How fast do birds fly?

Bird flight has been studied for some time now using Doppler guns and scientists have tried to estimate how fasts do birds fly and have tried to see if it has any relation to bird size.
based on research, scientists have found out the following:

1. In general, there is little correlation between the size of bird and the flight speed it is capable of. Humming birds and geese both are capable of the same maximum flight speeds.
2. Most birds fly in the range of 30-50 Km /hr.
3. There is usually a huge difference between how fast can fly and the speed at which they normally fly.
4. There is a huge difference between normal flight & when pursued by raptors.
5. It also appears that birds fly faster when assisted by wind.
6. The fastest migratory bird: The great snipe which covers 6,760 km non-stop journey at 97 Km/hr
7. The fastest level flying bird: The spine tailed swift at 171 Km/hr
8. The fastest gravity assisted flight: The peregrine falcon which can dive at speeds close to 320 Km/hr

By the way, the Guinness Book of World Records started as a result of an argument about the fastest game bird in Europe. In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of Guinness Breweries, was in south-eastern Ireland with a group of friends, enjoying a day’s shooting. Failing to shoot a golden plover, Sir Hugh maintained that this must be the world’s fastest flying game bird. His companions disagreed. Sir Hugh used his own fortune to research the question, and that’s how the Guinness Book of World records got started.



Reference:

1. http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/How_Fast.html
2. http://www.thetravelalmanac.com/lists/birds-speed.htm
3. http://earthsky.org/earth/fastest-bird

The great snipe

Spine-tailed swift

Peregrine falcon

Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher

Just as Shakespeare puts 'the lunatic, the lover and the poet' at the same level, our very own Nissim Ezekeil puts the poet, the lover and the birdwatcher at the same level in this lovely poem.

Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher

To force peace and never be still

Is not the way of those who study birds
Or women. The best poets wait for words.
The hunt is not an exercise of will
         But patient love relaxing on a hill
To note the movement of a timid wing;
Until the one who knows that she is loved
No longer waits but risks surrendering-
In this the poet finds his moral proved,
      Who never spoke before his spirit moved?
The slow movement seems, somehow, to say much
        more

To watch rarer birds you have to go

Along deserted lanes and where rivers flow
In silence near the source, or by a shore
      Remote and thorny like the hearts dark floor
And there the women slowly turn around,
Not only flesh and bone but myths of light
With darkness at the core, and sense is found
By poets lost in crooked, restless flight,
      The deaf can hear, the blind recover sight

 

--Nissim Ezekiel, The exact name, 1965

Sighting Red-wattled lapwings in my village

I sighted a pair of red wattled lapwing sin my field which is overgrown with shrubs and acacia trees. I was surprised to locate these birds in my field as they are normally sighted in and in close proximity to ponds and water bodies. Our area is particularly bone dry and there is absolutely no water to be found anywhere in the radius of 15 kms. Red wattled lapwings are ground nesting birds and get extremely disturbed when it sights any threat to the nest. I was really surprised to see them in my village and I assumed that they must have got scattered owing to the drying of a lot of ponds because of failure of two consecutive monsoons.
Date of sighting 09/03/14 at around 5:00 pm

What are the objectives of bird watching?

While looking at birds, with experience, you should be able to do the following:

• Identify the bird accurately
• Identify the sex of the bird
• Identify whether the bird is adult/ immature/ juvenile
• Tell if a bird is a resident, local migrant or summer / winter migrant from other countries
• Tell how the bird ranks in the IUCN red list.
• Tell about its flying, perching, hunting, fighting, feeding, mating and nesting habits.
• Know about its taxonomy.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Species are classified by the IUCN Red List into nine groups set through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation. Also included are species that have gone extinct since 500 AD. When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term "threatened" is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.

• Extinct (EX) – No known individuals remaining.
• Extinct in the Wild (EW) – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range.
• Critically Endangered (CR) – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
• Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild.
• Vulnerable (VU) – High risk of endangerment in the wild.
• Near Threatened (NT) – Likely to become endangered in the near future.
• Least Concern (LC) – Lowest risk. Does not qualify for a higher risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.
• Data Deficient (DD) – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction.
• Not Evaluated (NE) – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria.

Reference:

1. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iucn_redlist
2. IUCN Red list : www.iucnredlist.org

Common Indian birds & thier habitats

If you are going on a bird-watching trip or just happen too travel, it will be worthwhile to know what birds you can expect in a particular location. Your experience and knowledge will be vastly increased as a consequence

City, Town & Village dwellers:

• House crow
• House sparrow
• Pigeons
• Red-vented bulbul
• Red-whiskered bulbul (On higher altitudes)
• Common myna
• Black kites
• Oriental magpie robin (on Higher altitudes)
• Purple-rumped sunbird
• Purple sunbird
• Parakeets
• Asian Koel
• Spotted owlet

Scrub and jungle

• Babblers
• Indian robin
• Bee-eaters
• White-browed fantailed flycatcher
• Orioles
• Doves
• Shikra
• White-rumped Vulture
• Rosy starlings
• Buntings
• Baya weaver
• Rufous treepie

Farm land:

• Black drango
• Indian roller
• Grey Frankolin
• Quails
• Cattle egret
• Little egret
• Common kestrel
• Eurasian eagle owl

The village pond

• Common coot
• Little grebe
• Jacanas
• Herons
• Darter and
• Cormorant
• Black-winged stilt
• Snipe
• Sandpiper
• Storks
• Wild ducks
• King fishers
• Red-wattled lapwing

Coast line

• White-bellied sea eagle
• Ring-tailed fish eagle
• Reef heron
• Eurasian curlew
• Gull and
• Tern

Reference: Much of the above list was compiled with the help of the book "About Indian birds" by Salim Ali and Laeeq Futehally.

What ails the sparrow?

In the recent years, the common house sparrow, for unfortunate reasons, has become a flagship case for the bird conservation in India. The sparrows populations have declined in such alarming levels that most lay people are now acknowledging it. The once ubiquitous bird is now scarcely seen. The most alarming part about it is that nobody is really able to conclusively say why they are disappearing at such an alarming rate.

well, several reasons are being thrown about. Here are a few:

1. Use of pesticides in house compounds,
2. Lack of nesting sites due to the increasing number of concrete structures in urban areas
3. Absence of grains
4. Unavailability of water in summer months
5. Anecdotal evidence also points to the reduction of sparrow population close to
1. Mobile towers
2. Mast lamps 
6. Over-Hunting by humans who use it for mean and there is also a unfounded belief that the sparrow meat can increases the virility of men.

This blog post was written with the help of these article from "The Hindu" news paper articles whose links are given below

• Where are the sparrows?
• Where have all the sparrows gone?
• Sparrow meat, a delicacy in Karur bars

Books about Birds and Birdwatching

Here is a list of books that I have read which educates me about the different aspects of birds and bird-watching

1. About Indian birds by Salim Ali and Laeeq Futehally
2. Birds of India: A literary anthology by Abdul Jamil Urfi
3. Of Birds and birdsong by M. Krishnan
4. A Diary on the nesting behaviour of Indian birds by Chinna Sathan and Bal pandi
5. The fallow of a sparrow: Illustrated Salim Ali by Salim Ali
6. Sibley's Birding basics by David Allen Sibley

Field guides: (Which help in Identification of the birds)

1. Common birds of Indian subcontinent: A beginners field guide by Ananda Banarjee
2. Birds of the Indian subcontinent by Carol Inskipp, Richard Grimmitt, Ian Inskipp
3. The Book of Indian birds by Salim ali

The detailed review of the books will follow soon! Watch out this space!