The Indian Peafowl

 

 

The Indian Peafowl or Blue Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is a large and brightly coloured bird of the pheasant family native to South Asia, but introduced and semi-feral in many other parts of the world. The species was first named and described by Linnaeus in 1758. The name Pavo cristatus is still in use now. The male peacock is predominantly blue with a fan-like crest of spatula-tipped wire-like feathers and is best known for the long train made up of elongated upper-tail covert feathers which bear colourful eyespots. These stiff and elongated feathers are raised into a fan and quivered in a display during courtship. The female lacks the train, has a greenish lower neck and a duller brown plumage. The Indian Peafowl is found mainly on the ground in open forest or on land under cultivation where they forage for berries, grains but will also prey on snakes, lizards, and small rodents. Their loud calls make them easy to detect, and in forest areas often indicate the presence of a predator such as a tiger. They forage on the ground in small groups and will usually try to escape on foot through undergrowth and avoid flying, though they will fly into tall trees to roost. The bird is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology and is the national bird of India. The Indian Peafowl is listed as of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

This is my very first set of wild life pictures. The average or low quality of the pictures indicates my lack of experience and photographic skills. I need and Hope to improve on that.

I found these Peafowls in a rubber plantation near Mangalam Dam in Palakkad district. I could not get any closer and hence the lack of details. And some of the images are a bit out of focus.

The local people say that the number of these birds and wild life in general has increased considerably over the past two years due to some tightened law enforcement practices by the forest and wild life department. Glad about that and being able to bring these images to you at least in this standard to begin with.

  The Red-whiskered Bulbul

 

 

 The Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) is a passerine bird found in Asia. It is a member of the bulbul family. It is found mainly in tropical Asia. It has been introduced in many tropical areas of the world where populations have established themselves. It feeds on fruits and small insects and they conspicuously perch on trees and their calls are a loud three or four note call. The distinctive crest and the red-vent and whiskers makes them easy to identify. They are very common in hill forests and urban gardens within its range.

The Red-whiskered Bulbul was one of the many species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in his Systema Naturae.

It is one of the regular visitors of my backyard. This time he met with my son up close.

 

 The White-throated Kingfisher

The White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) also known as the White-breasted Kingfisher or Smyrna Kingfisher, is a tree kingfisher widely distributed in Eurasia from Bulgaria,Turkey, West Asia east through the Indian Subcontinent to the Philippines. This kingfisher is a resident over much of its range, although some populations may make short distance movements. It can often be found well away from water where it feeds on a wide range of prey that includes small reptiles, amphibians, crabs, small rodents and even birds. During the breeding season they call loudly in the mornings from prominent perches including the tops of buildings in urban areas or on wires.

Another regular visitor of my backyard looking for food. All these images were shot with a Nikon attached with a 300 mm lens at which focal length the sharpness is reduced considerably. Still they are sharp enough to watch and enjoy.

 

Ecdysis in cockroach

Ecdysis is the moulting or periodic loss of the outer cuticle of arthropods.It is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed The remnants of the old, empty exoskeleton are called exuviae.

After moulting, an arthropod is described as teneral, a callow; it is "fresh", pale and soft-bodied. Within one or two hours, the cuticle hardens and darkens following a tanning process similar to that of the tanning of leather. It is during this short phase that the animal expands, since growth is otherwise constrained by the rigidity of the exoskeleton. Growth of the limbs and other parts normally covered by hard exoskeleton is achieved by transfer of body fluids from soft parts before the new skin hardens. Some arthropods however, especially large insects with tracheal respiration, expand their new exoskeleton by swallowing or otherwise taking in air. The maturation of the structure and colouration of the new exoskeleton might take days or weeks in a long-lived insect; this can raise problems in trying to identify the species when a specimen has just recently undergone ecdysis.

Ecdysis may also enable damaged tissue and missing limbs to be regenerated or substantially re-formed, although this may only be complete over a series of moults, the stump being a little larger with each moult until it is of normal, or near normal size again.

I just could not get any pictures of the earlier stages though. When I saw it at night, the process was almost finished and it did not move during the 20 to 30 minutes of my taking pictures with flash.