Tracking the Indian Pitta at IIT

November 25, 2007

The IIT Chennai campus is, in a sense, part of the Guindy National Park green lung for our city. I have many visited the campus over the years, and though there has been construction over the years, it is still a delightful place, an oasis of calm for us city dwellers.

6:30 am, and the place was abuzz with bird calls. A pair of chital crossed the road ahead of us, and continued to look at us curiously from the side of the road. We were a small group of four, and it was my first time in the campus with binoculars.

Padmanabhan, the IITian among us, took us to the lake, which was full of water. The reason for the trip was P's reporting of the arrival of Indian pittas. This bird is a winter visitor to Madras, (and for some reason has made the cover of Salim Ali's Birds of India and also features on the back cover of Birds of Southern India by Grimmett and Inskipp). Curiosity piqued, Sheila and I had to go!

The sun wans't out as yet - it was a cloudy day. Drongos on the tree near the temple, as also a lovely coucal. So shy, it immediately hid behind some branches when it spotted us.

The cool crispness of the morning kind off removed all the cobwebs from my brain and the sleep from my eyes. It was all so frustrating initially, as the foliage was dense, the birds were calling and darting about, but we couldn't see any of them. I mean really see. A shadow here, rustle of wings there, fading calls, but for a beginner like me, it was all too quick to really spot anything.

Suddenly, sitting silently on a branch above us, we spotted a lovely orange bird. What was it? Thrush, came the urgent whisper, and we trained our binoculars on it. It just sat there for us to get a good look at its orange head and chest, and the blue of its wings. About half a foot high. The Orange-headed thrush

Immediately thereafter, we did see The Indian Pitta! On a distant branch, and I'm sure I would've missed it, but for Arun and Padmanabhan, who pointed it out. Long legs, a yellowish underbody with a hint of a red vent, is what I saw. But I think what struck me most was its eyes - like a kohl-lined eyes of a bharatanatyam dancer. It shifted position, to allow us to see the greensih body as well. Quite a multi-coloured chap!

The pitta, I learnt is a hopper - we then did see the bird hopping about among the foliage on the ground, upturning leaves and looking for worms. Padmanabhan said these birds only call at daybreak, and so we missed the musical call of this bird.

We then walked across the campus to the wall adjoining the Guindy National Park, and there saw the bird in the picture - a blue-faced malkoha. We saw Arun taking out his camera, with deliberate, slow movements, and so went up to him and asked him what is it he saw. Without looking up, he hissed, "In the tree straight ahead look, a malkoha." (I was wondering about all this stealth, but later realised that if birds see you staring at them, they get all flustered and fly off! And no pointing either, please, as I learnt later) The Malkoha is a shy bird, which I think has no call. Anyway, all the stealth resulted in the picture above. A striking bird, and rather distinct eyes, isnt it?

It was an eyes and brows day, or so it seemed, since our next sighting was a White Browed bulbul . I've seen all kinds of bulbuls now - red vented, red-whiskered, yellow browed and white-browed!

Four new birds, one outing. Not bad huh?