Book Excerpt: What Does Your Favourite Bird Do All Day?

Excerpted with permission from Bird Business - Illustrated peeks into the daily lives of Indian birds, by Rohan Chakravarty.

‘What is a bird?’ Everyone has an answer to that question. ‘Which is your favourite bird?’ We all have a favourite bird by now, I’m sure. ‘What does your favourite bird do all day?’ Now that is a tricky one.

Field guides seldom address this question. Encyclopaedias do, but leave most of the visuals to our imagination. Ornithologists know the answer, but they are busy dissecting owl pellets most of the time. ‘Bird Business’ offers a glimpse into the daily lives of birds from the Indian subcontinent through illustrations. Illustrated sequences take you through the specialties of each species and its role in nature.

Bird Business is more a celebration of the diversity in bird behaviour rather than of bird species. India has close to 1,300 species of birds, all unique from one another in riveting ways. This book describes the antics of about a hundred.

Amur Falcons Galore!

Right on top in the raptors’ Guinness records for migration, the charming Amur Falcons undertake an epic journey from Manchuria to Southern Africa each year, stopping over in northeast India to refuel. Their arrival coincides perfectly with the emergence of alates, winged termites that are a preferred snack. A number of villages such as Doyang in Nagaland that used to hunt these migrating falcons for the table on a massive scale have now turned into protected havens for tens of thousands of these guests, where you may find structures named in honour of the species (Amur Falcon Home Stay, Amur Falcon Beauty Salon, to name a few!).

Expert hunters on the wing, Amur Falcons take smaller prey, mostly insects and small birds. After the brief stopover, they traverse the Arabian Sea all the way to the African coast.

A Bengal Florican Courts

‘Love is a leap into the unknown,’ writes romance novelist Lisa Kleypas. For the Bengal Florican, leaping into the air is a way of grabbing his prospective mate’s attention. In his habitat of tall grasses, the male Florican can hope to capture a female’s sight only when airborne. The jump is combined with an aerial display of the white wings contrasting with the dark body, and it is the contrast that the lady likes. A large tuft of neck feathers is unfurled, and the Florican puts in his hundred per cent in every leap before he lands.

Floricans belong to the family of bustards, among the heaviest of flying birds. Bengal Floricans are critically endangered because of habitat loss.

A Black Kite Steals

It is remarkable how a tiny tweak by evolution can be a species’ defining talent. In the Black Kite‘s case, it is the fork in its tail. The sheer range of flight stunts this feature offers makes the Black Kite a scavenger as effective as no other in an urban setting. Gliding above a busy fish market, the Kite spots a freshly discarded fish head. A sudden swoop, dive and snatch, and the fish head is in the Kite’s possession before one can notice! And it is the forked tail that enables complicated aerial manoeuvres, swift and sharp turns to dodge power pylons, transmission lines and overhanging roofs. Black Kites are bold enough to use mobile towers as nesting spots.

Although the Kites are well equipped to hunt, which they do frequently, they prefer to scavenge from slaughterhouses, garbage dumps and road kills. Who does not like fast food?