Wild Bird Wednesday 739 - 37 Black-Headed Jay

The Black-Headed Jay (Garrulus lanceolatus), also known as the Lanceolated Jay,  is a member of the crow family that can be found in the open wooded slopes of the Himalayas from Bhutan in the East to Afghanistan in the West.

This bird is classified into the same genus as the (possibly more) familiar Eurasian Jay and (probably) unfamiliar Lidth's Jay which is only found on a small number of islands in Southern Japan.

The Black-Headed Jay is about the same size as the Eurasian Jay, with a length of 33cm.  Both of these species show a rather splendid patch of blue barring on their wings.

They are a vocal species - and the genus name means chattering, babbling or noisy.

I saw this species on a number of occasions in India - but the best views came around a bird hide where the birds were regularly fed.

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Wild Bird Wednesday 738 - Bronze-Winged Jacana

The Bronze-Winged Jacana (Metopidius indicus) is a wader that is part of the group of birds that are sometimes called Lilly Trotters or Jesus Birds.  Both of these names reference the apparent ability of these types of bird to walk on water.  In realty,  they use their very (very) long toes to spread their weight over floating vegetation and thus avoid sinking!

The Bronze-Winged Jacana is found throughout most of India - it is absent from the North-western parts of the country and the high Himalayas.  It can also be found in East of India through Bangladesh, and south-east Asia as far south as southern Thailand.

The adult birds have a striking eye stripe, which actually makes then easy to pick out at distance, and one you 'get your eye in' they can be relatively common in the right sort of watery habitats.  I don't know if it was because of the time of year I was in India (March/April),  but I saw far more juvenile individuals than adults.

Like the other Lilly Trotters this is a very active bird that spends good deal of time rushing about on Lillies!

In the making of this post I discovered (for myself, not the world!!) that female Jacanas have an interesting mating strategy. 

Female Bronze-Winged Jacanas, like other female jacanas, are larger than males, territorial, polyandrous (a female that has more than one male mate), and compete with other females to maintain harems of males which incubate clutches of eggs. Each female's territory covers one to four males and their individual territories, and the males compete with each other to mate with the female.  Apparently, the loud calling of the males - termed 'yelling' in some descriptions - is used by the female for mate selection.  Again apparently, the louder the yell, the fitter the male!

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the link below.  Cheers  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 737 - Gray-Headed Swamphen

The Gray-Headed Swamphen (Porphyrio poliocephalus) is a large - up to about 45 cm - bluish-purple waterbird with a red bill and forehead shield, as well as red legs and feet with very long toes.

This bird was part of a group of birds simply known as the "Purple Swamphen" until the group was split into six separate species.  This species can be found throughout much of the Indian subcontinent, souther-estates Asia and parts of the middle east.  Interestingly, it has also been accidentally introduced into Florida in the USA where it now seems to have formed self-sustaining populations.

This species was a common sight in suitable habitat in India, and was often abundant in wet grassland and marsh areas.  It is a vocal, if not really tuneful, species.

As ever, to join in with WBW click on the big, blue button.  Cheers.  SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 736 - Striated Laughingthrush

The Striated Laughingthrush (Grammatoptila striata) has a name that I would have suspected was invented as a joke had I not seen the bird a number of times in Northern India.  The general name Laughingthrush is (apparently) derived from their loud, social calls sound which sound like human laughter and cackling.  I have to say, this is a similarity that I did not notice.

The Striated Laughingthrush is a large Laughingthrush, with a stout black beak and very distinctive crest.  The presence of this crest makes it relatively easy to identify this species.  As you can see in the pictures, although the bird is more or less uniformly shades of brown its 'striations' do give a rather handsome look.

They were an active bird to watch, and I was glad to be able to photograph them from a hide where they were used to finding food.

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Once more I will be away from my desk for a while, so visits and replies may be rather infrequent.

Cheers.  SM

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