A photographers diary: A short note on the Indian Silverbill

The Beginning...

Apart from just photographing the aves around, my interest grew on observing their behaviour and making notes of it, when there was a pair of Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) flying around in the backyard. I could spot them almost every time I looked out of the window. One day they were inside the enclosed balcony, searching for something and eventually over days they built a nest, laid eggs and young birds with the parents flew away. This took place for at least over 45 days. I had made my discrete notes on its daily activities. From building the nest, laying eggs, safe-guarding the eggs, incubating them, celebration of the birds when the eggs were hatched, defending from any intruders, feeding, parenting and teaching the young ones to fly, it was quite an amazing sight. Their behaviour was fascinating and this experience gave me a good insight into the bird's life. Roughly about a month later there was 1 more family nesting at the same place and the whole process was repeated. So I had a double chance to make my notes precise. These observations were made over 4 months; December-2013 to March-2014. The whole process was fun :)

A Portrait of Red-Whiskered Bulbul

Crest to Tail

Red-Whiskered Bulbul gathering strands of grass to build its nest

The Indian Silverbill

I had only bookish knowledge of the Indian Silverbill or White-Throated Munia (Lonchura malabarica) and had spotted just couple of times. I was excited when my mom told me that there are birds hovering around the weaver bird nest (which we had brought from our farm lands back in our village) tied in the balcony. I was somehow sure that a bird must be using the weaver bird's nest as its nesting place. I was then delighted to spot these small birds chirping around the balcony. A short-triangular-shiny grey bill, brownish upper parts, white rump, buffy-white ear coverts, throat, breasts, belly and flanks, scaly-brown crown, black tail, gradient dark wings, black round eyes and short 3-finger-clawed feet. Both the sex looks similar. I spent nearly 10 hours with them out of the 48 hours I had on my weekend visit.

The Indian Silverbill - Morning sun bath

The Indian Silverbill

The Indian silverbill or white-throated munia (Lonchura malabarica) is a small passerine bird found in the Indian Subcontinent and adjoining regions that was formerly considered to include the closely related African silverbill (Lonchura cantans). They forage in small flocks in grassland and scrub habitats. [Source extract from Wikipedia]

The Indian Silverbill

I found them mostly flying around the trees and shrubs in front of the house. They had made the Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) bird's nest has its dwell. They have adapted to the nest very well. They must have made good inspection of the nest before choosing one; they had chose a strong well-built nest out of the 3 hanging nests.

Though references say they are usually found in flocks of 40 to 60 birds, I could not spot any other bird than this pair. They make swift flights with fast beating wings. More than half the time in a day they sit around the nest to protect their eggs. Early morning and the late evening they spend more time inside the nest compared to the mid day. Both the parents spend a lot of time incubating the eggs inside the nest. Accidently (may due to strong monsoon winds), there was one egg which had fell out and broke into peices. The eggs must be tiny with white shell.

The Indian Silverbill - Perched on a tree

The Indian Silverbill - Pecking small insects from its body

They are very shy and sensitive birds. My cameras shutter sound was enough to alert them, they had a very sharp hearing capability. Their vision was very sharp, a small movement around would alert them. Outside the nest they spend their time chirping and acknowledging the other bird call, pecking small insects from their body and wings, looking around for food and having fun. They get puffed up, spreading there wings and feathers to keep themselves warm. They look fat when they do so otherwise they look slender!

The Indian Silverbill - Cleaning their wings

The Indian Silverbill - Pecking small insects from their tail feathers

The Indian Silverbill - Spreading out their wings and Cleaning

The Indian Silverbill - Keeping warm

The Indian Silverbill - Shaking off its body!

The Indian Silverbill - Having some good time together.

The Indian Silverbill call is very short silent chirping sound. I have recorded its call on a very windy day, the bird call is fairly audible. Head phones recommended.

I enjoyed every bit of this first hand experience of watching them. These small creatures know the way to be happy! There are high value lessons that we should learn from animals and birds around. Looking forward for more such beautiful opportunity.

All the Indian Silverbill observation and photographs are dated 12,13 July 2014.
None of the birds / its nest / eggs / young ones were threatened / disturbed during this observation / photographs.

One of the egg which fell down and broke. The ants fed on the broken egg leaving behind this shell. The egg is 1.5cm long and 4cm in circumference. This was collected and photographed on Oct 22nd 2014.