Beautiful Birds of Pakistan - 7

Like the undersea marine life, the bids dominate the sky above us with their abode on trees and even marshland sand heavily vegetated areas. They in fact fill the sky with their presence and eye pleasing chirping sounds - except perhaps the crow which for some is less pleasing. 

Kestrel

Birds are as small as the Humming Birds with only a 5 centimeter presence or as large as the eagles which may have sizes up to 220 centimeters - but if you wish to include the Ostriches, the lesser birds as they cannot soar to the sky and have a small flights, then we are taking of birds as large as 2.75 meters.

Greater Egrets

I have been sharing birds as watched by a number of bird watchers in Pakistan - but mostly these are small birds which are very common to places near cities or in the fields. Today it is my seventh post based on spotting and shooting skills of Mirza Naim Baig, an avid bird watcher, nature lover and of course with a sharp eye to spot a bird and shoot it - not by his gun but his camera for us to admire the Nature and its man creations.

Kingfisher is a beautiful bird known for its longer beak and rather vivid colours despite its small size of 10 centimeters to maximum of 40+ centimeters. I love this bird and intend dedicating a separate post on it in days to come. For now here some beautiful kingfishers: 

 Common Kingfisher

 A pair of Pied Kingfishers

White breasted Kingfisher

Some other birds that adorn the skies and wetlands of Pakistan are:

  Common Teals (above) and Northern Shovelers (below) spotted in Lugh Lake

 Beautiful Swamp Hen with its unique blue and red colour combination (below)

 Pallid Harrier (above) and Marsh Harrier in flight (below)

  The long legged Pond Heron

The beautiful, unique and rare Yellow footed Green Pigeon

About the Bird Watcher and Photographer

Mirza Naim Baig is a freelancer member WWF who takes part inn the preservation of wildlife, beside being a wildlife tour operator. He is from Karachi and studied Bachelor of Arts at Edwards College, Peshawar and lives in Karachi. He is the owner of Dream Merchants.

His birding experiences and photos can be seen on Facebook. All photos above are the property of Mirza Naim Baig and have been shared here with his exclusive permission. In time more of his birding photos will be posted to share his hard work and love for these little flying birds.

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook
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Beautiful Birds of Pakistan - 5

This is my fifth post on birds of Pakistan and may continue for many more posts in days to come for the birds are countless and there are numerous bird watchers who contribute their hobby on social media net work. Although, there are thousands and thousands of species of these beautiful birds, I am for the time being only restricting my posts to birds found and spotted in Pakistan.

Birds like flowers are always eye catching for their wonderful colours and attractive features  beautifully found and captured on camera by the bird watchers - perhaps a great tribute by these people to admire nature.

The Brahminy kite , or the Haliastur indus, as shown above is a majestic bird found in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia. In Australia is known as the red-backed sea-eagle. This medium-sized bird of prey falls in the Accipitridae family, which also includes many other diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. The Brahminy kite above was sighted in Karachi.

 Asian Paradise Flycatcher (male)

 Black Bulbul - Azad Kashmir

 Blue Capped Stone Trush- Margalla Hills, Islamabad

 Common Kingfisher - AS seen in Rawalpindi/Islamabad

 Common Teals (above) and Gadwall sighted in Larkana, Sind Province

The gadwall, a bird of open wetlands, is a common and widespread dabbling duck in the family Anatidae. Male gadwalls are intricately patterned with gray, brown, and black; females resemble female Mallards. The gadwall breeds in the northern areas of Europe and Asia, and central North America.

1-2-3-4-5-

 European Roller

 Greater Spotted Eagle as spotted in Tando Mohammad Khan, Sind Province

Greater Spotted Eagle is classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). As of 2000, the world population of this eagle was estimated at less than 4,000 breeding pairs. The primary threats are habit degradation and habitat loss, as well as human disturbance during the mating season.

 Indian Robin male

Indian Roller are found widely across tropical Asia from Iraq eastward across the Indian Subcontinent to Indochina and are best known for the aerobatic displays of the male during the breeding season. 

Jacobin Cuckoo, pied cuckoo, or pied crested cuckoo is a member of the cuckoo order of birds that is found in Africa and Asia.

 Oriental Magpie Robin found in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir

 Plum Headed Parakeet spotted in the Margalla Hills, Islamabad

 Scaly Breasted Munia or spotted munia is a sparrow-sized estrildid finch native to tropical Asia

 Beautiful spotted dove - The spotted dove is a small and somewhat long-tailed pigeon that is a common resident breeding bird across its native range on the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Yellow Throated Sparrow spotted in Rawalpindi

Yellow Throated Sparrow is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, dry savanna, and subtropical or tropical dry shrub land.

About the Bird Watcher and Photographer

Mirza Naim Baig is a freelancer member WWF who takes part inn the preservation of wildlife, beside being a wildlife tour operator. He is from Karachi and studied Bachelor of Arts at Edwards College, Peshawar and lives in Karachi. He is the owner of Dream Merchants.

His birding experiences and photos can be seen on Facebook. All photos above are the property of Mirza Naim Baig and have been shared here with his exclusive permission. In time more of his birding photos will be posted to share his hard work and love for these little flying birds.

References/Bird history and details: Wikipedia

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Beautiful Birds of Pakistan - 4

This is my fourth post on the beautiful birds of Pakistan which abound the wilderness, jungles, mountains, deserts, lakes and even cities of the country. Many of the birds I have so far shared are native to this part of the world or are migratory birds that come here in search of warm water lakes to spend their winters, breed their young and fly back when their native habitats become conducive for living after severe winters.

The most beautiful of the indigenous birds is the blue or Indian peafowl or the peacock , as pictured above, which is native to Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. This is no doubt a majestic bird with iridescent blue and green plumage, mostly metallic blue and green and his multicolored tail with a spectacular view, which it displays as part of a courtship ritual. Beside parts of Sind, specially Tharparkar, beautiful peafowls are found in abundance in Kallar Kahar in upper Punjab province. Besides the blue birds, one also comes across pure white leucistic Indian peacock which are a class of their own.

 Long legged Buzzard

 Intermediate (above) and Reef (below) Egrets

Egrets are herons which are pure white, buff or gray coloured found near water lakes and seashores. Egrets hunt and live in both saltwater and freshwater marshes.

Indian Pond Heron

The light brown coloured dove is found all over Pakistan. Doves and pigeons, which also abound in the country, are from the Columbine bird family. However, doves are smaller than pigeons but almost of same appearance.

The yellow footed green coloured pigeons are rather rare and are seldom spotted. Herein under is a beautiful shot of this unique bird.

White Throated Kingfisher - also called White Breasted Kingfisher. It is widely found right from Turkey east through the Indian subcontinent to the Philippines. 

The Grey francolin or Grey Partridge is found in the plains of South Asia. In Pakistan and India, these are also called Teetar - a name synonymous to their loud and repeated calls like Ka-tee-tar...tee-tar. These are normally found foraging on bare or low grass covered ground in scrubs and being weak fliers when hunters make them fly through noise and beating of the ground, they take a fast and vertical flight - often falling prey to the hunters.

The yellow-wattled lapwing is native to the Pakistan and India. It is generally found on the dry plains.

The Black Kite

The Black Kite is very common bird of prey in Pakistan and perhaps all over the world. It is known to be an opportunistic hunters and is more likely to scavenge.

About the Bird Watcher and Photographer

Mirza Naim Baig is a freelancer member WWF who takes part inn the preservation of wildlife, beside being a wildlife tour operator. He is from Karachi and studied Bachelor of Arts at Edwards College, Peshawar and lives in Karachi. He is the owner of Dream Merchants.

His birding experiences and photos can be seen on Facebook. All photos above are the property of Mirza Naim Baig and have been shared here with his exclusive permission. In time more of his birding photos will be posted to share his hard work and love for these little flying birds.

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook
Follow @JalalsPages

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Beautiful Birds of Pakistan - Flamingos

I first came face to face with this beautifully colored, long legged and amazing bird in Lahore Zoo in my childhood. While I admired this tall with elongated curvy neck and pink plumage, I was equally fascinated the Urdu translation of its name as Lamdheeng - someone with long legs, which is a befitting translation of a flamingo's appearance.

Flamingos do not have a sizable population in Pakistan, but out of the six species found world wide, Greater Flamingos are spotted in Pakistan, mostly in the salt lakes or the coastal regions of Pakistan. As per Wikipedia, the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is the most widespread species of the flamingo family. It is found in Africa, on the India-Pakistan subcontinent, in the Middle East and southern Europe.

Many years ago, while going to Skasar in the Soan Valley near Khushab/Sargodha, I came across this beautiful birds in the Ucchali Lake at the footsteps of Skasar hills.It was getting dark that day and traffic going up the hills was almost non existent, so I sat with the guard in the guard room. As it was his evening food time, he picked up his shot gun, went out and I heard a single shot. And then he triumphantly returned with a duck in his hand that he cooked and we both ate. Thankfully, he did not shoot a flamingo.

Flamingos have long, lean, curved necks and black-tipped bills with a distinctive downward bend. The specially curved beak of flamingos helps in stirring up mud to sucks water through its bill and filters out small shrimp, seeds, blue-green algae, microscopic organisms and mollusks. 

The close up of the bill of a greater flamingo - Photo: National Geographic

It is observed that the Greater Flamingo feeds with its head down and its upper jaw is movable and not rigidly fixed to its skull.

Why flamingos are always found in the saline water - there is an interesting Argentinian folktale that describes its colours and saline water abode. Here is how the folklore goes:

Long ago, the animals of a forest arranged a ball. While the rest of the animals had a new dress, the flamingos had nothing but a white cloak only. This really saddened the flamingos and decided to consult the jungle wizard, the owl, for a solution. The owl designed vividly coloured striped trousers and the flamingos looked really attractive. At the ball, they caught everyone's attention but the snakes got angry as the trousers were made of snake skin - for owl prey on snakes and the owl wizard had only snake skins left in her nest. The snakes as a protest bit the flamingos who ran to the nearest lake to ease their pain. Since that day, the flamingos do not leave the saline water as the saltwater keeps away the pain caused by the snake bites away. That is why they have red legs red and their feathers pink.

The flamingos breed in the form of a community around large lakes and water reservoirs. In captivity in zoos, they still breed well as the zoos keep large mirrors in their cages, which gives a feeling of not being alone as the mirror imaging looks like a community to the captive birds.

ave you heard flamingos calling? Well I have not, but it is said that their call is a goose-like honking. 

The photos by Mirza Naim Baig have been taken in the coastal region around Karachi, Pakistan. But flamingos are mostly spotted in the central Punjab in the salt lakes like Ucchali and Khabekki.

About the Bird Watcher and Photographer

Mirza Naim Baig is a freelancer member WWF who takes part inn the preservation of wildlife, beside being a wildlife tour operator. He is from Karachi and studied Bachelor of Arts at Edwards College, Peshawar and lives in Karachi. He is the owner of Dream Merchants.

His birding experiences and photos can be seen on Facebook. All photos above are the property of Mirza Naim Baig and have been shared here with his exclusive permission. In time more of his birding photos will be posted to share his hard work and love for these little flying birds.

If you like Jaho Jalal, please follow us on Facebook

Follow @JalalsPages

Read More