The Joy of Birdwatching

I can be very restless and impatient; and sometimes surprise myself with my patience while watching birds. Watching birds going about their chores assiduously pleases me like nothing else. It's fascinating to watch a swallow build its nest drop by drop of mud, a lammergeier soar high with a bone and drop it on a rock so that it can eat the marrow, a crested serpent eagle spending 98% of its lifetime sitting on a perch looking for snakes.

Birds are creatures of habit, they follow the same migratory path over thousands of miles every year, they return to same nests, a cuckoo hatched in captivity will still know that it has to lay its eggs in others' nest - this makes birdwatching all the more joyful. One reads about birds, and then validate that knowledge by observing. I still wonder at the kind of geo-positioning system birds possess, which enable them to travel tens of thousands mile back and forth every year on the same path and reach the nest they built the year before.

Birds are the most proficient predators nature has built – right from a small tailorbird hunting worms to a magnificent golden eagle dragging sheep over cliffs. A peregrine falcon is the fastest animal – the highest recorded speed being almost 400kmph – makes cheetah look like a sloth, doesn’t it!

Contrary to humans, males are the colorful ones in avian world – because they have to do the wooing. Females are brown and drab, because they stay in nest and grow chicks. Being colorful will attract predators, so they have evolved to be understated.

I suggest to take a pause you spot a bird next and observe it for some time. Experience the joy of birdwatching – you may get hooked for life.