Southern India

Ethan spent a few weeks birding in Southern India, mostly near Thattekad Bird Sanctuary and in the vicinity of Masinagudi. Here are some of the birds he found.

This Orange-Headed Thrush has got to be one of the cooler Thrushes Ethan has seen.

Ethan spent a long time chasing this Indian Paradise Flycatcher from tree to tree before he finally caught it.

Here is an Indian White-Eye. This is the first of over a hundred Zosterops White-Eyes that Ethan will have to track down and he can’t say he is looking foreword to it although he thinks this first one is cool enough.

Here are some friendly Vangids. On the left is the Bar-Winged Flycatcher-Shrike and on the left is the Western Ghats endemic Malabar Woodshrike.

Ethan saw a lot of Greater Coucals before he was finally able to get a clear photograph of this one. 

A beautiful, rowdy Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo. A bully like many Drongos.

Ethan was extremally hyped to get this Vernal Hanging Parakeet. Sometimes when a bird has an eponymous feature, Ethan will find himself trying to take photographs to highlight it, but to capture an eponymous activity is even better.

This White-Cheeked Barbet is another Western Ghats endemic. These guys always remind Ethan that birds are dinosaurs for some reason.

Ethan is unsure what happened with this Rufous Treepie but it held this pose for so long that Ethan thought it may have been dead. It seemed to “recover” eventually though.

Here is the endemic White-Bellied Treepie. He doesn’t need to act up to get attention.

A Southern Hill Myna, endemic to Southern India and Sri Lanka. Thanks splits.

Here’s a Black-Hooded Oriole, an real-life, actual Oriole unlike the imposters Ethan had dealt with in the past.

This Malabar Gray Hornbill is a Southern Ghats endemic and Ethan’s first Hornbill after he somehow missed the normal Gray Hornbill up north.

This nasty Muppet is the Sri Lankan Frogmouth. Somehow they are closely related to hummingbirds and swifts.

On the left a Velvet-Fronted Nuthatch savors an earwig and on the right an Indian Yellow Tit has an existential crisis.

The Black Baza, a cool, tiny hawk.

The Malabar Starling, a Western Ghats endemic.

The Little Spiderhunter: A carnivorous hummingbird with feet.

Just a couple of endemic Laughingthrushes. On the left is the Nilgiri Laughingthrush and on the right is the Palani Laughingthrush.

A frighteningly intense Brown-Capped Pygmy Woodpecker with serial killer vibes. He had absolutely no fear of humans and allowed Ethan to get as close as he wanted.

Some smaller (at least the pictures are smaller), friendlier woodpeckers. On the left a Heart-Spotted Woodpecker and on the right a Speckled Piculet.

Here is the majestic Greater Flameback.

And here is the slightly less majestic Black-Rumped Flameback.

A Blue-Throated Flycatcher. There’s really not much to say about this one. Just another Flycatcher.

A pair of endemic flycatchers. On the right the Orange-and-Black Flycatcher and on the right the Nilgiri Flycatcher.

The guy on the right is an Asian Brown Flycatcher. On the left is the excellent Nilgiri Sholakili. It is endangered, endemic, and has one of the better bird names that Ethan can think of.

Another exciting Muscicapid with a restricted range, the Kashmir Flycatcher, which spends its winters in the Western Ghats. 

A juvenile (left) and an adult (right) Spot-Bellied Eagle-Owl. According to Ebird they can take down deer “as large as small deer.”

Ethan has a fondness for Hoopoes, the wisest of birds, and he had always wanted photograph one with its crest erect. Usually they only seem to do this just after they land on the ground, making it a difficult shot to pull off, but this guy continued doing it while also sitting at eye level on a log. Unfortunately for Ethan, the log was between him and the sun but he will take what he got.