The Sri Lankan Crimson-backed Flameback woodpecker
May 31st, 2009
I’ve always loved woodpeckers, must be that childhood influence of Woody Woodpecker cartoons, so my childlike delight on coming across this fine specimen of a Crimson-Backed Flameback at office when I just happened to have my camera was quite understandable. The jungles of Malabe do have the advantage of having a lot of bird life.
It was quite interesting how I saw this one. I was just at this desk and looked up, out the window, and it occurred to me that that dark lump in the tree was something that wasn’t there before. I took a closer look, and viola, Flameback. Luckily my office colleagues are used to me running around with a camera, so no one looked twice as I grabbed the cam and ran out to the balcony.
Quite interesting fellows these. They specially look like Woody coz of the gorgeous red plume of feathers on their heads. This ones plume is quite muted, makes me think its not quite a mature specimen. Possibly an immature male or a female, judging but the wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_flameback. (That article features a picture of the only other time I saw a Flameback. Crappy picture of one on my back wall years ago with a really old fuji digicam. But you can clearly see the spectacular plume of red feathers on that ones head). As noted in the article, it supports itself on its tail feathers, behavior which can be seen in the picture below.
Now the technical details, the Sri Lankan Crimson-backed Flameback (Chrysocolaptes lucidus stricklandi) is sometimes considered a Greater Flameback subspecies, sometimes considered a distinct species. Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flameback for a description of the genus. Personally, I prefer the distinct species theory. Gives us another endemic bird :) And actually, it does have marked differences to the Indian Greater Flamebacks.
Red-Wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) Juvenile – By Prasad Hapuarachchi
May 7th, 2009
On the 7th day of May 2009, I was on my way to office. From Parliamentary junction in Kotte, the Capitol City, I sometimes used to take a by-road omitting the main road for convenience. On top of that I really enjoy the ride through the area rich in bio diversity on the right-hand side of the Diyawanna brook. I was about 200 meters to the main road of Baddegana when I saw couple of Red-wattled Lapwings and Purple Coots where I was able to take some nice shots. Being a bare land the shot was not interrupted by bushes or shrubs. Unfortunately though, I did not have my zoom lens, and that was a real unfortunate situation. In disappointed frame of mind I drove my car to the bare land somewhat close to these lovely birds. Suddenly i noticed three Red-wattled Lapwing chicks enjoying the morning sunlight running here and there. The mother caught attention of my presence, and was looking at the car. But after few minutes every thing was back to normal and the chicks started walking here and there attacking the insects on the small bushes. I held my breath when I noticed one of them coming towards my car.
With the minimum resources I started clicking. The lens I had was 18-135mm Nikon and it was zoomed to its maximum, which was not enough. It came close but it was not close enough to my vehicle to get a good close shot. Considering this I decided to get down from the car and got closer to them slowly. Now the other two chicks are around 60 meters away and I noticed they were feeding themselves busily. Slowly got down from the car and didn’t even close the door since it would distract them. I was talking to my self in side my mind “Idiot don’t hurry yourself. Be slow, be slow..” because I knew how hard it was to get these chicks on the frame and they would disappear with one single sound from Mother. Noticing the two young chicks, I put my step down and Holy God, the Mother started shouting like nothing and both of them were gone just like that. Targeting where they were I slowly slowly step towards to them. Because it was fully muddy the color of the chick were not a big difference. I was afraid, if I step on top of them that I will never forgive myself. Reached the point where they were and I searched around gently. After five to ten minutes time I saw these cute little two fellows lying down under a small bush, not even 5 inches tall.
Slowly I bent down and I took some shots. Then I took one fellow on my palm and he jumped out off and start an Olympic run while other fellow hid its head further into the bush. But his back was fully noticeable! I let the first fellow to run its marathon and took the second one very gently.
May be it was content with me or it was too lethargic to make the run. I took some shots of it getting the little fellow on my palm. After six to seven shots I gently kept him on the ground.
There it goes…. he too started its Olympic marathon and ran away from me. I got into my car with heavy muddy shoos but spent more time looking at the three chicks getting close to their parents on the mother’s signals. The two very obedient little fellows soon joined with their parents and resumed the joy of attacking insects on the bushes.
They became my models today and I was happy clicking on those little chicks. While I got in to the car I said to myself …” Sorry for the inconvenience little fellows, and thank you for the shoot…”
