Blue Whistling Thrush of the Himalaya
- 5 years ago
Himalayan or Blue Whistling Thrush in Ranikhet.
Himalayan Whistling Thrush or the Blue Whistling Thrush, also known as the Whistling schoolboy! The bird fans its tail out when it is about to fly, and is known as Kalchure in Nepali.
The Latin name is Myiophoneus caeruleus. According to Allen Octavian Hume in 'The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds':
"Subfamily BRACHYPTERYGINAE
Myiophoneus temmincki, (Vigors). The Himalayan Whistling Thrush
The Himalayan Whistling-Thrush breeds throughout the Himalayas from Assam to Afghanistan, in shady ravines and wooded glens, as a rule, from an elevation of 2000 to 5000 feet, but, at times, especially far into the interior of the hills, up to even 10,000 feet. It lays during the last week of April, May, and June. The number of eggs varies from three to five.
The nest is almost invariably placed in the closest proximity to some mountain-stream, on the rocks and boulders of which the male so loves to warble; sometimes on a mossy bank; sometimes in some rocky crevice hidden amongst drooping maiden-hair; sometimes on some stream-encircled slab, exposed to view from all sides, and not unfrequently curtained in by the babbling waters of some little waterfall behind which it has been constructed. The nest is always admirably adapted to surrounding conditions. Safety is always sought either in inaccessibility or concealment. Built on a rock in the midst of a roaring torrent, not the smallest attempt at concealment is made; the nest lies open to the gaze of every living thing, and the materials are not even so chosen as to harmonize with the colour of the site. But if an easily accessible sloping mossy bank, ever bejewelled with the spray of some little cascade, be the spot selected, the nest is so worked into and coated with moss as to be absolutely invisible if looked at from below, and the place is usually so chosen that it cannot well be looked at, at all closely, from above.
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.
Himalayan Whistling Thrush or the Blue Whistling Thrush, also known as the Whistling schoolboy! The bird fans its tail out when it is about to fly, and is known as Kalchure in Nepali.
The Latin name is Myiophoneus caeruleus. According to Allen Octavian Hume in 'The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds':
"Subfamily BRACHYPTERYGINAE
Myiophoneus temmincki, (Vigors). The Himalayan Whistling Thrush
The Himalayan Whistling-Thrush breeds throughout the Himalayas from Assam to Afghanistan, in shady ravines and wooded glens, as a rule, from an elevation of 2000 to 5000 feet, but, at times, especially far into the interior of the hills, up to even 10,000 feet. It lays during the last week of April, May, and June. The number of eggs varies from three to five.
The nest is almost invariably placed in the closest proximity to some mountain-stream, on the rocks and boulders of which the male so loves to warble; sometimes on a mossy bank; sometimes in some rocky crevice hidden amongst drooping maiden-hair; sometimes on some stream-encircled slab, exposed to view from all sides, and not unfrequently curtained in by the babbling waters of some little waterfall behind which it has been constructed. The nest is always admirably adapted to surrounding conditions. Safety is always sought either in inaccessibility or concealment. Built on a rock in the midst of a roaring torrent, not the smallest attempt at concealment is made; the nest lies open to the gaze of every living thing, and the materials are not even so chosen as to harmonize with the colour of the site. But if an easily accessible sloping mossy bank, ever bejewelled with the spray of some little cascade, be the spot selected, the nest is so worked into and coated with moss as to be absolutely invisible if looked at from below, and the place is usually so chosen that it cannot well be looked at, at all closely, from above.
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.