Beautiful Blue Throat

Happy Sunday to everyone, my apology for not posting a blog on last week, due to some hectic schedule for coming one the week the schedule will hamper but rest assured you will get surprised very soon, so keep following the space.

Today I am going back to the bird world, the bird I have picked up today is not very well known to the public at large, so I thought let me bring this bird to limelight with help of our blog space. So without taking more time let us meet the beautiful Blue Throat bird. 

MAGICAL BLUE

Magical color because it's color shades on the throat is attractive in the true sense, the combination of limited color make this bird even more beautiful and valuable for photographers. Now let us learn more details of this lovely bird.

The Bluethroat is a striking, beautiful species of bird whose main focal point is its clear, bright-blue bib, which is underscored by two stripes; one rust-colored, the other black

As is typical among birds, it is male Blue throats that display more extravagant plumage than their female counterparts, whose throats do not feature this blue patch

Upperparts on both males and females are grey, while the underparts are white. And, both birds have a habit of fanning their tails, exposing a chestnut-colored patch near the tip of the tail

Apart from color details now it’s time to know more colorful I mean cool facts of this unique bird

COOL Facts

The bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered as an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It and similar small European species are often called chats 

It is a migratory insectivorous species breeding in wet birch wood or bushy swamp in Europe and Asia with a foothold in western Alaska. In India, you can find this bird at Keoladeo National Park situated at Bharatpur

The main diet of the bird is mostly insects, the other things include beetles, caterpillars, ants, sawfly larvae, crane flies and other flies, and others. Also eats spiders, plus some snails and earthworms. It may also eat berries and a few seeds, perhaps mainly in fall 

It is easy to see only while it is singing or performing flight displays. The colorful throat patch of males is prominently shown off in aggressive encounters between rivals, as well as in courtship

Do plan a visit to Bharatpur bird sanctuary to notice such jewels we have, with this note ending the blog here, do visit DSLR section to see the beauty of this bird

Learning of the day

State Bird of Arunachal Pradesh

Great hornbill –

The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family. 

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Captain Cape Buffalo

Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing fine. Thanks for reading and asking questions on Eagle, I know some of you have requested to provide a comparison of Kites and Eagle, I have noted the request and will get back with some research work in some time.

While thinking about today’s topic I noticed that we have seen many birds and hence today the animal deserves to get space on the blog so after thinking of some options I decided to present the largest animal which is part of African Big 5 "Cape Buffalo" so let's move to the next section to meet Cape Buffalo directly from the land of Africa. 

The Big Five Group

The Cape buffalo is part of the Big Five animals of African Game Reserve; the others are lion, leopard, rhinoceros, and elephant. The term was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. Buffalo deserves to be part of Big five as it is one the most dangerous and largest animal. You may feel that its buffalo so it may be as calm as domestic one but let me tell you don’t dare to misunderstand this heavyweight as a calm animal. Like Asian Buffalo, it cannot be domesticated because of its unpredictable temperament. Cape Buffalos reported killing more hunters in Africa than any other animal. They are known to ambush hunters that have wounded or injured them. This is why it well deserves to be the main attraction of Africa Game Reserve, there are many more qualities which many of us are not aware of hence let's move to the next section to see unique facts. 

The Facts of the Warrior

The African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a large Sub-Saharan African bovine. Cape Buffalo have 4 times the strength of an Ox. The Cape buffalo is not very tall—it stands only 130–150 cm (51–59 inches) tall and has relatively short legs—but it is massive, weighing 425–870 kg (935–1,910 pounds) 

The hide on a bull buffalo's neck is as thick as 2 inches in places, which protects it during battles with other bulls for dominance

Cape buffalo have exceptional memories. The adage an elephant never forgets would be matched by a buffalo never forgives. They have been known to attack people that have harmed them even years after the event

The adult buffalo's horns are its characteristic feature: they have fused bases, forming a continuous bone shield across the top of the head referred to as a "boss"

They are widely regarded as among the most dangerous animals on the African continent, and according to some estimates they gore, trample and kill over 200 people every year

They are capable swimmers and often cross deep water in search of better grazing

When chased by predators, a herd sticks close together and make it hard for the predators to pick off one member. They have been recorded killing a lion and chasing lions up trees and keeping them there for two hours, after the lions have killed a member of their group

Cape Buffalo is of the main attraction of Game Reserve, make sure to capture them when you visit any of the forests in African land, hope you liked the content, do reply with your comments and feedback it will help me to improve and serve you better

Learning of the day

State Animal of Andhra Pradesh

Blackbuck –

The blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), also known as the Indian antelope, their lifespan is around 10-15 years.

You may refer content on https://btwildart.blogspot.com/2018/07/blockbuster-blackbuck.html

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Crested Serpent Eagle

Thanks, everyone for the overwhelming response to the “Diwali for All” blog. The thought of uplifting the villagers received a huge round of applaud and many of you have shown the positive response for helping them in the future as well. On behalf of the villagers and our wildlife group big thanks to each one of you. 

Let me start today by wishing you A very happy and prosperous new year. After the festival, I am opting to start with a bird we all know by name but in reality, many don't know them correctly so I will brief you on Eagle, in particular, I will be talking about Crested Serpent Eagle because there are around 19 popular species of eagles out of 60 various types hence picking up one of them here.

The Common Mistake

As I said we all know this bird by name but we do not know this bird in reality, the most common mistake we do is we consider all raptors as an eagle. Commonly found Kites are always known as an eagle, (we teach our kids the same) until I started wildlife I used to do the same mistake. Buzzards, Kites, Shikra, etc are always treated as “Eagle” so I decided to pick up Eagle as a topic to clarify the common mistake we do. Crested Serpent Eagle was my first sighting on entering my first wildlife safari at Nagzira, so it is closed to my heart. During this trip itself, Jogi educated me that Eagle is different from Kite and updated some facts of this bird, which I will update you in the next section. 

Facts File

The crested serpent eagle also is known as Spilornis cheela is a medium-sized bird of prey that is found in forested habitats across tropical Asia

There are considerable variations and some authorities prefer to treat several of its subspecies as completely separate species. In the past, several species including the Philippine serpent eagle (S. holospila), Andaman serpent eagle (S. Elgini) and South Nicobar serpent eagle (S. klossi) were treated as subspecies of the Crested serpent eagle

The crested serpent eagle, as its English name suggests, is a reptile eater which hunts over forests, often close to wet grassland for snakes and lizards,  It has also been observed to prey on birds, amphibians, mammals and fishes

A radio-telemetric study of the species in Taiwan found that the birds spend 98% of the day perched and usually finding food in the morning hours. They appear to use a sit and wait for foraging strategy

Crested serpent eagles are medium-sized raptors. They range in length from 55 to 76 cm, and their wingspan ranges from 109 to 169 cm

They can weigh anywhere from 420 to 1800 g. When perched, an adult appears overall dark brown with an almost black 'hood' on the head and neck. The breast and belly are brown with white mottling. The crest is black with some white flecks is very prominent when raised

Crested serpent eagles mate in monogamous pairs and remain in pairs throughout the year. Courtship displays consist of pairs soaring and calling together. These courtship flights may include rolling and wing vibrating

Crested serpent eagles communicate with one another using vocal cues and aerial displays. Their courtship display is complex involving multiple diving runs and mutual soaring with the head and tail feathers raised

Crested serpent eagles eat a significant amount of snakes, including species harmful to humans. They also eat small rodents that can have adverse effects on crop production

I hope now you will easily distinguish between an eagle and other raptors, for easy reference, you can check out DSLR section as well

Learning of the day

State Animal of Maharashtra

Indian Giant Squirrel –

The Indian giant squirrel, or Malabar giant squirrel, (Ratufa indica) is a large tree squirrel species in the genus Ratufa native to India

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