Journalism of Courage
Author, environmentalist and bird watcher Ranjit Lal writes about how much before we learnt to fly, Mother Nature’s Air Force (MNAF) had covered all the bases with her avian squadrons: big bombers, stealth fighters, light combat aircraft, deadly gunship hoverers to smaller perch attackers. Her squadron is divided into three units: the raptors (falcon, shikra); the air-to-air fastback fighters (swift, swallow, nightjar); and perch-to-air and air-to-water ambush attackers (bee-eater, paradise flycatcher, pied kingfisher). First up, falcon, the aerial combat raptors (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Shikra, a smaller hawk, the raptor is a deft, dodgy fighter that scramble from a perch to ambush its targets (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Shikra male, these raptors ambush targets like small birds, rodents and reptiles (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Shikra female, the raptor’s blunt, short wings help in twisting and turning speedily at will through needle-hole gaps in branches (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Swift, the fastback fighter is diurnal and migratory, heading south in winter as insects die out (Text: Ranjit Lal; Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Swallow, the eyes of this fastback fighter are designed to see in slow motion, it hunts larger insects like flies and mosquitoes at lower altitudes (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Nightjar, aka nighthawks, this mottled nocturnal fastback fighter has binocular vision, and nets insects like moths and mosquitoes by flying mouth-open (Text: Ranjit Lal; Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
The green bee-eater, commonest in India, perch on power lines, eye flying insects, and go for the dangerous stuff, which others don’t touch, like stinger-armed bees and wasps, like dragonflies (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Paradise flycatcher, smallest of perch-to-air ambush attackers. Senior males have glossy ink-black heads, satin-white and ash-grey bodies and sport silky-white 18-inch-long tail streamers (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
Pied kingfisher, armed with a deadly black dagger-bill, is a specialist fisherman, hovering over waterbody, diving in once it spots its silver catch (Text and photo: Ranjit Lal)
