Orange-headed Thrush; a Guest Appearance…in my backyard
Zoothera citrina
The other day, I was just standing by my bedroom window, enjoying the peace and serenity of my backyard which I often tend to do (I find it quite meditational) when I saw some movement on the ground. At first, I thought it was a copper-pod flower, gently wafting down, this being the season for those golden-yellow blooms to fall down and create bright yellow carpets on the ground.
But then, I saw something move……I almost stopped breathing, when I saw a unique bird!
It was an orange bird, with blue-grey wings, a white wing bar, with outer rectrices tipped white. The most unique feature I observed, were the two black vertical stripes on the ear coverts, which looked almost like mascara running down. It was the size of a myna. I saw that it was trying to forage for food on the ground. I had never seen this bird in my backyard, in the entire eleven years I stayed here….I just had to find out what it was! I tried the internet first, to no avail.
I then called up BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society) and requested to be connected to an expert on birds. I was overjoyed to know that the call had actually been picked up by a professional ornithologist! To cut a long story short, they responded immediately to my mail, which contained a few pictures of this bird. The CEC BNHS team sent me a response, identifying my pics of the bird….it was an “Orange-headed thrush!”
It was the male of Zoothera cyanotus (Orange-headed thrush), to be more precise. It breeds in the Himalayas and eastern India. It's a winter resident in western peninsular India, right from Maharashtra to the southern tip of India, some parts of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Andhra on the eastern side and in Sri Lanka…..not known to visit Gujarat!
We, humans, created the boundaries and states, and I know that the birds do not care about geographical or political boundaries, and the Orange Headed Thrush, will not be able to differentiate between Gujarat and Maharashtra; but I would definitely like to believe it had made an exception and decided to bless me with a “special guest appearance” in my backyard, that too only on May 20th, 2016. I guess he called his trip off the next day since it was nowhere to be seen. Enjoy my video here.
My heartfelt, sincere, and special “THANK YOU ” to the CEC BNHS team, much obliged!
A passing suggestion...click here to witness my collection of thrushes...stand by for blogs on them.
Food for thought: Can we human beings forego all the boundaries…..just like these birds do……life will be so simple, non-competitive, clean and innocent!
P.S. And I haven’t seen it in my backyard, since that day!