Green Imperial Pigeon - Ducula aenea pusilla
It is good to be back into the flow of this. It feels quite satisfying "ticking off" another species on my website. This morning a very fine pigeon species snapped on Sri Lanka in the Yala national park. This was a large pigeon with green back and wings and a smart "dove grey" front. My photographic field guide of Sri Lanka confirms that at a distance the distinction between the two plumage colours can be hard to see. Click on the picture and look at the bird on the right enalrged and you can see the grey on the neck and the lovely dark green tones on the back. The eye has a white line around it to. A striking pigeon ! I would alomost say that it beats a pink pigeon which is really not as colourful.
That was a lesson learned I think in art class at aged 11 or 12 and relearned at 29 when I started to actively go birding again. Colour washes out over distances so that everything turns to greys or browns. Equally whether the sun is behind or front of a bird has a very real effect. You either get a silohette as every photographer knows when taking a family snap or you get something which shows up colour. Time of day also impacts - I love early morning or evening Winter lights - the colours of birds take on a pastil, crisp look.
So it takes some patience and a little imagination to see the green and the grey on these birds and to know what you are looking at. Seeing a bird can be a bit of puzzle - markings come into it - but also where are you ? what time of year is it ? what is the bird doing ? It is satisfying to realise that you are looking at something you have never seen before - even more satisfying to "collect" it in a camera and then months later posting up in here is particulary fulfilling.
I am going to have a "splurge"with the Task for the next few weeks and see if I can take the list up over 100 and see how far I get before Easter. Passage season is almost here.
Green Imperial Pigeon - Duculla aenea pusilla
Sri Lanka - Yala National Park
April 2011
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