Table Of ContentFeathered Jewels of Coorg
Dr. S V Narasimhan
PARTS OF A BIRD
Crown
Lores rf sS»o2?2rt
Supercilium
Forehead air£
Eye Sra
Nostril cbjsArf
Ear Coverts aaofc siorfortOrtVo Maxilla rfbed®.&
V U
Cheek t Mandible
Nape Juorf*.
Chin rtu.
Shoulder Throat rtotaeo
Baek Breast arf
Rump
Secondaries a d^.risA
65 *
Primaries
Abdomen
Tail exo Leg 5300
Foot 333Cu
Inner Toe zj? 5ss?,d<sb
Middle Toe sS># 53 d
1 lind Toe Zoonae^dtfo Outer Toe rfjsd 53s?(d^
BINOCULARS
t
Direction of Light
Feathered Jewels of Coorg
A fieldguide to the birds of Kodagu
depicting 310 species
Revised and Enlarged Edition
Text and illustrations by
Dr. S V Narasimhan
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Published by
Coorg Wildlife Society
Co-sponsored by
The Coorg Foundation
Feathered Jewels of Coorg
A bilingual fieldguide to the birds of Kodagu
Text and illustrations by Dr. S V Narasimhan
Main Road, Virajpet 571 218
Ph: 08274-257484 [email protected]
Revised and Enlarged Edition
First published, December 2004
© Author January 2008
Published by Coofg Wildlife Society
PBNo. lll,Madikeri571 201
Ph: 08272-223505 [email protected]
Co-sponsored by The Coorg Foundation
Polibetta, 571 205 [email protected]
Printed by Ramya Creations, Mysore
Price: Rs. 250.00
Cover: With the burden of feeding the whole family that is locked inside a
treehole, a Malabar Pied Hombill (Anthracoceros coronatus) puts his virtual
signature, as he dashes across the backdrop of lush evergreen forests of the
Western Ghats in Kodagu.
Photo-illustration by the author
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Dedication
I dedicate this work
to my parents, Dr. Desikachar and Mrs. Janakamma,
and to all my teachers
who are responsible for what I am.
I thank
My Bird guru, Kumbera Sharu Subia, who initiated me to the
wonderful world of birds.
K N Changappa and Prof. C G Kushalappa for their moral
support throughout the work.
Padmashree Zafar Futehally for the exceptional Foreword.
Asheesh Pittee, Dr. Indira Kalyanasundaram, Prof. Sudhakar
Marathe, Dr. H R Krishnamurthy, Harish Bhat, Pramod
Subbarao, Dr. S Subramanya, T S Gopal and many others for
helping me to edit the text, nomenclature and illustrations.
Srikanth Rao and B R Satish for the help in sorting out the
fieldnotes and illustrations.
My wife, Pushpa, for deciphering my manuscript and helping in
digitising the text.
Lastly my daughters, Ashwini and Abhignya, without whose
love and interference, I could have completed the book much
earlier!
Preface to the revised edition
Within months of its publication, all the copies of Feathered Jewels of Coorg
were exhausted. The book was well accepted and I received many healthy
comments and suggestions from various quarters. The need for such collected
data in the form of an illustrated fieldguide was evident more than before.
Welcome to the revised and enlarged edition of Feathered Jewels of
Coorg. The text has been thoroughly revised and edited. All illustrations have
been remade and an illustration of a pair of Binoculars with its parts is added.
Five more species have been added. The spreadout map of Kodagu district is
remade and includes all Sacred Groves found in Kodagu.
The overall layout of the book is different with illustrations arranged
familywise for easy reference. A last column in the Appendix suggests those
birds that you get easily confused with in the field. The checklist of all birds of
Karnataka and their standardised Kannada names has been added and the same
Kannada names are used in the whole work. You see more Kodava names than
the previous edition.
I thank all the members of Coorg Wildlife Society for publishing the
work, the trustees of the Coorg Foundation for co-sponsoring the project and
Mr. Vasudeva Bhat of Ramya Creations for his wonderful job of increasing
the visual value of the book.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Dr. S V Narasimhan
VIRAJPET571 218
Karnataka INDIA
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
To Protect the Birds of Kodagu
Kodagu has a total land area of 4102 sq Kms. Of this,
approximately 1230 sq Kms is covered by coffee plantations. Another
492 sq Kms consist of wetlands where paddy has been the traditional
crop. Coffee in Kodagu is grown under shade. Therefore, the coffee
plantations may be looked upon as semi- forests that together with the
protected forests support a large and varied population of bird species.
During the past few decades, Silver Oak has been introduced as the
main shade tree. Silver oak is an exotic species that has replaced most
of the local varieties of trees.
Moreover, even in the case of the local tree species, there is a
tendency to carry out heavy shade lopping as a result of which these
trees are denuded of their principal branches. This denies nesting sites,
perches and food for birds and will eventually have a very adverse
effect on their population. It is therefore extremely important that in
addition to silver oak, a good density of local varieties of trees should
be maintained and heavy shade lopping must not be resorted to. It is
also to be borne in mind that excessive use of pesticides, weedicides
and chemical fertilizers in the plantations can cause direct harm to the
birds and can disrupt their natural food chain.
In the case of wetlands, paddy cultivation requires water to be
impounded in the fields for about 4 months in a year. The impounded
water helps to support certain amphibian and aquatic lifeforms such as
frogs, crabs and some small species of fish. These in turn, provide a
good source of food for Egrets, Herons and other birds. Subsequently,
the paddy itself feeds a large population of birds.
Moreover, the straw from the paddy harvest is an important
constituent for nests. During the past few years there has been a sharp
decline in paddy cultivation due to a variety of reasons. If the bird
species that depend on the wetlands are to be protected, it is necessary
to revive paddy cultivation in Kodagu to the extent possible.
We sincerely hope that this book will stimulate an interest for
birdwatching in Kodagu, especially amongst the youth. A first hand
knowledge of the diversity of species will generate a concern for
conservation and protection of habitat. These are among the major
challenges facing the world community today. Many bird species that
were once commonly seen around us are now seldom sighted. Let it not
come to pass that one by one our feathered jewels fly away... forever.
Col CP Muthanna [Retd]
President,
Coorg Wildlife Society
