Kovaiviji

BROWN BREASTED FLYCATCHER.

On 27/12/2015, we made a birding trip to Nellithurai and Kallar near Mettupalayam which are reserve forests of Nilgiri. Both the places are thickly wooded with a decent population of all wild animals, birds and other flora and founa. A fair amount of agriculture is also going on in those places with the main crop being aricanut otherwise called as betel nuts. With rich source of Bhavani river, some even grow banana.

As usual, we had to look at the high trees with thick foliage and the tiny birds of these areas love to hide behind the leaves, occasionally giving a small peep or a burst flight to the next tree making difficult to see them. It is very difficult to identify these small birds as they appear only for seconds and all small details cannot be noticed at one go. Taking photograph is also very difficult.

As we were walking towards the river, we watched a small bird and it looked a familiar and some even identified as Asian Brown Fly catcher. As I was not having my binoculars with me, I looked the bird through my High zoom camera and also took 2-3 photographs with great amount of difficulty. As mine is not a SLR and I usually put the lens under auto mode, the camera struggles to focus the object. Something in me told that the bird was not Asian Brown Flycatcher. I asked my daughter to see the tail whether it looks rusty expecting it to be a Rusty tailed Flycatcher which inclines to such a dense and cooler place like this. However, this could not be confirmed due to the bird’s movement and we had to move on to the next spot.

As we travelled a good distance I was very tired in that evening and could not load the photos in my computer. Only the next day I was able to load and as usual, I sent some of my clear shots to the birding friends and after some time I got a reply that the bird I have photographed is Brown breasted Flycatcher.

Asian Brown Flycatcher is residential migratory bird from the North visiting Cooler places of South during the winter. Similarly Brown breasted Flycatcher and Rusty tailed Flycatcher also migrate to the cooler Western ghat regions during the heavy winter of the North.

It is now to debate whether taking field notes as in the past is enough or taking photos is also an additional advantage. During Salim Ali’s days it was not difficult to catch the bird as the population was dense in most of the cases and to leisurely identify the bird. But with dwindling population of the birds and with amateurism in the birding which is a necessary evil in studying of the birds, definitely photographs help to identify the birds as always the birds cannot be identified with poor lighting or appearance due to distance or time.

Now that I am able to differentiate the Brown breasted Flycatcher with the Asian Brown Flycatcher and the rusty tailed as the name suggests, the differences are that the former has fairly paler legs and a prominent eye ring with bigger eyeball and a long slender beak. The lower mandible of the beak is also pale while in the case of the Asian and Rusty tailed Flycatchers the beaks are short and flat with pale at the base. The eye ring is also not as conspicuous as that of Brown breasted Flycatcher. The legs are also black for the Asian Brown Flycatcher and the rusty tailed.

I am posting some photos of the birds and you can also differentiate when you have the chance to see them in the wild.

Asian Brown Flycatcher