Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Bird Watching - Red Whiskered Bullbul

Red Whiskered Bullbul



Red whiskered Bullbul is a medium size song bird. It has brown upper-parts and whitish underparts with buff flanks and a dark spur running onto the breast at shoulder level. It has a tall pointed black crest, red face patch and thin black moustachial line. The tail is long and brown with white terminal feather tips, but the vent area is red. Juveniles lack the red patch behind the eye, and the vent area is rufous-orange.

Local Names: Kamera Bullbul (Hindi)
                    Irattathalachi , Thoppikili (Malayalam)



The red whisker mark, from which it gets its name, is located below the eye, but is not always easy to see. 
This is a bird of lightly wooded areas, more open country with bushes and shrubs, and farmland. 
Their main diet consists of various fruits, as well as nectar and insects.


The nest is cup-shaped, and is built on bushes, thatched walls or small trees. It is woven of fine twigs, roots, and grasses, and embellished with large objects such as bark strips, paper, or plastic bags.
Clutches typically contain two to three eggs. The eggs have a pale mauve ground colour with speckles becoming blotches towards the broad end. Both parents raise the young, feeding them and protecting them. They usually only breed once a year.




The word bullbul may have come from a Turkish or Persian word for nightingale.
The other Bullbul from the same family is Red-Vented bullbul

References
The Book of Indian Birds (Salim Ali)
Wikipedia
birdsinbackyards.net

Pictures:
Bangalore ( 2019)



No comments:

Post a Comment