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| Grandala Grandala coelicolor
- Flock |
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| Photographer : | © Gunjan Arora |
| Location : | At 2668m, near Harsil, Uttarkashi District, Uttarakhand, India |
| Date : |
4 March 2019 |
| English synonyms: | Hodgson's Grandala, Himalayan Grandala |
| Bird Family : | Saxicolini - Robins, Nightingales, Chats, Shamas, Redstarts, Grandala, Forktails, Cochoas & Wheatears |
| Bird Group : | PASSERIFORMES |
| Red Data Status : | Least Concern |
| Remarks : | A flock of over fifty birds, restless and hungry, shifty yet
confiding, shuttled between Hippophae shrubs by the snow clad
roadside and a Pinus (wallichiana) tree a hundred metres away.
Their flight was laboured as they fluttered overhead in starling-like
swarms. Males displayed their glistening-blue sheen and females their
conspicuous white underwing patch. Landing on the Hippophae, the
feeble branches sagged under their weight as they struggled to keep
balance or hopped on ones laden with more fruit. Once stabilised they
gnawed lustily on the berries. Then without any warning, one would take
off to land on the Pinus, and the rest would follow in pursuit.
Soon the tree would be decked with blobs of blue and brown. Suddenly
they would take off for the berries again, then to the large mossy rock
drinking water from the melted snow. One would then hop to the edge of
the boulder, and the rest followed jumping like a chat as if missing
some action. The sorties went on for over an hour and forty minutes, and
by the time we decided to leave, Gangotri highway had been blocked with
the help of local cops who too were reigned in to watch the spectacle
and patient bystanders not sure what they were looking at, assumed it
was something of significance, and so it was, indeed. - GA |
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