oikos : for Ecological Services

DECEMBER - 2011
Dear Nature Lovers, Greetings from oikos ! We hope that you enjoyed being with birds this year. The ‘Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher’ - this tiny, beautiful, blue bird is also recorded in well-wooded areas of cities like Pune. It is more heard with it’s musical notes than seen. It will prefer your garden if you have good shade giving trees & lot of insects… this also means, NO pesticides for the gardens !!! We will be coming with a new theme for 2012… a month ahead !!
Regards, Ketaki & Manasi.
Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher Zoological name: Cyornis tickelliae Locally known as ‘Neelchatak’, it is a very small bird (similar to sparrow size) with brilliant Blue colour, orange throat & white belly, female looks little dull with less orange throat. It is generally found in open dry forests, scrub, bamboo, gardens & wooded areas. World over it is found in tropical southern asia, from India, Sri lanka to Indonesia. It mainly eats flying insects like flies, locusts, termites and earwigs, etc. It catches the insects while in flight, also comes to ground to catch crawling insects. It sings well with a metallic sound resembling that of a ‘White browed fantail flycatcher’. It generally nests in a tree hole or a hole in rocks or walls, laying 3-5 brownish eggs during May to August.

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