Plain Mountain-Finch

A fittingly-named brown finch of highland mountain passes, meadows, and rural villages. Drab brown overall with some contrasting brown, black, and white streaking on the back. Pale gray-brown head distinguishes it from Black-headed Mountain-Finch. During the nonbreeding months gathers in immense swirling flocks of up to several hundred birds. ( Source: ebird.org)

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One of the features of a civilized man is that he has hobbies, serious hobbies. From time immemorial man has invented and developed various hobbies ranging from stamp collection to feather collection. Though man has been a social animal for a long time, the primeval instinct in his has not died. We yearn and long to be close to nature. There are a few hobbies that give us an opportunity to do so. One such hobby is bird-watching. It might seem simple to read the word and guess that it is very easy to watch the birds. But it is not what it seems. It needs a lot of dedication, determination and consistency to master ‘the art of bird-watching.’ It takes years of patience and perseverance to be a good birdwatcher. What you choose as your hobby is not as important as to what hobby chooses you. You have to be the chosen one. Dr. Pankaj Maheria, a Professor at GMERS Medical College, Valsad (South Gujarat) is one such Chosen One. Birds have chosen him as a medium between their worl

Pied Cuckoo

It is also known as Jacobin cuckoo or Pied crested cuckoo ( Clamator jacobinus ). It is a member of the cuckoo family. Pied cuckoo is a medium-sized, slim black and white cuckoo as its name indicate. The distinctive crest, white wing patch on the black wing and the pattern make it unmistakable even in flight. But what gave out its presence without even seeing it, is its ringing series of whistling call. They are very vocal during the breeding season. We generally observed these birds in pairs or in group of 3 to 4. They call from prominent perches and chase each other with low-level flight in slow wing-beats, mostly hunting near the ground level. We witnessed babblers, myna, and crows sometime trying to drive them away as the species is a brood parasite. Here in Gujarat Pied cuckoo locally known as the Chataka (Gujarati: ચાતક ). It has been said to be migrates between Africa and India. Pied cuckoo arrives in Gujarat in late summer, mostly in end of the May. Arrival of Pied cu

Escape into the wild

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