{"id":15913,"date":"2018-04-06T12:25:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T12:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/?p=15913"},"modified":"2018-04-06T12:25:51","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T12:25:51","slug":"birding-at-leopard-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/birding-at-leopard-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Birding at Leopard Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>We were staying at the Singinawa Jungle Lodge at Kanha during my winter vacations. I am really fond of birding and wildlife, and so we would either go for safaris or for birding outside the resort every morning. The resort is also spread out over a large area, and has many species of birds visiting here. Our naturalist had told us about one particular spot called Leopard Rock, which overlooked a large Ficus tree, commonly called Water Fig or River Fig. This tree was fruiting and was attracting many birds while we were there. I love forest birds and got very excited at the prospect of getting to observe and click some of these birds while they were feeding.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>We walked down to the tree and sat down on the Leopard Rock. It got its name because someone had spotted a Leopard on the rock long back. Slowly, the birds started coming to the tree. Coppersmith Barbets were the first ones. The barbet makes a sound like a coppersmith working on copper, which is how it gets the name. Like all barbets, it chisels and hole in a tree to make a nest.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/img_0668.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0668.JPG\" \/>\n<figcaption style=\"text-align:center; font-weight:600\">Coppersmith Barbet<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<p>We also saw two flowerpeckers, the Pale-billed and the Thick-billed. The Pale-billed Flowerpecker is only 8 cm long and is the smallest bird in India. The Thick-billed Flowerpecker is a bit longer, may be about 10 cm. Both the flowerpeckers feed on fruits, nectar and insects. It was fascinating to see the Pale-billed Flowerpecker hanging upside down while feeding. Both the flowerpeckers can be differentiated by their beak. The Pale-billed Flowerpecker has a pinkish, curved beak and the Thick-billed Flowerpecker has a thick, grey beak.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/img_0637.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0637\" \/>\n<figcaption style=\"text-align:center; font-weight:600\">Pale-billed Flowerpecker<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/img_0649.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0649\" \/>\n<figcaption style=\"text-align:center; font-weight:600\">Thick-billed Flowerpecker<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<p>While we were observing the flowerpeckers, I suddenly saw a flash of red and orange and noticed that a minivet had come too. We identified it as a Small Minivet, but it is also called Lesser or Fiery Minivet. It primarily feeds on insects and larvae. Even though I have seen this particular bird before, I still get fascinated with its bright colours.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.files.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/img_0642.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0642\" \/>\n<figcaption style=\"text-align:center; font-weight:600\">Small Minivet (male)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Slowly, the birds were getting used to our presence and started coming closer to us. Suddenly a Shikra swooped into the tree and spoilt the party, both for the birds and for us. The Shikra is a medium-sized raptor that preys on small mammals, birds and reptiles. Just as it approached the tree, all the birds on that tree flew away in an instant.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>We waited for some time, hoping for the birds to come back. But, unfortunately, they didn\u2019t. Though we were disappointed, we really couldn&#8217;t complain, as we had got to see many forest birds very closely for a long time and I had managed to get some really nice pictures of them as well.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Arnav Bajoria, 14 years old<br \/>(Guest at Singinawa Jungle Lodge)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We were staying at the Singinawa Jungle Lodge at Kanha during my winter vacations. I am really fond of birding and wildlife, and so&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds-of-kanha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}