Toothpick Treepie

Wish you all a very happy Republic Day, on this valuable day let us take the oath to save our wilderness and keep our Country clean. Cleanliness and conservation of wilderness is the need of the hour if we do not take a step now the next generation will face a lot of trouble in future.

I know you must be wondering with title name, as I have promised to deliver something unique I am bringing you absolutely unheard fact of the most ignored bird. I know now eagerness is going high 😃 so let me take you to the next section to disclose the suspense.

Tiger toothpick – Treepie

Considering your eagerness I will disclose the suspense without getting into the details that I will take you through in the next section.

Let me check if you know this, do you know Treepie is known as Tiger Bird and Tiger Toothpick? Yes, Treepie is famous for its habit because of which it is named as tiger bird/Tiger Toothpick. Now let me tell you the reason as well. Treepie got its name as the tiger toothpick because it cleans the tiger’s teeth of meat between meals. I know it is very difficult to believe but it is 200% fact as well. Such sighting is not that easy plus rarest of the rare to capture it to have it on record but surely it is confirmed by the forest guides who visit frequently to the forest and lucky to notice such absolutely unbelievable movement. Another reason to co-relate the bird with a tiger is because of close match of its color and habit of Treepie to eat leftover of kill done by the Tigers. the pattern of color and scheme of color is very close to Tiger instead of the crow family. I know it is hard to believe but trust me once you visit forest you will surely agree with me. To help you identify this bird in the wilderness let me help you with some fantastic facts about this bird.

Facts file

Now let us see some fantastic details of this ignored bird, instead, let us make this bird as the most photogenic bird. Trust me this bird is capable of giving fantastic frames

One more surprise, Rufous treepie is a member of the crow family and a colorful cousin of the black and white Eurasian magpie. I am sure you would have not imagined that this bird is a member of the crow family

Treepie a native to Indian subcontinent known for its long tail, color, and loud musical calls

The main color of the body is cinnamon with a black head and the long graduated tail is bluish grey and is tipped in black whereas the wing has a white patch

The rufous treepie is an arboreal omnivore feeding almost completely in trees on fruits, seeds, invertebrates, small reptiles and the eggs and young of birds; it has also been known to take flesh from recently killed carcasses

The local name of Rufous treepie is Bhera, Mahtab, Mootri

They have a wide repertoire of calls, some harsh and guttural, others quite melodious. The term bob-o-link is a more or less faithful syllabification of one of their pleasanter calls

They also hunt systematically for birds’ nests and are highly destructive to the eggs and young of the smaller species

I am sure you liked the details shared for a bird that is ignored most of the time, do visit photoshop to see the color of this lovely bird. After reading this I am sure you will always remember this bird and recognize it when you visit the forest, do share your story and pictures when you take wilderness tour (btwildart@gmail.com)