“Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves change.”- Elizabeth Lawrence
I was doing exactly that - watching beautiful green leaves when, to my surprise, the leaves moved and flew!
Of course - that was a leaf bird. It displayed brilliant hues of not only green but some patches of yellow and orange as well - like autumn leaf colors.
My own click
I was lucky to catch the bird again on camera in a beautiful setting of leaves and yellow flowers.
This particular variety is called 'Golden-fronted leaf bird' because of the golden yellow front plumage it displays around the dark blue areas.
This is not a bird commonly seen in urban areas. I see them once in a while when I visit forests or hills. Since they are such a treat of colors for the eyes, I always end up photographing them.
On one occasion, I found 3-4 of them sitting in a dry tree. It was as if only one branch in the dry tree had sprung to life and had grown leaves ... 😀
My own click
Most of the times though, I see these birds hopping from bush to bush, sucking nectar out of flowers. They are, therefore, mostly found near flowers.
I got this lovely shot with a lion's ear flower with the bird perched and sucking nectar.
My own click
When the summer is raging and leaves go dry everywhere, it is a treat to watch these leaf birds add a dash a green to the stark surroundings. They remind us of the green leaves that will spring up once again when the rains come.
Finally, here is the pic that I used for the blog title in it's original form. It is one of my favorite bird portrait pics because of the beautiful setting in which I found the bird perched.
My own click
Information about the bird
Name: Golden-fronted leaf bird
Scientific name: Chloropsis aurifrons
Size: Around 15 cm (6 inches)
Conservation status: Least concern (IUCN 3.1)
Description (based on e-bird, Wikipedia and my observations):
These leaf birds are found in South East China, South-East Asia and Indian subcontinent. It mostly eats insects and berries but also favors nectar sometimes. It favors deciduous monsoon forests and is mostly found on shrubs. However, it builds nests only in high trees.
Information about photograph
- Aperture: F5.6
- ISO: 640
- Shutter: 1/320
- Support: Handheld shot
- Camera: Nikon D500
- Lens: Nikkor 200-500mm
- Image format: Photo clicked in RAW and edited for presentation sizing
A big thank you for support
Thanks to c/hive-106444 (Feathered friends community) for providing this wonderful opportunity to present my experience and photographs. Thanks to @barbara-orenya and @melinda010100 for all the support and encouragement to this community. Special thanks to @nelinoeva also for starting the Species hunt initiative. My posts are not exactly in that format but have all the necessary info and Good original Photos. Further guidance will be very much welcome.
Thanks to HIVE for this wonderful platform. Thanks also to @adalger and @dna.org for encouraging me by recognizing some of my posts as worthy of Densifying nature project.
Further, thanks to Amazing nature community for welcoming me and showing me their love on some of my posts.
Note: All images and collages in this blog are created by me, based on photos clicked by me personally and/or free vector images from Pixabay
Quotes used, if not credited, are either from unknown authors or are proverbial old sayings.
