Sunbirds and my first bird photographs

I started taking my first photographs of birds when I noticed small colorful birds visiting some flowering plants in our home in Secunderabad. Very soon I started taking photos at every opportunity, especially when  visiting our farm near Medchal (north of Hyderabad).

Over the past  6 years, I have a collection of different species of birds mostly found around Hyderabad which I have tried to identify using images in books and the internet. But since I am not a professional, I may have mis-labelled some of them.

Irrespective, photographing birds is becoming a more passionate hobby and I hope to add to my 40+ collection of unique bird species.

One of my earliest photographs of a Purple Rumped Sunbird (male).These are tiny (10cm) birds that flit from flower to flower to drink the nectar using a tubular tongue. They make a sharp chirping sound and those of you having a flowering plant that these birds like will definitively enjoy watching them hanging in all kinds of positions to get at the flowers. The telugu local name is Mudaga Jitha.

A female Sunbird which is rather plain compared to the male, but no less active.

Another is the Purple Sunbird which as the name indicates is purple all over.

A Laughing/Spotted Dove taken in Medchal is one of my first bird photographs taken in at my Farm on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The local name is Sovata Guvva.

A Cattle Egret which follows cows and buffaloes in farms to catch insects around them. It is very common and it's plumage changes from white to an orange shade during mating season.It is called Santi Konga in Telugu.

 A Drongo is another common bird found in the country side and comes in two colors - Bluish as above is called Ashy Drongo and if it is black, then obviously Black Drongo. It is called Etrintha in telugu.


For the album of all my bird photographs, please visit my Google+ Album Birds Around Hyderabad.

The telugu names of some of these birds are from the excellent Universities Press/WWF published "The common Birds and Mammals of Andhra Pradesh".

A great site for many other photographs of Indian Birds is Indian Birds