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  • Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher   (Ceyx erithaca) 'A Gift of Love'  
The monsoon is the time when Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai, transforms into a paradise for nature lovers, this is when Aditya Salekar spotted this pair of Oriental Dwarf Kingfishers (Ceyx erithaca) engaged in a classic courtship ritual. The male bird, in customary fashion, feeds the female, before being allowed to mate with her.

Breeding / Nesting


In southwestern India, they begin to breed in June - with the onset of the Southwest Monsoon. In other areas, their breeding season stretches from October to December.

The nest is a horizontal tunnel or burrow on a bank up to a meter in length. The nests are constructed by both males and females. They will take turns burrowing out a tunnel with their feet, and then they will hollow out a narrow chamber at the end of the tunnel in which to lay their eggs. The birds will spend between three and seven days working to complete their tunnel. Some birds attack their worksites so forcefully that they have fatally injured themselves as they fly into the tunnels during these excavations. Nests constructed in hard, less penetrable ground will have tunnels that are shorter than those dug into sand or soft soil. Kingfishers are fiercely territorial in defense of their nests.

The clutch usually consists of 3 to 6 eggs, which are incubated by both the male and female for about 17 days. The chicks are fed with geckos, skinks, snails, frogs, crickets and dragonflies.

The hatchlings are altricial (without any down, blind and helpless) and they require care and feeding by the parents, who bring the food into the nesting chamber and keep them warm. However, the nestlings grow quickly and soon they are able to travel toward the entrance of the tunnel where they encounter the adults and wait to be fed. Eventually, they are fed on a perch near the entrance. Fledging can last a few days to a few weeks. After that, the chicks will be on their own and will feed themselves.

The young fledge (leave the nest) when they are about 20 days old. A second brood may be raised if the first nesting attempt was unsuccessful. Ceyx erithaca,Geotagged,India,Oriental dwarf kingfisher,OrientalDwarfKingfisher,Summer,adityasalekar,forestkingfisher,intothewild,jewelofthejungle,kingfishersofindia,mumbai,wildlifephotography
    Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca)
  • Red whiskered bulbul and Oriental white eye || Bangalore || Aug 2021 Pycnonotus jocosus,Red Whiskered Bulbul
    Red whiskered bulbul and Oriental white eye
  • Beautiful Ghost!!      They are beach cleaners i.e. they scavenge on dead material.. So if there are any leftovers by any predator on beach then ghost crabs are the one who take up beach cleaning job.. And due to their nocturnal nature no one notice them or their work!! 
     One of the dream frames I wished since I had this camera and I finally made it.. We got down from our cars for record shots of sea gulls (Pallas's) and saw this nocturnal creature out of his burrows.. 
      Beach,Coast,Crab,D5200,Dapoli,Ghost,Horned ghost crab,India,Kokan,Macro,Maharashtra,Nikon,NikonD5200,Ocean,Ocypode brevicornis,Ocypode ceratophthalma,Ratnagiri,Sea,Tamron,incredibleindia
    Beautiful Ghost!!
  • Green Vine Snake enjoying the Monsoon Rains! When the monsoons arrive, the whole of the land mass turns more lush and green and more beautiful. It is the season of life. May it be the canopy or the forest floor, everything gains and regains life and starts their activities. This Green Vine Snake(Ahaetulla nasuta), a mildly venomous beauty searches for its meal in the pouring rain and tries to move to a higher tree. Ahaetulla nasuta,Ghats,Green vine snake or Long-nosed whip snake,India,Nikon,Rain,Western,green,greeny,mildly,photography,premkumar,snake,suhaas,suhas,venomous,vine,water,wine
    Green Vine Snake enjoying the Monsoon Rains!
  • The Eyes  A macro image of  the one of the most beautiful eyes of the animal world. This particular frog was on my wish list ever since i saw a photo in 2013.  A critically endangered species, these frogs are very rare and have a very unique breeding behavior. They breed inside a reed. They only come out to feed. It was very tough finding and photographing it.  Raorchestes chalazodes,amphibian,critically endangered,endemic,frog,india,ochlandrae,reed frog
    The Eyes
  • Baya Weaver in flight  Baya Weaver,Geotagged,India,Ploceus philippinus,Summer
    Baya Weaver in flight
  • The “sore” spot Many times when I am on safari in the forests of India, I hear someone exclaim, usually in alarm, that there is a wounded deer over there. 99% of the time this ends up being a Sambar with a large open sore oozing blood on the ventral surface of the neck. This is a common sight, but despite that, scientists do not know what it is, or why it happens! It is always visible but is most obvious and ‘oozy’ in the rutting season, from November to December. Because of this seasonal fluctuation, it is thought to be some kind of gland, and the ooze coming out of it is not actually blood but a fluid that may act as some kind of pheromone. It is a still a mystery, and not one is entirely sure what it is, what it is for and why it happens. It is important to note it is present on both male and female deer.

After many attempts, I managed to get a clean shot of the sore spot on this doe. It is out of season and not oozing, but is still very pronounced.
 April2015competition,Geotagged,India,John Rowell,Rusa unicolor,Sambar,Winter,adhocphotographer,sore spot
    The “sore” spot
  • Malabar Parakeet take-off || Feb 2022 || Western Ghats, Shivamogga Malabar parakeet,Psittacula columboides
    Malabar Parakeet take-off
  • First Flight At Dawn Clicked this bird (crested serpent eagle) over  Himalayan peaks named panchachuli peaks.  Crested Serpent Eagle,Dawn,Eagal,First Flight,Spilornis cheela,Worm Light
    First Flight At Dawn
  • Calotes with caterpillar breakfast. This little forest calotes was seen having caterpillar breakfast. Calotes,Calotes versicolor,Caterpillar,Lizard,Oriental Garden Lizard or Changeable Lizard,eating
    Calotes with caterpillar breakfast.
  • Temple Leopard It was past sunset and as we where leaving the park we turned a corner to come face to face to this leopard relaxing atop of a ruined temple. I had 30 seconds to shoot off a few frames before it got too dark to auto-focus and the cat left, elegantly wandering back into the unknown forest beyond. A magical moment! Fall,Geotagged,India,John Rowell,JungleDragon January 2015 photo contest,Leopard,Panthera pardus,adhocphotographer,india,kabini,karnataka,leopard,nagarhole
    Temple Leopard
  • Fan throated lizard Scientific name: Sitana ponticeriana Fan-throated lizard,Geotagged,India,Sitana ponticeriana
    Fan throated lizard
  • Hunter Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher with kill Ceyx erithaca,Oriental dwarf kingfisher,bird,india,nitin jain,wild
    Hunter
  • The endangered yellow-stripped tree frog This yellow-stripped tree frog is tough to spot in the pitch dark of a jungle at night, but if you see it, it is fantastic! :) What a great little guy. :) 5D mkIII,Coorg,Geotagged,India,Rhacophorus lateralis,Spring,adhocphotographer,india,john rowell,karnataka,western ghats,yellow-stripped tree frog
    The endangered yellow-stripped tree frog
  • When mysterious eggs hatched Yesterday morning when I was watering those plants I checked that leaf on which eggs were laid and I saw these tiny bugs and I was so excited to record them. I know nothing about these tiny gems except for the fact that they are some species of shield / stink bugs.


egg stage https://www.jungledragon.com/image/95137/mysterious_eggs.html

5 days development https://www.jungledragon.com/image/95752/transformation_of_shield_bugs.html Abhijeet Jagtap,Abhijeet Ramesh Jagtap,Erthesina fullo,Geotagged,Incredible India,India,Macro,Nikon,Nikon D5600,Spring,Tamron,Tamron AF 70-300mm f4-5.6 Di LD MACRO 1:2,Yellow-spotted Stink Bug,incredibleindia
    When mysterious eggs hatched
  • Lesser flameback woodpecker || Bangalore || Sept 2020
https://www.facebook.com/MohammedSalmanPics/ Black-rumped flameback,Dinopium benghalense
    Lesser flameback woodpecker
  • Those glittering eyes!! Endemic | endangered

The females of the cross backed tree frogs are beautiful than the males, thanks to their attractive star patterned eyes. As seen in my previous post the males have plain iris. 
 Raorchestes signatus,amphibian,endangered,endemic,frog,incredibleindia,ooty,raorchestes signatus,western ghats,wild
    Those glittering eyes!!
  • Indian Nightjar Like all nightjars, they are tough to spot...  so can you see the second one in the shot? I didn't notice it at the time of shooting, only afterwards... :) Caprimulgus asiaticus,Geotagged,India,Indian nightjar,Spring
    Indian Nightjar
  • Oleander Hawkmoth It is also known as Army Green Moth because of the camouflage pattern on the wings            
|| Bangalore || Jan 2021 Daphnis nerii,Oleander hawk-moth
    Oleander Hawkmoth
  • Indian Jezebel       A beautiful lovely butterfly.. 
     The butterflies spend much of their lives high in the tree tops where their larval foodplants grow as parasites on a variety of tree species. They can often be seen flying from tree to tree on sunny mornings. Periodically however both sexes will descend and embark on a "nectaring run", fluttering swiftly from garden to garden, pausing here and there for a moment to sip the nectar of Lantana
( Verbenaceae ), Mentha ( Lamiaceae ), and other flowers. When nectaring, the wings are usually kept fluttering to support the weight of the butterfly. Butterflies,Butterfly,Common Jezebel,Delias eucharis,Fall,Geotagged,IncredibleIndia,India,Lepidoptera,Maharashtra,Nikon,Ovala,Tamron,Thane,abhitap,delias,incredible india,jagtap
    Indian Jezebel
  • Golden Oriole || Bangalore || March 2021 Eurasian golden oriole,Oriolus oriolus
    Golden Oriole
  • Two Striped female with a kill place: Gnanabharathi Kengeri, Bengaluru Geotagged,India,Summer,Telamonia dimidiata,Two-striped jumper,gnanabharathi,kill,macro,spider
    Two Striped female with a kill
  • Ambushed || Tadoba || Jan 2020
On a safari in Tadoba Tiger Reserve we happened to encounter the famous tigress Maya, barely visible, in a patch of large grass bordering the lake, we soon realised that the tigress was in stalking mode. Close by was a sambar deer along with a young fawn. The mother sambar deer was alert and suspected trouble near by, suddenly the tigress gave a mock charge towards the mother sambar deer, it escaped, but soon the mother sambar deer realised that the tigress was not after her but it was the young sambar fawn that was on the tiger's mind. Next the tigress chased the fawn into the lake and then the inevitable happened. Bengal tiger,Panthera tigris tigris
    Ambushed
  • Indian Nightjar If you are in the habitat of this bird, then you just wait a little post dusk period, and you are getting the calls of this bird for sure. So when am surveying in scrublands, I always take my last transect and then wait for nocturnal birds; especially Nightjars. During this incidence, I heard the calls, me and my team waited patiently. We were immediately rewarded when the bird started its activities of catching insects, and there when it sat on the road/vehicle track, we had the bird in car's head light. This is when we had a small window to take record shots.
After taking the records, how did we drive when we had a bird sitting on a vehicle track? You just flicker your head lamps and bird flies away immediately. Well this is our experience with nightjar encounters and also with owls. Abhijeet Jagtap,Abhijeet Ramesh Jagtap,Biodiversity,Birding,Birds of India,Caprimulgus asiaticus,Geotagged,Gulbarga,Incredible India,India,Indian Birds,Indian Nightjar,Indian Wildlife,Indian nightjar,Karnataka,Nightjar,Wild India,Wild Karnataka,abhitap,abhitap1991
    Indian Nightjar
More photos.. (4,849 total)
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