Fantastic Flycatcher

Lovely readers hope you all are doing great, I am sure you enjoyed the last blog on Tiger, after topic on Tiger now it is difficult for me to finalize the topic but no problem I have one of the most beautiful bird in my kitty for you which is none other than Indian Paradise Flycatcher. The reason for introducing birds from time to time is because normally people ignore birds and run behind wild animals which I feel is nothing but a lovely gift from nature. Let me update you with a different perspective of this beautiful bird so as you can get closure to nature while enjoying the article.

The dream catch

IPF is a beautiful bird with a long tail adding stars to its beauty, it is commonly found in the forest area majorly near water land. I have been tracking it for the past three years and saw it at almost all the places I visited. The name itself suggests that it is a specialist for catching the flies, it is really fun to see IPF catching the flies, butterflies or any such kind of insects but due to its flying nature it is difficult to capture it on exact time with flies/butterflies. Flycatcher requires flying continuously because of the nature of its food which is flying species, it keeps moving here and there making difficult for the photographers to click and hence it becomes challenging to have best shot with it but it gives winner types of feeling when you are lucky to have sharp shot.

The journey with IPF started from Ranthambore where I captured female IPF which turned super lucky and since then all most all visits got it in a photogenic manner, please check out pictures to understand the same. Tadoba visit was dream come true, I was absolutely lucky to get flycatchers with butterfly at one place and with flies at another place, it was like God is listening to you and fulfilling all your wishes on the spot, this why I always repeat my statement “If you love nature, nature will love you more”. Now let me provide you the facts of IPF so as you can capture it on your trip.

The Flying Fact

The Asian Paradise-flycatcher, also known as the Common Paradise-flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird. It was previously classified with the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, but the paradise-flycatchers and monarch flycatchers are now placed in the family Monarchidae, and most members of this family are found in Australasia and tropical southern Asia

A graceful looking flycatcher, the adult male sport a long ribbonlike tail. The males that occur in two colors morph cinnamon and white. Both color morphs sport a glossy black head with a blue ring around the eye, but white morph is entirely white below while the cinnamon morph has cinnamon upperparts and tail, and dirty white underparts

The females are cinnamon above with a grayish throat, a shorter tail, and they lack the male’s blue eyering

They make short aerial sallies after insects, usually returning to the same perch. Occasionally descends to ground to pull apart insects. Chiefly found in wooded habitats

Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.

The Indian paradise flycatcher is a migratory bird and spends the winter season in tropical Asia

The Indian paradise flycatcher is a noisy bird uttering sharp skreek calls. It sits very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. It is insectivorous and hunts in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons, it dives from perches to bathe in small pools of water