Friday, February 17, 2017

One fence, two different birds

During an outing last year, on ECR and near Kovalam, I come across these tiny birds skipping here and there on the fence of a farm house. If you remember the Gloriosa Lily, the state flower of TN, I shot along with a fence? It was on the other side of the farm house I found these birds. The little birds have been very active then and I had to click number of shots to get these few shots on the birds. I actually thought, before observing the photos in detail, the birds (in photos below) belong to same species of birds. Though having a shade of yellow, the first two are Purple Rumped Sunbirds (male ‘n’ female) and the last one is a Common Tailorbird.

Purple Rumped Sunbird (male)
Purple-rumped sunbird 'male'
The purple-rumped sunbird is an endemic to the Indian subcontinent and like other sunbirds; they are small in size and feed mainly on nectar but sometimes take insects, particularly when feeding young. The males are brightly colored, whereas females are olive above and yellow to buff below. Males are distinguished easily from the purple sunbird by the light colored underside while females can be told apart by their whitish throats.

IMG_3728 Little spiderhunter
Purple-rumped sunbird 'female'
Both the genders of the sunbirds are tiny at less than 10 cm long, and have medium-length thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues adapted for nectar feeding. Actually I was bit confused with the female Purple-rumped sunbird, which looked alike Little spider-hunter, but I was only sure after studying the detail.

Below one is known as Common tailorbird. I only remember the name of the bird from the school text book and haven’t seen alive before, perhaps due to its tiny shape (size from 10 to 14 cm and weigh 6 to 10 grams) I couldn’t observe or captured well.

IMG_3729

The common tailorbird is a songbird found across tropical Asia and it’s popular for its nest made of leaves sewn together. Although shy birds they are (a common resident in urban gardens) usually hide within vegetation and their loud calls are familiar and give away their presence. This passerine bird is distinctive in having a long upright tail, greenish upper body plumage and rust coloured forehead. 

Linking this post for SATURDAY CRITTERS and Good Fences by Gosia at Looking for identity  

14 comments:

Sandhya said...

Beautiful shots! Love these birds and their sounds! I used to watch them in my earlier house. But couldn't take photographs. They are too fast. Yours have come out well, Jeevan!

Teamgsquare said...

Wonderful pictures of the bird. They are really cute.

Ida said...

Cute birds and the name of that first one is funny.

Giga said...

Do you like birds surely, because you have patience in taking the pictures. Birds are beautiful. Regards.

GreenComotion said...

I love the 2nd photo, particularly. The details in all 3 photos and the subjects are really nice.
Have a Happy Weekend, Jeevan!
Peace :)

NatureFootstep said...

nice to be able to see both birds in a pair. They look good :)

Jenn Jilks said...

They are beautiful little birds! We have so many that have flown south for winter.
(ツ) from Cottage Country Ontario , ON, Canada!

Rajesh said...

Great shots of the two different birds. Very active and lovely.

Destination Infinity said...

The GREEN stands out in your second pic. Excellent :)

Destination Infinity

eileeninmd said...

Hello, great captures of the birds. The sun bird is my favorite, very pretty. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!

Gosia said...

interesting nature at your place love from Europe

ashok said...

awesome shot of those lovely birds!

Lady Fi said...

Lovely shots of the birds.

Lady Fi said...

Wonderful shots of the birds.