Barn Owl: On the Night Shift!

It’s close to midnight… swirling fog… deathly silence… not a soul in sight. It’s been like this ever since the old farmhouse fell into disrepair.

Unlikely though it may seem, the feeling that someone’s watching, creeps up on you, making you turn your head to look at the black, gaping mouth of the loft, just over the barn door. What you see makes you cringe.

Not convinced that it could only be the setting playing tricks with your imagination, you hasten your pace, only to pull up short when the eerie silence is shattered by a piercing screech.

But it is not just the setting and your imagination running wild - it was you who startled the virtually harmless and adorable Barn Owl!

Also called Death Owl, Ghost Owl, Monkey-faced Owl, Night Owl and Church Owl, the common Barn Owl is the quintessential ‘home bird’ on the one hand, and a global citizen on the other as it is found on all continents except Antarctica.

With large eyes adapted for seeing in the dark and with acute hearing, it flies low and silently above open land till its ears pinpoint unwary prey in the darkness. The owl then swoops down, swinging its legs forward while spreading its claws to grasp and kill the prey at first contact.

The owl swallows the prey whole but later regurgitates indigestible parts like bones, fur or feathers as smooth, black pellets which accumulate in piles beneath their roosts.

An adult barn owl feeds on as much as three rats a day, obviously making it the farmer’s friend.

The male owl chases the female of his dreams (he does sleep in the daytime!) showing her his flying skills under the stars. He also makes loud wing claps and calls finally feeding her after the show. Once they have their ‘roll-in-the-hay’ (that’s what barns are for – hey, I'm talking about the hay!) they usually remain partners for life.

Well, they don’t build a nest. Why should they, when they have the whole loft to themselves, anyway?

The female lays one egg every two or three days, each of them hatching on different days though within 33 days. Sadly, the older owlets are fed first and so when food is scarce, the younger ones die of starvation only to be eaten up by their older siblings.

Barn owl numbers are declining mainly due to modern farming which has done away with barns or converted them into houses. Also, grasslands are being turned into farmland, thus reducing the number of rodents, their primary source of food. Adaptable birds that they are, they seek out new haunts - unused belfries and church spires, in keeping with their aliases.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Lovebird: Winged Romancer

“Eight days a week, I love you, love you, love you,” goes the Beatles hit song. It could well have been dedicated to the lovebird for whom it’s Valentine’s Day every day of the year!

Lovebirds are the smallest parrots in the world, with a stocky build, a short, blunt tail and a disproportionately large beak - no wonder it is such a smoocher and loudmouth! But it puts the beak to good use too: for cracking open seeds and stripping bark for nesting material.

Also known as Les inséparables in French, a pair will form an extremely close bond for life. For this reason, many people feel strongly that lovebirds in captivity should be kept in pairs.

They show each other their affection by cuddling up together and scratching each other’s heads. And you don’t have to be a peeping Tom to catch them in their cages beak-to-beak, eyes closed, blissfully unaware of the self-imposed restrictions of public display of affection on their ‘free’ captors. Guess that’s what the Beatles meant in their song, “Free as a bird.”

But even lovebirds cannot live on love and fresh air alone - they need to eat too. Since they are non-migratory, they have to find seeds, grains, berries and fruits in their home range itself, sometimes even having to eat insects and grass. But there are at least two species that are very particular about their diet: the black-collared lovebird eats wild figs off treetops while the grey-headed lovebird humbly eats grass seeds off the ground.

These garrulous birds are sociable, living in colonies ranging from 20 to 100, chattering and twittering as they work together in search of food and caring for their young.

Lovebirds breed once a year in trees and cliff faces, building nests or lining tree hollows with twigs, grass, feathers and even bark from trees.

The female lays one egg on alternate days until the clutch of about 3 to 4 eggs is complete. The eggs hatch in 3 weeks’ time.

Lovebirds are popular pets despite legal protection, which is nevertheless helping to increase wild populations. While the lifespan of the lovebird is six to seven years in the wild, it is about 12 in captivity! The Beatles were right - “All you need is love, love, love...”

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Kingfisher: The Flying Fisherman

Its a hot summer's day and you are sitting on your haunches in the cool shade of the overhanging trees on the river bank, finger on the shutter-release button of your digital camera.

Suddenly, there is a streak of colours - brilliant iridescent turquoise, amber and a little white and then, a faint splash as the Kingfisher dives through the mirror-like surface of the water from his perch overhead.

You go trigger-happy, shooting ‘click, click, click…’ and barely manage to get a couple of shots as the little bird, with fish in beak gleaming silver in the sunshine, breaks out from under the surface into the air taking a steep flight path into the branches above.

You excitedly check the little LCD screen and discover that although the bird did a shallow dive of less than ten inches below the surface, your camera did not capture him underwater due to reflections off the placid surface of the water. If only you had a Polaroid filter over your zoom lens!

But then, how did the kingfisher, perched at a greater distance than you, see his prey under the surface? With polarizing filters over his eyes! Not only that - membranes automatically cover its eyes when it dives underwater. Hey, shutterbug, how’s that for shutter-priority?!

Back on its perch, holding the fish by the tail, it whacks it to the branch to kill it first before swallowing it head first, so that there is no chance of the fish’s fins piercing his gullet while swallowing it and choking to death.

This highly territorial bird defends its fishing grounds from rivals as if its life depended on it - because it does! The kingfisher needs to eat almost two-thirds of its body weight in fish, every day.

The Kingfisher courts the female by displaying his flying skills and finally catching a fish and presenting it to his queen.

The pair then take turns in stabbing at the earth with their bills to make a 3 feet upward-slopping tunnel in the river bank. A nest chamber is made at the end of the tunnel where the female lays about 5-8 little white eggs and starts incubation but is subsequently taken over by the male.

After about 21 days, the naked and blind hatchlings break free. The tubular sheaths holding the adult feathers break open much later. Till then, the little birds look more like prickly hedgehogs.

Kingfishers have a life span of about 20 years. Every year during the breeding season, a pair of them has been coming to nest in a hole in the inner wall of my well, just above the water level. They announce their arrival with their typically shrill calls. They get all the fish they need from the well itself. I guess this is their preferred destination over the highly polluted Daman Ganga River just a stone’s throw away!

Copyright © 2006 Noël Gama

www.noelgama.com

Peacock: National Bird of India

Here’s one beauty that wins ‘tails up’ against any beauty queen in categories like costume, dancing, posing and strutting among others - in spite of being male!

With a fan-shaped crest on its head for a crown and a long train of ornamental feathers on its iridescent blue and green body, the Indian peacock is one of the world’s most spectacular birds.

The train of the peacock, is not a true tail but frond-like plumes called ‘coverts’ that cover the short tail feathers underneath. An adult peacock has about 150 coverts, each measuring about five feet. The train feathers have a series of eyespots that are best seen when the train is erect and fanned out.

Peafowl are sociable and live in a group called ‘ostentation’ or ‘muster’ comprising one male and about five females.

The peacock screeches, struts about, spreads out and vibrates his magnificent tail, angling it over his head like a fan to attract the peahen (who has a crest but does not have a train). The more eyespots on the peacock’s train, the more attractive he is to potential mates!

After mating, the feckless peacock’s role is over, and he plays no part in nest-building or raising the young.

In the wild, the peafowl spend much of their time on the ground looking for food. They tend to forage in the same place every day, scratching over earth and leaf litter to uncover worms and seeds.

Peafowl warn each other of danger by emitting loud, shrieking cries and honks. They have pointed spurs on the backs of their legs for kicking in defense.

When flushed, they take flight with little noise, rising almost vertically to the tree tops although they do not fly far.

They roost in tall trees at night, to keep safe from predators like dogs, foxes, leopards and tigers.

Nothing symbolizes India as accurately and completely as the peacock: the multifaceted cultures in its iridescent blue-green plumage, unity in diversity in the harmony of its clashing colours, the Bharat Natyam in its dancing poses, the classic namaste poise of its head… Go on, look around you at the Diwali lamps, at the fireworks… and add to the list!

No wonder, this non-migratory Indian beauty is found in zoos, parks and gardens all over the world - the de facto goodwill ambassador of India.

Copyright © 2006 Noël Gama