India GOBirds of bangalore
Indian roller
The state bird of Karnataka, and in Kannada literally nilakantha, “blue throat”, a name of Shiva. Seeing one before a journey counts as a good omen in parts of the Deccan, and it is a Dussehra bird across South India.
Coracias benghalensis
Rose-ringed parakeet
Long kept as a cage bird and still the parrot of temple fortune-telling, which is why it is called Rama's parrot in several South Indian languages. Keeping one is now illegal in India.
Psittacula krameri
Coppersmith barbet
Its tuk-tuk-tuk is one of the constant sounds of a Bengaluru afternoon, and the English name copies it: a coppersmith tapping a bowl. It nests in dead branches, which is one practical argument for leaving standing deadwood in city parks.
Psilopogon haemacephalus
Yellow-throated bulbul
Its habitat is exactly the granite the region quarries, so the bird has become a shorthand in Karnataka for what boulder hills lose when they are blasted.
Pycnonotus xantholaemus
Pheasant-tailed jacana
The males incubate and raise the chicks alone, carrying them tucked under the wings: one of the clearest examples of reversed sex roles you can watch from a lake path.
Hydrophasianus chirurgus
Purple sunbird
Sunbirds, not hummingbirds, are the small hovering nectar feeders of India; the two families are unrelated and hummingbirds do not occur here at all.
Cinnyris asiaticus
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