1. What is the coolest bird you have seen from your home?
Without any doubt, Yellow-Cheeked Tit. The first time I spotted a pair, it was the end of March, 2009. For a year, they visited our balcony everyday, without gap of a single day. However, recently they aren’t visiting us, yet every now and then, we do spot them flitting, and tweeting around in our vicinity. Anyway, they were the best bird I ever saw from my home and they are one of the major reasons why I started birdwatching seriously.
2. If you compose lists of bird species seen, what is your favorite list and why?
As it hasn’t been a long time since I started birdwatching I don’t have many lists. However, this list is very special to me because for the first time I succeeded to spot so many wonderful species while traveling.
3. What sparked your interest in birds?
There was a pair of House Sparrow that used to visit us when we lived in a small town, Piparwar. They loved pecking the mirror we hung beside a window. I remember them visiting us early in the morning and pecking the window intermittently, requesting us to open it so that they could get in and play with the hanging mirror. We used to put rice and such in the slab attached to the mirror too. I loved observing them a lot! Their memories are still fresh in my mind and they’re the most significant reason why I love birds so dearly. Years passed by and affection started to collect dust as those chirpy birds disappeared from the scene of my life. However, things changed when about two year ago a pair of House Sparrow visited our balcony where I live now. My affection stirred up and I was instantly reminded of those birds who I used to love so much.
4. If you could only bird in one place for the rest of your life where would it be and why?
It’s really hard to pick a specific place, but I guess, that’d be Australia or New Zealand because the birds found there are no where to be found , in wild. I’d love to see Galahs, Kookaburra, Lyrebird, etc. I know I may find them in captivity in other places, but observing them in nature, in wild, would be much more fun and sensational.
5. Do you have a jinx bird (rare, doesn’t show up)? What is it and why is it jinxed?
Well, there is such a bird that, no matter how much I want to show up, never really appears though we hear its call in spring every year. I’ve seen it only once and that was an enchantingly dreamy moment: a beautiful golden-bird perching in a mango tree, singing lightheartedly under the afternoon sun with notes of crisp breeze merged in with drone of city faraway. It was similar to that of Ash’s experiences of observing a legendary bird before he begins his journey to a new region (sorry for pulling Pokemon here, referencing to childhood obsession is just so cool :P). Well, it was my legendary bird, because slowly but surely I leaned towards birdwatching. About its look, roughly speaking, it’s a yellow bird, almost size of a Greater Coucal, with white streaks in its wings and a broad, black strip in the back. I’m assuming it to be a male Common Iora, but I’ll not know for sure until it appears again. Let’s hope!
6. Who is your favorite birder? and why?
Salim Ali (The Birdman of India), there’s no double opinion. I’ve read his autobiography, and reading his utter devotion towards observing, researching, and working for protection and welfare of Indian-subcontinent birds is heart-capturing. There can’t be another birder in the world who I’d admire more than Late Dr. Salim Ali ever. Here’s an excerpt from his book that pretty much sums up his feelings for birds (and, mine too):
‘Bird-watching provided the excuse for removing myself to where every prospect pleases — up in the mountains or deep in the jungles— away from the noisy rough and tumble of the dubious civilization of this mechanical high speed age. A form of escapism, maybe, but one that hardly needs justification.’
P.S This post was sitting as a draft in my account for almost an year! I’m glad I finally completed this meme!