Coppersmith Barbet

Coppersmith Barbet—Megalaima haemacephala (Tamil Name: Kukuravan) The first time I saw this bird was at the Animal Sanctuary on Chengam Road here at Tiruvannamalai. Some local kids had been roughly playing with the little bird and workers at the Animal Sanctuary rescued it and brought it into the shelter.

Coppersmith in cage at Animal Hospital

This pretty little bird is the size of a dumpy sparrow. The heavy-billed grass green Barbet has a crimson breast and forehead, yellow throat and green-streaked yellowish underparts. Its stout beak has a straggly moustache of bristles at the root.

Birding making its tuk-tuk-tuk call

Video of Coppersmith Barbets, female followed by calling male
 

Notice the Flesh-coloured feet

The Coppersmith which is a very well-known garden bird is not easy to discover at first; its green plumage blending with the foliage, while the yellow of its face, and the bright red of its forehead, gorget, and feet are not so noticeable. Sexes look alike. Young birds are still less striking in appearance in a tree, as they have no red on the head or breast, and their feet are merely flesh-colour. 

Feeding on Ficus Benghalensis

This bird has a short tail and appears triangular in its flight silhouette. Its feet has two toes before and two behind; but it does not climb, instead it simply hops from branch to branch, picking fruit on which to feed. When on the ground it also moves with a hopping motion. 

Bird at Nest

The birds’ notes are mellow but of a deadly monotony, being kept up with relentless regularity for a long time. Their call is a familiar loud, ringing tuk, tuk, repeated every second or two in long runs throughout the day, reminiscent of a distant Coppersmith hammering on his metal. 

Pair at Nest

The Coppersmith Barbet is arboreal and frequents Banyan and Peepul trees in fruit whether it is outlying forest or within a noisy city. It sometimes eats winged termites captured by flycatcher-like sallies. This bird nests from January to June; and its nest is generally a hole excavated in a snag of a dead softwood branch such as the Coral or Drumstick Tree at moderate heights. It lays three glossless white eggs with both sexes sharing domestic duties. 

Male and Female at tree-nest

The huge-billed Toucans of America are closely related to the Barbets, but are not found in India. 

Indian Treepie

This very pretty bird is a regular visitor to my garden. Bearing in mind its very dashing good looks, I was surprised to learn that it is in fact a member of the Corvidae (crow) family.

This bird is common throughout Tiruvannamalai District and equally happy in open forest, scrub, plantations and gardens

It lives on fruits, invertebrates, small reptiles and the eggs and young of birds; it has also been known to take carrion. It is extremely agile while searching for food, clinging and clambering through branches and will sometimes travel in small mixed hunting parties with unrelated species such as drongos and babblers.

The Indian Treepie has a variety of calls, some loud, harsh and guttural and others pleasing and melodious. One of its commonest calls is kokila and a bob-o-link!