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The bird that made a big splash

I am currently in New Delhi, staying where I always stay, in my parents' old house where I spent a large part of my youth. At the request of a friend I photographed the inside and outside of my home and posted some of the pictures on Facebook as three albums showing different parts of the house.

It is nearly the end of winter in India; spring is just a few weeks away. Delhi is full of migratory birds as well as those that live here year round. Many of these birds congregate in the backyard of our house throughout the day, partly because of the grains of rice, crumbs of bread and a clay pot of fresh water to be found there. So far I have caught sight of parrots, nightingales, magpies, doves, crows, sparrows and one  species of song bird that I did not recognize. Yesterday afternoon I took my camera to the backyard. After exercising considerable stealth and patience and working around a bright sun, tree branches and skittish birds, I managed to capture some decent shots of the avian visitors. (There were many more blurred shots than pictures in focus) Most of the photos of the Delhi home created some interest on my Facebook pages but the "Birds in the Backyard" collection is the biggest hit by far.

One photo in particular has garnered a lot of admiration. It shows the unnamed "songbird" I mentioned earlier (I have now been told it is an oriental magpie robin) – an unusually friendly bird in a pensive mood and strategically framed. The most common comment that viewers have made about the photo is that it looks like a painting, a Japanese painting in particular. It is true – I thought the same when I saw the photo I had managed to snap – a lucky shot of "life imitating art."

Unknown song bird 001

 

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4 responses to “The bird that made a big splash”

  1. Dean C. Rowan

    My response precisely. In fact, I wondered why you’d posted about a photo, but included a print for the image! Examples here and here of (faux-)Japanese prints.

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  2. Sujatha

    Did you get to hear it sing? It seems to be a wonderful songbird, as well:
    http://youtu.be/r1uE6ZjwVkw
    for a sample of its singing.

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  3. Ruchira

    Sujatha, I did hear the bird ( and others like it) sing. That’s the reason I called it a songbird even when I did not recognize it. I said that the bird was extremely friendly. I did not mention that after the photography session, it followed me into the house. Hopping behind me, it had nearly reached the kitchen door when I noticed. We gently chased it away and closed the glass door of the back veranda. It would have been traumatic for the robin to get into one of the rooms where it might have felt suddenly trapped.
    Dean, when I get back to Houston, I will compress the photos of the Delhi house and send them to you. They are high resolution pics and very large in size. Facebook and TypePad can handle the image sizes but e-mail programs will militate if I try to send them in their current form. Even for A.B. I reduced it somewhat. I am using an ancient laptop here that moves at the rate of molasses. It is adequate for browsing and posting on blogs but not for photo editing.

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  4. Sujatha

    Ruchira, that’s a delicious tidbit about the bird following you into the house. Maybe it has gotten used to handouts from other households and is semi-domesticated rather than completely wild. Or maybe it knew its value as a photoshoot model and wanted suitable baksheesh ;)

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