Cousin of the Seven Sisters

It’s been almost an year since I came to the southern part of India for my higher studies. To say that I was hopeful about birdwatching in southern India would be a complete understatement. I was looking forward with great enthusiasm to experience birdwatching in a very different region compared to that of my hometown. But, when I actually settled down here and started to notice birds around my university campus which is a well-wooded area, I hardly noticed anything different than mere sight of rude House Crows and the ubiquitous Mynahs of varying species. For several weeks I kept my eyes and ears attentive while going around campus hoping to come across something new. While, I could hear call of birds that I could assure I had never listened before, those birds hardly ever cared to come out of the dense foliage of trees. One call in general grabbed my attention quite often and I tried to find its source for several days. It was similar to an incessant squeak, a chatter of a thousand words. Sometimes, it was near any tree I used to walk by, sometimes it used to be faraway, but I could listen it all the same and I felt positive I had not heard it ever before. As it is, when you hear the same bird call around you for several days, sooner or later it shows up in front of you at one place or another. As it happened, one day when I was walking back through a wooded lane to my hostel campus, I noticed a surprisingly unafraid and strangely curious bird hopping from one branch of an almond tree (Terminalia catappa) to another: a grey-ish brown bird with bushy tail and pale blue eyes. As I was staring at the curious fellow, one by one a whole group appeared out of the dense foliage of trees with great squeaking commotion. And, their high-pitched chatter filled the evening air around me. Hopping from one branch to another, and from tree to tree, their commotion was a great deal to be noticed, and yet as I stopped and stared at those birds with wild amazement, I realised how ignorant people were around me as they moved on without caring to spare even a single glance at those birds that were creating such a great noise all around. I did enjoy watching a new bird species, but at that time somehow it slipped my mind to find out about them which is very awkward considering how much I was looking forward to spot a different bird in a region that was new to me. But, it’s no strange thing to wonder now that I look back considering the ever crazy study affairs at university. I became one of those blind and deaf folks who never noticed those birds until a few days ago…

I was standing near a champa tree, thickly surrounded with lantana bushes and shrubberies of various kinds, when I heard the same squeaks and chatters again. Then, out of the blue, a group of birds appeared around me and landed on the champa tree. While a few sat on the tree and chattered from above, some birds came down to the ground and pecked at those invisible things that are only visible to birds. I tried to do a quick math and counted them because I had my own doubts about the species and I knew they would be flitting away in haste just as they had appeared around me. One, two, three, four… seven. And, then I thought that I knew them. I was quite positive that they were seven sisters (or saat bhai in Hindi) also known as Jungle Babbler  (Turdoides striata). But, their eye color bothered me because they looked so out of the place and different than what I had seen in internet while researching (yes, I did look up those birds when I finally got time). Later that day, I tried to find out more about Jungle Babbler, and discovered that they have a close relative too, Yellow-billed Babbler or White-headed Babbler (Turdoides affinis) ¹, that look quite similar to them but their eye color distinguishes them with their cousin. Indeed, when you read and research more and more about birds, you find out that there are so many species of birds that look very much alike but are completely different species to begin with. It’d the color of crown, or a pattern in neck or tail etc. And, in my case, those blue eyes made all the difference.

And, therefore, all doubts were finally cleared. Relative of Jungle Babbler or not, a babbler is a babbler and those Yellow-billed Babblers still babble as they appear and disappear in the trees around my campus without being noticed by ignorant masses, and indeed caring least about it. And, even if I hadn’t identified them (which wasn’t so difficult after all now that I think of it because they are endemic to southern India and I could have found out all about them in Wikipedia itself) I care in the least. I still watch them with as much interest when they appear around me out of nowhere as if I’m seeing them for the first time or when they babble behind leafy trees I still listen to their squeaking babbles for some time before moving on.

(Read more about Yellow-billed Babbler on Wikipedia)