Young Birdwatcher's Club

Red-wattled Lapwing is a bird commonly seen and found in Indian Sub-continent. Very agile, vocal and graceful bird who always protects her nest on the ground by trying to misguide intruders, which is known as the broken wing pattern. It has a significance in Indian Mythology. The story goes that during the Mahabharata War in Kurukshetra, once a Lapwing approached Lord Krishna and asked about the safety and security of her nest on the ground, owing to the large scale destruction everywhere.  Lord Krishna, helps the little bird by putting a wheel over the nest to protect it. This is a ground bird, it builds its nest on the ground and is astoundingly camouflaged near a water body.  It constantly guards over her nest and gives out an alarm call every now and then because of the movements of the animals and humans. In a agrarian society it also has status of farmer's friend. Call of a Lapwing during summer and monsoon helps farmers in predicting rains. 

Shikra - An Avid Hunter Shikra, a small bird of prey are also known as Banded Goshawk and are found in entire Indian Sub-continent. Though its small in size, its a excellent hunter of smaller birds and even small mammals like squirrels, lizards and chameleons. In the mornings and evenings, you can hear sharp two note call of Shikra and flipping sound. Resident to India and Africa, this small but powerful birds, could be found even in vicinity of cities and town, especially in parks and places where there is green cover. Males have grey upper body with yellowish-white underbelly while females have brownish appearance with banded design. A curved beak, sharp eyesight, deadly talons combined with speed, they instill fear in smaller birds on arrival. A pair of Shikra is permanent resident of our society and few days back we were lucky to have a male bird visiting out garden with its prey - chick of Common Mynah. The photographs presented here are Shikra perched on our Kadamba tree with its