Saturday, March 2, 2013

Birding at Bangalore Infosys Campus

We have been having regular nature walks in our Bangalore campus to list out the birds. As this was a winter we took time out of our regular work and went for walks. And we also kept an eye if there was any interesting sighting during other times. My other colleagues who are actively involved are

1. Ajit A
2. N Nagaraj
3. Srinivas Dhulipala
4. Raghavendra S N
5. Prashant M

Thanks to everyones(including few others from Infosys) effort we have identified around 52 bird species in our campus till now. Even today I found couple of new birds(Grey Bellied Cuckoo and Verditer Flycatcher) which were never reported till now.

We have huge roosting of Jungle Mynas and Common Mynas. Loud noises could be heard in the evenings everywhere. Even Rosy Starlings and Grey Headed Starlings roost in our campus during winters. They can be seen in 100's. There is a small roosting group of Night Herons, its a group of 5. Another roosting bird species is Red Whiskered Bulbuls. We rarely see Red Vented Bulbul in our campus.

With the onset of winter we can hear Warblers everywhere. We still haven't identified all the warbler species in our campus. We ourselves are still trying to learn.

The other common species of birds are White Browed Wagtails, Common Tailor Birds, White Cheeked Barbets, Prinias, Flowerpeckers, Black Kites, Rock Pigeons and Asian Koels. Most of these birds nest inside our campus and recently we have seen White Browed Wagtail getting their young ones and feeding them on the green lawns across the campus.

Today(Saturday) morning I went to campus since it would be comparitively less crowded. The idea was to photograph the common species birds for which we did not have good photographs but ended up spending time with birds which I were seen for the first time in our campus. The Blue-Capped Rock Thrush was identified by Ajit quite sometime back. I along with Srini and Raghu made lot of effort to see this fellow again but in vain. Only once we spotted him but it was too dark to identify any of its features.

Today the other new species which I spotted were Verditer Flycatcher and Grey-Bellied Cuckoo. I was looking at the Thrush and from no where the Verditer flycatcher flew acroos the thrush. I was very lucky to see him. I was lucky to spot Cuckoo too. It was hiding in big trees and when I was trying to spot Bulbuls I came across the Cuckoo. It was beautiful.


It's amazing to take a walk in the campus either in mornings or evenings and hear all these beautiful sounds.

We still believe there are many more bird species in our campus which needs to looked upon and document the same.

The amount of effort put in by the Infosys organisation to create such a great environment for employees to work is worth noting. The same can be said about other Infosys campus across India. Amazing commitment.

List of Birds seen in campus till now.

1. Purple Sunbird
2. Purple Rumped Sunbird
3. Loten's Sunbird
4. Common Myna
5. Jungle Myna
6. Common Crow
7. Jungle Crow
8. Rosy Starling
9. Grey Headed Starling
10. Rose Ringed Parakeet
11. Indian Robin
12. Pied Bushchat
13. Tickell's Flowerpecker
14. White Browed Wagtail
15. Grey Wagtail
16. Ashy Prinia
17. Common Tailorbird
18. Spotted Owl
19. Red Whiskered Bulbul
20. Red Vented Bulbul
21. Black Drongo
22. Ashy Drongo
23. Little Egret
24. White Breasted Waterhen
25. Indian Cormorant
26. Indian Roller
27. Asian Koel
28. Greater Coucal
29. Scaly Breasted Munia
30. Oriental White Eye
31. White Cheeked Barbet
32. Coppersmith Barbet
33. Golden Oriole
34. Great Tit
35. Rock Pigeon
36. Spotted Dove
37. Black Kite
38. Brahminy Kite
39. Shikra
40. Kestrel
41. Blyth's Reed Warbler
42. Greenish Leaf warbler
43. Scop's Owl
44. Indian Nightjar
45. Indian Pitta
46. Blue-Capped Rock Thrush
47. Verditer Flycatcher
48. Grey-Bellied Cuckoo
49. Barn Swallow
50. White Throated Kingfisher
51. Small Blue Kingfisher
52. Pond Heron
53. Night Heron
54. Tickell's Leaf Warbler
55. Cattle Egret

Grey Bellied Cuckoo

Id Please?

Purple Rumped Sunbird

Cormorant


Black Kite


Blue Capped Rock Thrush

Little Egret

Common Tailorbird

Loten's Sunbird


White Cheeked Barbet


Rose Ringed Parakeet


Verditer Flycatcher

Grey Drongo

ID Please?


White Browed Wagtail(Juvenile)




Tickell's Leaf Warbler

Red Whiskered Bulbul

Grey-Bellied Cuckoo

Rock Pigeon



Saturday, February 16, 2013

Birding in Shivanahalli

Birding in Shivanahalli was a long time dream for me. I had seen different blogs and bngbirds group visiting this place and mentioning how pristine it is there. I had also heard from friend the good work being done by the Ramakrishna mission in the area.

This Sunday we planned to visit this place. Initially 5 of us wanted to go there but only 3 of us managed to go there. Thanks to Deepa from BngBirds group for helping me getting the permission from the swamy who is managing the mission. And I'm grateful to Swamy for giving us the permission to enter the campus.

The entire campus is very very beautiful. Swamy has put so much effort to get the trees from different places in India and planting them here. Also the school being run by the mission is very very good. The personal attention being given to each kid is something which most of the big schools would not be able to match. The kids seemed to enjoy the classes.

We started very early in the morning and reached the place by 6:30AM. Swamy arranged for a tea for us. He is also very knowledgable person who could tell scientific names of most of the trees without thinking twice.

After meeting the Swamy and having the tea we entered the park area. It was very beautiful. The first bird that we saw was a Veriditer Flycatcher and then the second sighting was Asian Paradise Flycatcher male(Rufous). It was an amazing sight. We got some photos but not good. This was my first sighting of a male APFC. APFC in flight is something I will cherish my entire life. Its like someone is running a ribbon in the air. Very beautiful.

After spending sometime with APFC we proceeded to see more birds. Our next sighting was a bunch of Whiteeyes. This time the birds were all around us. We were mobbed by atleast 30-40 whiteyes. After this, my next sighting was Gold Fronted Leafbirds. They were bunch of them feeding on small fruits. They were spending time in company with orioles and sunbirds. This was my first sighting of Leaf Birds.

After this we saw different flycatchers, Ioras, drongos, Grey Hornbills, bulbuls and other birds. I was able to see white APFC and female too. All in all an amazing trip.

At the end of the trip we visited the lab maintained there and they have a collection of different butterflies. Started back at around 2:30PM.

Asian Paradise Flycatcher Male(Rufous)

Golden Oriole(Male)


Gold Fronted Leaf Bird(Male)

Golden Oriole(Female)



Gold Fronted Leaf Bird(Female)

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Grey Hornbill

Coppersmith Barbet

Asian Brown Flycatcher


Purple Sunbird


Common Iora

Tawny Bellied Babbler


White Cheeked Barbet

APFC(Female)

Oriental Honey Buzzard











Black Headed Cuckoo Shrike(Male)

Plain Tiger

Oriental Whiteye

White Browed Fantail