Birds from the lens of a cricketer – 5

The pen took interest in writing about two birds (Spotted bill duck & Yellow footed green pigeon) which were resting in the archives since long. And here they proceed to reside themselves into the series, to join the other birds in the blog pages below:

Birds from the lens of a cricketer – 4 – Flame back woodpecker & Painted stork

Birds from the lens of a cricketer – 3 – White belled sea eagle & Brahminy kite.

Birds from the lens of a cricketer-2 – Spotted thick knee & Pied Kingfisher

Birds from the lens of a cricketer.  –  Grey heron & Red Munia

Thanking my co-brother Shashank for the detailed photos clicked patiently, let me quickly jump in to present the information of these birds taking help from Wikipedia and other relevant articles for my research.

1. Spotted bill duck – Belonging to the species of dabbling ducks, these grey birds are residents of India, Japan, China and Russia. They have a black bill which have the tip naturally painted bright yellow in the tip, with the males carrying a red spot on the base of the bill. The legs and feet are generally bright orange to coral red.

Weighing around 1500 gm and ranging 60-65 cm in size, they mainly live in freshwater lakes, rivers, ponds and marshes and their feed includes seeds, grass, cultivated rice and aquatic insects.

These birds are social and can be found surrounded by group as large as 50 but they are also gregarious and are ready to fight each another if the subject is about territory.

Interestingly, this bird can easily take off vertically from the water and when disturbed, they are known to dive and remain underwater to avoid being noticed or capture.

2. Yellow footed green pigeon – This pigeon happens to be the state bird of Maharashtra. They are mainly found in India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand and Cambodia.

These birds are social and could be often found as couples\small groups on tree branches of banyan or peepal tree. While resting, they can be found perching on a highest branch of a tall tree.

They range between 25-30 cm in size and weigh around 250 gms. They have a yellowish green body, greyish head, white bill and yellow legs. Their call is pleasant to the ears as they sound musical whistle to the ears.

They mainly feed on grains, fruits, berries and figs and do not generally descend to the ground.

That’s it from these birds for now, which have highlighted their existence to us and it was good researching and writing about them.