Pied Cuckoo

[Dipankar Mazumdar]

Pied Cuckoo from the Basai wetlands, Gurgaon
EOS 50D + 300 F4 IS L at f 5.6, 1/400, ISO 250
Looking forward to Comments and critiques.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image. Sharp. Liked the head turn and the eye contact. Wish the OOF leaves in the right corner were not present. Was it possible to avoid that by moving to the left? Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more..

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Dipankar,
It appears sharp. The eye contact is good. It would have been great if you could have moved a step to the left. That would have helped the tail appear better. However, it is just a suggestion, as the bird might have flown away. So always better to take a shot or two and then move slowly to position. Composition wise, I would prefer the bird to be slightly higher in the frame. Look forward to more. Here are more details about this bird.

Scientifc name: Clamator jacobinus

I am quoting from Salim Ali:
Field Characters:
A handsome, crested black-and-white cuckoo. White tips of tail feathers, and a roundish patch on wings conspicuous in flight. Singly, or pairs, in wooded country.

Distribution:
Practically the entire Indian Union upto about 2500m in the Himalayas.; Bangladesh; Pakistan; Srilanka; Myanmar.

Habits:
Nest-parasitic. Frequents open, well-wooded country. Commonly found in the neighbourhood of habitations. Its local migrations are largely controlled by the SW monsoon. Arrival and presence in a locality advertised by the birds chasing one another, flying from tree and calling excitedly a rather plaintive, metallic, piu-piu-pee-pee-piu...pee-pee-piu, or merely a tinkling piu...piu, etc.

Chiefly arboreal, but occasionally descends to ground and hops about in search of food, grasshoppers, hairy caterpillars, and sometimes berries.

Nesting: chiefly june to august, coinciding locally with the breeding of its accustomed hosts. Parasitic chiefly on babblers of the Turdoides group.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Hi,

Just forgot to mention that, you can post a larger image 800pixel in the longest side, to help in commenting better.

[Bibhav Behera]

Sharp image. I would have liked it more to the left in the frame and more space at the bottom.