A Fairy Green Beauty with Brown Top

Description:

Binomial name - Megalaima zeylanica Common name - brown­headed barbet Photographing birds in Nature is the art of capturing birds when they are at their most spectacular. Bird photography is regarded by many as the most challenging branch of wildlife photography. With the right techniques and equipment your hit rate for shots can be dramatically improved. Today, I got some new pictures of Brown Headed Barbet when I got the chance to spend some time with two of them. At the end of March, we can find most of birds in pairs and same is true for Brown Headed Barbet. From the morning, I was listening calls of Brown Headed Barbets so I followed these calls at and got some new shots. This time, it looked that Brown headed Barbet has no objection to my presence and I got some wonderful shots. I wish that this breeding season goes well for the Brown Headed Barbet and we see a new generation of them. I was trying to get close to these birds from last three months and today was my lucky day. The brown¬headed barbetnor large green barbet (Megalaima zeylanica) is an Asian barbet. Barbets and toucans are a group of near passerine birds with a worldwide tropical distribution. The barbets get their name from the bristles which fringe their heavy bills. The brown¬headed barbet is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent, widespread in India and also seen in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is an arboreal species of gardens and wooded country which eats fruit and insects. Nonetheless, it is fairly tolerant of humans and is often seen in cities, in greenery. It nests in a tree hole. The bird is largely frugivorous on mangos, ripe jack, papaya, banana, figs and similar cultivated fruit trees. Its habitat includes urban and country gardens though it tends to eschew heavy forest. It nests in a suitable hole in a tree that it will often excavate out, not unlike a woodpecker. A pair will take it in turns to incubate the eggs and they often communicate with each other using their kutroo…kutroo…kutroo calls. This is a relatively large barbet at 27 cm. It is a plump bird, with a short neck, large head and short tail. The adult has a streaked brown head, neck and breast, with a yellow eye patch. The rest of the plumage is green. The bill is thick and red. Sexes are similar. The white¬ cheeked barbet largely replaces this species in the Western Ghats and hilly parts of southern peninsular India although both species may occur in many places. The calls of this species are similar but the white cheek patch is distinctive. The call is a repetitive kutroo…kutroo…kutroo. Others take up the call when one starts. Somewhat silent in the winter.