rodents…  that a baby Crow Pheasant successfully bred from its egg n grew out of the nest is heartening, to say the least.

Despite Bungalows making way for multi storeyed concrete structures by decimating green cover, there are still pockets like my hose where we have coconut trees, mango and jackfruit trees, lots of flowering plants like hibiscus and Jasmine, Champak, Amla, among others. The birds I have listed – except a couple of water birds listed have all been sighted in my house garden.  For how long will we be able to protect this luscious avian habitat remains conjecture.

Please do watch the two films on the links below it gives you a glimpse of the birds in and around my house in Basavanagudi in Bangalore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahveEwmOeDI&t=15s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-307mUPzlU&t=6s
















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