Beautiful Birds of Valley School

Heading to my next post, here my focus is mainly on birds, that i was able to capture. Visit this place in the morning or visit in the evening you will always be surprised by what mother nature has to offer, I prefer visiting early in the morning with cool breeze and pleasant sunrise, the place gets Hot!! by 9 or 9.30 and also the bird's activity reduces. If you are looking to spot a Red Ball on fire, that is of course our own Sun, you might have to give a thought of visiting this place in evening, its a pleasant experience to watch the sun go down beneath the trees.

The serene breathtaking walk in the valley is beautiful all during the day.

Anyways coming to our topic - The Birds!!!
I am trying to provide some information about the habitat of these birds, most of these information is from either blogs or Wikipedia, nothing from my own research, thought it would be useful to put some info in here.

Black Hooded Oriole
Habitat: Resident bird in tropical southern Asia, mainly in India Sri Lanka and parts of Indonesia.
Food: Insects, fruits and specially found of Figs

Spotted Owlet
Habitat: Tropical Asia, mainly India and Southeast Asia
Food: Feeds mainly on Rodents, nests near human habitat due to availability of rodents

Shikra - Also known as Little Banded Goshawk
Habitat: Found in Asia and Africa, belongs to Raptors family
Food: Rodents, Squirrels, Small birds, small reptiles and insects

White-Browed Wagtail
 Habitat: Most widely found all over India, near freshwater or wetland habitat constant wagging of the tail give the name wagtail
Food: Caterpillars, spiders and most other insects 

The Indian Grey Hornbill
Habitat: Found from foothills of Himalayas to southern part of the country
Food: Found of Seeds from tree, also known to feed on Insects

Sirkeer Malkoha - Also known as Sirkeer Cuckoo - A Lucky catch
Habitat: Mainly found in India, Srilanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, largely terrestrial, found in Open shrubs and thorny jungle.

Jungle Babbler: Known as "Sath-Bhai" or seven brothers in parts of north India
Habitat: Found in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh mostly in forests and cultivation, likes to socialize and found in group of 7 to 10
Food: Insects, Grains nectar and berries

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher: Named after Samuel Tickell
Habitat: India to southeast asia, found in dense shrubs and forest habitats
Food: Feeds mainly on flying insects and known to hunt even after dusk

Rose Ringed Parakeet enjoying the seeds:
Habitat: Found in Abundance in Asia,  Africa, Europe, USA and in small numbers in Australia
Food: Wild Parakeets are fond of buds, fruits, vegetables, nuts, berries and seeds

Oriental White Eye
Habitat: Resident Breeder in Tropical Asia, India, Malaysia and Indonesia
Food: Nectar and Small insects

Red Whiskered Bul Bul
Habitat:Found Mainly in Tropical Asia
Food: Fruits from trees and small insects

Jerdon's Leaf bird Named after Thomas C Jerdon
Habitat: Woodlands of India and Srilanka
Food:Insect fruits and nectar is amongst the favorite food.

Greenish Warbler
Habitat: Northeastern Europe to Subtropical Asia, migratory bird
Food:Feed mainly on insects and fruits

 Asian Koel - Female
Habitat: Found in woodland and cultivations, resident breeder in tropical southern Asia to south China
Food: Ripe Fruits and berries

Asian Koyal- Male 

Indian Golden Oriole
Habitat: Baluchistan and Afghanistan along the Himalayas to Nepal and throughout India
Food: Feeds on Fruits, Nectar and Insects

White Cheeked Barbet
Habitat: Found in Southern India
Food: Mainly fond of Fruits, but also known to feed on Insects

Small Minivet
Habitat: Mainly found in India
Food: Catches insects on trees and feeds on them

 Purple Sunbird Female
Habitat: West Asia, Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia usually found in thin forest and garden lands
Food:Mainly Nectar from flowers and also feed insects to young ones

 White Browed Fantail
Habitat: Tropical regions of India and Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand Cambodia and Laos
Food: found of Insects

Asian Paradise Flycatcher Female
Habitat: Inhabit thick forests and well-wooded habitats from Turkestan to Manchuria, all over India and Sri Lanka to the Malay Archipelago on the islands of Sumba and Alor
Food:Insectivorous and Hunt in Flight

 Blue Bearded Bee eater
Habitat: Found in Indian and parts of South East Asia in thin to thick forests
Food: Feeds on Insects and Bees in areal combats.

Birding at Valley School

Valley School - Bangalore a Paradise for Bird watchers

A 15-20 minutes drive early in the morning, brings you to a place filled with Tweets obviously not from Twitter but from Birds for real.

I must have visited this place several times and will keep visiting in the future as well, but every time there is something new on offer. 

Oh! by the way this the first time i am ever writing a blog on this so please do bear with my writing. There are many blogs which talk about valley school, and also the resident birds found in there, but i thought to contribute my bit to the community from where i have gained lot of knowledge.

To start with the location: Valley School

Direction: Head down straight from Banashankari Bus stand towards Kanapura, pass through KK cross, Talghatpura and you will come across Nice road Junction, drive straight for about 300 meters and take a right into a small approach road, head 2 Kms straight until you reach the gates of valley school.

Park your vehicle at the gate, no entry beyond this point and also NO ENTRY INTO THE SCHOOL, enter your details at the security and you are good to go.

Walk straight past the gates and head straight

The school boundary is protected by barb wires and do not enter there without permission, walk straight ahead along the road

 

Just to your left you find a big banyan tree rich with delicious fruits, which birds can't resist, you can find lots of Barbets, Minivets and even Flycatchers here, straight ahead you find two more banyan trees

You can spend good amount of time here to capture birds, all you need is keen set of eyes and some patience, from here you have two options

Trail 1: 

Follow the trail ahead towards West and reach an abandoned bungalow from here onwards the trail is very dense with lots of Nilgiri trees on your right, seems like footfall of Jungle.
Follow the foot trails next to the bungalow and head towards south a bit deep into the forest, you will find Asian paradise Flycatchers, sunbirds, Oriental white eyes, flame-back woodpeckers, Golden Orioles and of course the recently spotted Indian Pitta and lot of other varieties. There is also a huge lush green banyan tree with lots of surprises, this come on the way before you reach the bungalow

Trail 2:

Head north through the farm lands and you may encounter flocks of Indian Peafowls if you are there quite early in the morning, keep heading through the trail and you come across somethings which looks like a prehistoric construction, with broken walls of a territory, which I don't know was meant to keep out whom? Continue further you reach a small DAM and some abandoned building, here you find Spotted owls, lot of Egrets infact i was lucky to find Sirkeer Malkoha

 View of the Abandoned Bungalow from the DAM area, believe me its quite far, this was with full zoom with a 300 lens.

The list of Birds spotted are:

1. Laughing Dove
2. Rose Ringed Parakeet
3. Indian Roller
4. Green Bee eater
5. Jungle Babbler
6. Red vented Bulbull
7. White Bowed Wagtail
8. Indian Peafowl
9. Asian Koyal
10. Blue Bearded Bee eater
11. Oriental White Eye
12. Tickles Blue Fly catcher
13. Shikra
14. Grey Horn-Bill
15. Black Headed Golden Oriole
16. Golden Oriole
17. Greenish Warbler
18. Spotted Owl
19. White Cheeked Barbet
20. Coppersmith Barbet
21. Small Minivet
22. Jerdon’s Leaf bird
23. Red Wattled Lapwing
24. Brahmini Kite
25. Black Kite
26. Swallows
27. Red Whiskered BulBul
28. Sirkeer Malkoha
29. Asian Paradise Flycatcher
30. Indian Pitta

 And many other birds whose IDs I don't know, well in future i will upload the snaps of the beautiful birds. Happy Birding!!!