I am trying to read on scheduling, and yet, however hard I try, I still can't gather myself well enough to concentrate om this topic. There are just too many audio interrupts snatching my attention away and all from the musical clan of magpie robins.
Magpie robins (or Oriental magpie robins, as they call them) have been all over our place, and my mind, this spring. Through all the times from early mornings to hot afternoons to late evenings (and even during the night time on one discrete occasion) and through all places around me from our colony to right till Harantekdi and Indrayani, it has been one wonderful concert this summer from one beautiful ensemble of this bird.
Magpie robin is a wonderful bird; a worthy passerine(birds considered as songbirds) with its extensive vocal skills. It has a rich repository of melodious tunes and various ways of rendering them. Even the conspicuous calls of cuckoo have faded in my opinion in comparison with the spirited and varied calls of the magpie robin. I have loved hearing to them, indulging myself in their talks once in a while. I even once tried chasing one on my bike only taking its calls as the cue. It sure was a blind chase, since it was nearing dark, but by no means was it a chase in silence! Although the advent of barbets in the nearby trees has been a really welcome news this summer, magpie robins have hogged all the attention due to their relentless riyaz in their vocals. It is of course their breeding season. I realized, after some reading, that the calls aren't just meant to win over a mate during the breeding season. They are more to stake a claim to a certain territory as their own and to ward off any potential competitor from entering the protected area. That explains the observation of the peculiar stance of the birds in fixed areas around the house. I have seldom seen them in large flocks, but only in small units of a family. A male magpie robin claims its territory and in a solitary exercise defends it all through the breeding season and the initial few days of bringing up of the offspring which is taken care of by the female. The male's calling poise shows aggression, excitement and also some real determination. As a visual signal, it also uses its tail to communicate its intent through jerks, flicks and by spreading it sometimes while it sings. Besides, there are other subtler, musical calls, perhaps meant for other specific communication or signals. So much so that one feels that the magpie robin is actually having a detailed conversation and the tone, loudness, pitch, tempo, tune all seem to depict at different times, various feelings like love, understanding, concern, happiness, jubilation, pleading, inquiry, aggression, imitation and maybe some more. I once tried to converse with a magpie robin with my own bird-like chirping, just out of curiosity. It was successful to an extent as we exchanged a few calls before the robin must have realized that I wasn't making any sense after all and just flew away to a farther branch. Or on second thoughts, did I impose my authority over my territory, forcing it to budge away! [:p]
Here are some pictures of this bird.
The last one which looks evidently different from the rest is a female whereas all others are male magpie robins.
There is another relative of this bird, called the Indian robin, which is widely observed. I have always seen this bird only in open spaces, near shrubs and trees, somewhat away from human settlements. Here's a picture, albeit not a very clear one.
