Birds of Chandigarh: The migrants

Walk down the path towards the bottle brush trees and on a lucky day you would see a Crimson Sunbird, quite camouflaged in the Crimson blooms, merrily sucking the nectar and singing at the top of his voice a song of sweet delight.

Now walk towards the Fitness Trail and you will come across a clump of mulberry trees. The fruit is just ripening and a plethora of birds would be feasting on them. Certainly you might see an orange coloured bird, smaller than a dove, pecking the fruit. That is an Orange-headed Thrush, which is on its way to its Himalayan home from southern parts of India.

Keep walking towards the Rose Garden, cross the road and enter the Leisure Valley. Closer to the tennis stadium, you will find very tall silk cotton trees ( simbal). They are in bloom now and the red as well as orange flowers attract a number of birds. If you look carefully, you might see Black bulbuls, Himalayan bulbuls and Hair-crested drongos feeding on them. All these birds are altitudinal migrants too.

Crimson Sunbird. (Express)

A very special thing about these migrants is that they are very brightly coloured, have a very large report repertoire of melodies and their antics add a lot of zest to our parks and gardens. They fly down from the Himalayas to escape the harsh winter, but add infinite delight to our lives.

May you always hear the bird song.