3rd April: This Oriental pied hornbill managed to get and kill a bat but was not sure what to do with it. It spent about 5 mins spinning it around, tossing it in the air before finally giving up and flying off.

The Velvet Fronted Nuthatch, Male
Try Viewing it in Full Screen
at Jungle View Homestay
@ Coonoor, Nilgiris Dist
Tamil Nadu, India
19 June 2022

Sony a7riv with Sony 600mm f4 Lens

The Velvet Fronted Nuthatch is quite a colorful violet-blue bird and has the typical nuthatch shape, short tail and powerful bill and feet. It is about 13 cm long. It is violet-blue above, with lavender cheeks, beige underparts, yellow eyes, and a whitish throat. The iris is distinctly pale and yellow. The bill is red, and there is a black patch on the forehead and lores which is well developed in adults and less so in younger birds. Young birds have a dark beak and dark tips to the undertail coverts. Adult males can be told apart by the black superciliary stripe that runs above the eye and over the head, towards the nape. The Females lack the supercilium and have a warmer underpart colour. Juveniles are duller versions of the adult lacking the black frontal band. There populations differ in shade and size and the distribution of white on the throat.

Just as do all the other Nuthatches, their strongly clawed toes allow them to climb down tree trunks or move on the undersides of horizontal branches. They possesses the agility to climb face-first down and around tree trunks and branches; unlike bird species, such as woodpeckers, which can only go upwards. They feed on insects in the bark of trees, foraging on the trunks and branches. They also waits for insects in front of the trunks while performing active wing-flapping.

Velvet-fronted Nuthatch frequents several types of forests such as tropical and wet forests, evergreen, deciduous, pine and mixed forests, bamboo jungles, various plantations and mature mangroves. It usually prefers more open types than closed-canopy forests. This species may be seen mainly at low elevation, but also from plains up to 1500 to 2200 mtrs according to the range. They are found in forests with good tree cover and are often found along with other species. They have a rapid chipping call note. They breed in tree cavities and holes, often created by woodpeckers or barbets.

sonya7riv

sonya7r4

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©williamwisephoto.com Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. Sunday, April 16, 2023.

• Location: Minnie's Lake; N30.86442° W82.31940°
• Cloudy with high 83, low 52.
• Sunrise 7:00 AM; Sunset 7:58 PM
• Daylight hours: 12 hours 57 minute (+1m 48s)

See and learn more about the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge on my blog at www.okefenokee.photography