Friday, July 16, 2010

Indian Swiftlet (Collocalia unicolor)

Indian Swiftlet @ Kudremukh

Indian Swiftlet (Collocalia unicolor) is a tiny blackish brown bird with a slightly forked tail. It is a resident bird of coastal and western ghats especially the west coast strip from Ratnagiri and down south. It is also found throughout Sri Lanka. This bird builds its nest in natural caves and groots in western ghat complex or in rocky islands. Breeding season is from March to June. It builds the nest with its own saliva that has some gastronomic and commercial value.

They fly fast and hard to photograph. The sighting of this bird in Kudremukh was a lifer , it was found along with the Brown backed needle-tails. Only after processing these photos I realized these are not the palm swifts. The day was sunny and bright , so was not able to make out the difference in field.

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