Living alone sure has its charms. Oh Yes. Especially when you live in a barsati (rooftop flat) in a leafy South Delhi colony. The laburnum tree grows so close to my balcony that I can just reach out and touch the branches.
This tree is also the favourite haunt to some of the tiniest birds in this part of the world – okay, maybe with the exception of the Fire Breasted flowerpecker – the Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus).
One lazy Sunday afternoon, my siesta was disturbed by a huge racket outside. I open to door to see at least half a dozen of these tiny beauties darting from branch to branch announcing their glee to the entire world. I have never had them come so close. After a frantic dash into the other room to get the camera, fix the right lens, I managed to get a few shots of the passerines.
On account of my poverty, my wildlife / birding lens is a Sigma 50-500. It is slower than an geriatric on a vintage stair-lift and lesser said about its auto-focussing prowess, the better. White eyes are notoriously darty, never settling on the same perch for more than a second or two. Imagine if you will, my woe. Half an hour later, however, I get few shots worth talking about.
Once I view them on the laptop I notice the noise. One quick look at the camera setting tells me that my ISO is set to 2000 from a night shoot I did few days back. F*** my life. Anyway, here’s what I got.
In the gaggle of white eyes, another tiny bird almost went unnoticed. Almost. My keen eyes (cue ‘Eye of the Tiger) spotted the imposter and the handy field guide identified it as a Hume’s Leaf Warbler (Phylloscopus humei). Equally fidgety, shooting it was another task. But in the end, two images of some quality did emerge.
Bonus of the day:
A sneaky Yellow Footed Green Pigeon (Treron phoenicoptera) trying hard to be a leaf
