Birds to See Even If You’re No Birdwatcher | Evolve Back, Kabini

A friend of mine, an enthusiastic birdwatcher, has particular preferences for the birds he wants to observe. His favourite birds wear shiny, glossy feathers, splashed with spectacular colours, and consequently hard to find. He chases them in dense forests, sweats profusely, and gets adequately frustrated, all in search of elusive forest birds that dress up like they have a pageant to attend. When he spots a Pitta or a Crimson-backed Sunbird, the effort is completely worth it.

He doesn’t care much for raptors. Partly because “they all look the same” -- a common phrase for the unfamiliar. Raptors, he argues, are big and relatively scarce versions of the “little brown birds”. They all look uniformly brown. Devoid of pageantry. And if you can’t tell one from another, how can you put their faces down to names?

I am a lazy birdwatcher. I revel in every bird that crosses my path. If you go by how Simon Barnes, the nature writer, defines a bad birdwatcher, as someone who looks out of the window, sees a bird and enjoys it, without putting a name or bringing out a checklist, I am almost a bad birdwatcher. My interest in birds started in my mother’s kitchen garden and for many years, I was happy to simply observe and revel in the presence of birds without knowing a thing about their lives. When I wrote about this, several readers shared with me their fascination for birds, but almost guiltily confessed that they can’t be bothered to learn the names of the birds they enjoy watching from their balconies or windows.

I get this. My mission is not to coax anyone into the heavyweight hobby of birdwatching. If scribbling your observations into a handy journal, peering through bird guides looking for a close match to the fleeting feathers (was it purple or black?) you almost saw, lugging a pair of binoculars everywhere feels more like a chore than fun, I hear you. But that’s no reason to turn away from the joy and wonder that the rich world of birds offers us! Especially if it comes at a bare minimum effort.

And this is why I love raptors. Well, at least some. Back in the years when I would travel to Kabini to watch the spectacular elephant congregation, I barely knew an Iora from an Oriole. Over the years, Kabini became synonymous with the Big Four: elephant, gaur, tiger and leopard. But the unexpected joy that the forest offered me was the eagles.

On an easy safari along the backwaters, or the clearing along the “Powerline”, or the wooded lanes of teak and crocodile bark trees, you are very likely to encounter a figure sitting upright with a stately poise, either one of the two eagles: Crested Serpent Eagle or the Changeable Hawk Eagle. Or both.

The Serpent Eagle is all brown, its underwings have a fascinating pattern of white and dark brown alternating in big stripes, visible only when the wings are fully spread out. Even more covert is the eponymous crest that flattens out over the head and makes you wonder why the bird gets its name. The ‘crest’ fans out ever so slightly only when the bird is alert or alarmed. But the most striking feature for me is its piercing yellow eyes! They make up for the rest of the bird’s understated personality.

The Changeable Hawk Eagle is more prone to a pageant-appropriate display, by raptor standards. As an eagle, it is still compelled to be mute, both literally and visually. But unlike the Crested Serpent Eagle, it flaunts its crest in full view, dangling it from its head for everyone to see, at all times. In fact, it was known by the name of Crested Hawk Eagle. But birdwatchers have a habit of naming birds by their more obscure features than the obvious ones. So the “Crested” was replaced by “Changeable” owing to its tendency to wear a varied range of plumage.

For anyone who says eagles are all brown, the Changeable Hawk Eagle challenges you to liken one individual to another. Fifty Shades of Brown is its motto. From sporting a pale white underside to a streaked one to dark brown overalls, the species wears many suits. With an agile, smallish (for eagles), hawk-like appearance, its eyes combine the singlemindedness of raptors with the restlessness of more limber birds.

If you are a birdwatcher, on a safari in Kabini, it is impossible to miss them. If you are not, they might easily turn you into one. And what’s more, it takes little effort to know them by their names.

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