On a Drink

[Deepak Mistry]

ID please. I thought it was a Shikra. I spotted this in a local Horticulture Garden on my way out. Didn't have the time to set up the tripod, hence hand held. The pair had come down for a drink from the lily tubs.
Nikon D7200, 150-600mm, f/6.3, 1/1250 sec., ISO-800 handheld, FF.

[Disha Parchani]

Very Beautiful shot! What a beautiful creature it is!

[Deepak Mistry]

Thanks Disha, I wish I got a higher angle to include its legs. But it was such a hurry and I was on my knees for more stability. The moment I tried a higher angle, it flew off.

[Samrat Sarkar]

Dear Dipak ji

Yes it is Shikra, male. It is very sad to see a majestic bird had been captured by someone and painted with a red colour for fun. Very sad. It may disturbed its breeding life. Thanks a lot Dipak ji for showing this type of stupidity made by human.

Samrat

[Deepak Mistry]

Dear Dipak ji

Yes it is Shikra, male. It is very sad to see a majestic bird had been captured by someone and painted with a red colour for fun. Very sad. It may disturbed its breeding life. Thanks a lot Dipak ji for showing this type of stupidity made by human.

Samrat

OH, is it ? I just thought it was a color variation or just some light reflection !

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Someone did play holi with the Shikra. Sad thing. In nature animals and birds evolve to have a particular colouration. Artificially painting them leaves them disadvantaged in predation because of loss of camouflage. We don't know the impact of heat absorption on the body due to a different colour. They meticulously clean their feathers. So some amount of colour would be ingested into the body as well. A majestic bird reduced to a sad painting.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Its really sad to see how someone managed to get colour on it :(. If this was done during the Holi season, that was sometime in Mar/Apr. Not sure how the colour stayed on for so many days. Its good you captured this in the nick of time before it flew. You have got it well without the tripod. Thanks for sharing.

[Deepak Mistry]

Thanks Mridul. But it still puzzles me how a bird so wary as this being coloured by someone. I was so far from it still it flew away. Maybe it is more afraid of people since it was captured. I'll try to get a better shot next time. I think it frequently visits the same spot to drink. I remember having seen it earlier and mistook it for a female koel from a distance. When it flew making a noise I realized it was not a Koel.

[Deepak Mistry]

I am informed by a friend who also happens to be an Ornithologist, that this mostly looks like breeding plumage.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

I am not sure if someone 'holi'ed' the bird. It may not be an easy thing to do too, sounds difficult to comprehend if someone just caught a shikra colored it and let it fly away. Anyways, it surely is differently colored, and if its indeed breeding plumage then its one rare sighting we have captured on camera. Thanks for sharing.

[Mymoon Moghul]

Hi
Deepak, may i know if you have used any digital image processing on your shikra image? To me it looks like some mask (brush tool) applied during digital image processing. There is magenta color in the eye of the bird which cannot be due to color powder. Correct me if I am wrong.