122 : Yellow-throated Bulbul

Yellow-Throated Bulbul - Pycnonotus xanthalaemus

Globally endangered I am afraid. An endemic of the hills that sit up above the jungle scrub in South-West India. I was reading a book recently called the Jewel Hunter by a chap who went out jungle birding to see every Pitta in the world in a single year. In the book he trashed all Bulbuls as well ''trash birds". We are used to them in Dubai and right across the world Red-vented and Red-whiskered will bother you at your breakfast table at your 4 star hotel while on holiday - I once watched a Bulbul crap in someone's cereal while they were making a return to the buffet...of course I did.

Dilon and I (my new Captain my Captain) were sent of by Bopanda to find a Yellow-throated Bulbul. These are globally endangered birds and in a sacred grove a pair were nesting (Dillon and Bopanda were my bird guides this month in and around Bangalore). Dilon and I trudged up (actually Dilon shimmied) up the long set of steps to a temple in search of these extremely shy and elusive birds.

Dilon with his blood up on the scent of a rare bird :-

Quite a nice place to go looking for a globally threatened bird - the thing about temple sites is that the trees are respected and are old and if, like this one they are at the top of a long set of steps...

I must have lost a pound of gravy getting up these steps. The thing about a long lense is that without a second camera body and/or infinate time to switch lenses you are really limited in taking scenic shots - I was 40 yards back !

Anyway up the steps we trudged to the sacred, hot, grove at the end of what was 1000 steps with some nice Hindu architecture along the way. Below reminded me of a Mr Kipling fondant fancy - or perhaps I was just extremely sugar deficient.

I believe the name of the place is Ramnagar. We were there early and it was a Friday - in any event this big moutain outcrop with its temple and shady grove was deserted.

Dilon's hand goes up and then he beckons me forward - I am crumpled heap of a sodden excuse for a man by then even though it is perhaps only 25 degrees and its early (8 am ?). I do have an excuse - Emirates had lost my bag and I was in sandles not walking boots.

A bird is calling in the wood. A loud song and it seems quite quite close. A melifluous luting call - a lazy and wandering call which reminded me of an oriole. I have paid my entrance ticket in sweat, steps, a 5 am rise - no bird. We chased that bird for an hour - rushing to a spot and trying to foward think it. Crouching, hiding, stopping still for 20 minutes at a time straining through binoculars to catch a glimpse. I was of course happy to see any bird but for Dilon, this was the bird, as he knew just how rare it was. Why ?

The jungle scrub around these hills is rapidly disapearing. Wake up in the countryside anywhere in the third world and you realise that wood is essentially fuel. The smell of woodsmoke drifts across every village - charcoal is made, pots of water are boiled and in India bread is baked. I cannot preach because I earn in a week what some families survive on in a year. Chopping down a scrubby bush rather than buying a canister of propane is the solution for breakfast for hundreds of millions of Indians on a daily basis. Bad news for birds but thank god (literally) for sacred groves. This is at risk of turning into a shaggy bird story.

So we didn't find the bird. But I am (now) a great believer in Karma. Dilon and I found ourselves in a tiny fragment of jungle scrub around a rocky outcrop at "rush hour'' which is an hour or two before sunset driving back into Banglore. Thats rush hour for birds. We were actually looking for Quails and then there it was again - that song.

Great delight and much fun wrestling with the camera - oh go on then you have it - you have the  Bronze in the Mercedes Bienniel global natural history picture award. So the shot above is Dilons - if you look at my rules it counts (see The Task) as I am standing next door looking at the same bird - I have several shots but this is Dilons. Mine are not half as good. Bopanna (who has had pneumonia so was resting in the car) was amazed.One of the best shots he had ever seen of this elusive and shy bird and also never before seen at this location. Surrounded on all sides by villages desperate for firewood - so how long have they got ? Not long was Bopanna's grim prediction. Unlike in the West it wasn't caveated by any remonstrations against people for being thoughtless or just plain abusive of the habitat. People need to boil water or they die - people need to cook - people need to be warm at times - it's that simple and there are over a billion of them in India. They can put a rocket into space but they still need to chop down trees to cook a meal. I can get angry with their government but not with the people.

I seem to recall 5.2 billion being the figure for the world's population when I got my first Atlas - where are we now ? 7 or so I think and putting on another billion every decade.

Really I was finding just pockets of woodland - tiny fragments and we would drive for an hour to get to hotspots - they were few and far between.

I am pleased I now know what a Yellow-throated Bulbul is - I got the sense from Dilon and Bopana that it was a lost cause. Its not a Panda - it just a bird that likes to live and nest amongst bushes that are very good for firewood. You can't judge - but its worth some thought as its not all about rainforests and the arctic and the big wilderness - little bits of scrub are precious too - everything has its home. He is quite smart. There are enough people that care in India but how do you tell someone that that can't cook a meal using firewood ? Hang in there.

Yellow Throated Bulbul, Pycnonotus xanthalaemus

Small relic patch of jungle scrub with rocks on the bangalore plains - single pair

25 April 2012