A woodpecker trying to be a toucan

It was one of those usual vacation mornings when I start my not-so-early morning walk along the long corridor in my home at Piparwar. While walking, I had made it almost a habit to peer out of a window which is at the one end of the corridor. The window commands a serene view to a row of trees among which some are guava trees, a couple of papaya trees, a few young banana trees, and a solitary meetha neem standing at the far end in corner. The whole area being green and leafy (and seasonally laden with fruits) naturally attracts a number of birds, so among other species it is quite common to point out fluffed-up House Sparrows perching on a branch in cold mornings, Red-vented Bulbuls chasing each other from one tree to another, Pied Starling hopping from branch to branch, or Tailorbirds pecking at backside of leaves, most likely at butterflies’ eggs, thereby perforating many leaves of the guava trees. Although, common birds apart, I’d been quite keen to get a glimpse of a ‘woodpecker’ that happens to visit guava trees often as my mum mentioned to me a few days ago. So, just like any other day, after walking a while, I stopped near the window to stare out at the trees to find out if anything was out of ordinary. While, everything was calm, a twig in a guava tree continuously kept quivering. As I was pondering over this, a Pied Starling landed in a branch near the window. Now, I had never seen a Pied Starling so closely, so I diverted my attention to it, wondering all the while on how the twig was quivering when there was no breeze at the moment and also, no bird was visible. As the Pied Starling departed, I looked back at the twig again by lowering myself a little to get a clear view… and lo and behold! In front of my eyes, there was a bright green bird beautifully merging with its background of leafy foliage of the guava tree. The Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) was busily pecking at a half-eaten guava when it noticed my surprised stare, got surprised itself and hastily flew away. After waiting a few moments, it returned back to the tree finding the coast clear. This time I made sure to stay still and minutely observed the bird: a stout bill, a red patch on forehead, two light-yellowish strips above and below eyes. I enjoyed watching it as it heartily pecked at its breakfast fruit for some time after which it departed to handle its other bird-ly business.

In this way, the ‘woodpecker mystery’ was solved. And, mum was right after all, because what are barbets but “… woodpeckers that are trying to become toucans”, as Douglas Dewar has so aptly described them in his book, The Birds of India Hills.