Gray Francolin

We recently saw the gray francolin in Keoladeo NP and in Ranthambore NP in India. They are a lot like quail with a run first attitude, but are more run than flight than the quail. I was particularly struck by this in Ranthambore when a vehicle on a hill behind us crested and flushed a group of francolins. Several ran down the hill in front of the vehicle much like Indiana Jones being chased by a large rolling boulder. They were introduced to the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s as game birds. The introductions on the mainland failed, but they have established themselves in the Hawaiian Islands. They have also been called the gray partridge. Our guide in Ranthambore continually referred to them as partridges. 

There are three subspecies. We saw interpositus which is found in east Pakistan, north India and Nepal. It is barred and the face is pale with a thin black border on the throat. Males can have up to two spurs on the legs and females usually lack them. They have been domesticated in areas of northern India and domesticated birds can be twice the size. They are used for fighting. When reared by hand they can become as tame as a pet dog. There is something quite pleasing about them. I think I would have liked one as a pet as a boy. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Bluethroat

The bluethroat is part of the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in wet birch wood or bushy swamp in Europe and across the Palearctic (across Europe and Asia north of the foothills of the Himalayas and North Africa) and western Alaska. It winters in the Iberian Peninsula, the northern half of Africa and southern Asia, including the Indian subcontinent. It is often called a chat. I saw this female bluethroat in Keoladeo NP in India.

It is plain brown above, except for the tail that has black outer corners and red basal side patches. It has a white supercilium and males have a throat pattern with a glossy blue throat bordered with a narrow black band and a broad red band below that. There is often a central spot, either red or white, in the middle of the blue throat. There are either seven (Shirihai) or eleven (IOC) subspecies that differ in the extent and intensity of the blue on the throat in the males and whether the blue has a central spot, or not, and if it does, the color of the spot. The nominate subspecies Luscinia svecica svecica, the one I saw in Keoladeo NP in India, is known as the red-spotted bluethroat and breeds in the subarctic shrub tundra from Scandinavia east to western Alaska and winters in southern Asia in India, Pakistan and the Middle East. The throat is blue with a red spot. 

Illustration of a female of the nominate subspecies from Birds of the World. 

Illustration of a male from the nominate subspecies from Birds of the World. 

Photo of a female in Keoladeo NP in India from Wikipedia. 

Range from Birds of the World.

White-Eared Bulbul

In Keoladeo NP in India I encountered a white-eared bulbul for the first time.

The white-eared bulbul has a brownish-gray body and appears rotund. The tail tapers outwards, starting black and ending in white tips. The head and throat are black with an area around the cheeks having a large white spot. The eye-ring is bare and it has a short beak. The legs are bluish-gray to slaty black. The vent is bright yellow, but none of my photos capture that. 

Illustration from Birds of the World.

It is found in far-western India, much of Pakistan, southern Afghanistan, coastal Iran and portions of Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain. 

Range map from Birds of the World.

Brahminy Starling

Shortly before our 2025 trip to India I was looking at some publication with photos of birds of India or Asia and saw a photo of a brahminy starling. It had crazy unruly feathers, like a mop-headed rockstar, and I thought it would be fun to see one. I was truly excited in Keoladeo NP when our guide, Ashok, pointed into a tree and said it was a brahminy starling. I took lots of photos. 

As an American I tend to look down upon starlings as we have the European starling which is an over-abundant pest. But I get overseas and many of the most fun and beautiful birds are starlings, including the myna (they used to sell the common myna as a pet at Western Gardens in Salt Lake City when I was growing up and I always think of it as the talking bird). The brahminy starling is also known as the brahminy myna. It has a long wispy black crest of crown feathers, a black forehead and primaries; cinnamon nape, chin, throat and underparts; gray mantle, back, rump, tail and wings; pale green iris; a bare patch of whitish skin behind the eye; bluish base of bill and distally (further out) yellow. The female is like the male, but has a shorter crest and a darker mantle. 

More, but less unruly, photos. 

Illustration from Birds of the World.

Range from Birds of the World.

River Tern

The river tern is also known as the Indian river tern. It has dark gray upperparts; white or very pale gray underparts; a forked tail with long streamers; long pointed wings with pale gray primaries; a stout bill that is bright yellow during breeding and duller yellow with a dusky tip in non-breeding; bright red legs; a black cap in breeding extending below the eye, that lightens to grayish white flecked and streaked with black in non-breeding; a dark mask through the eye and the two longest outer tail feathers are also lost in non-breeding, giving it a shorter tail.  

River terns in breeding season in Ranthambore NP, India, Zone 3.

A breeding bird illustration from Birds of the World.

A non-breeding bird illustration from Birds of the World.

Range map from Birds of the World. 

It is found almost exclusively on freshwater, rarely venturing even to tidal creeks. It is found along inland rivers and lakes. We saw these in Ranthambore NP, Zone 3, on the edge of a small lake. There were only a few of them and they did not seem particularly active. They are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN and is uncommon. 

Jungle Nightjar

This is a continuation of the thread on my posts the last two days on the black bittern and dusky eagle-owl. I'd provided an incentive of 300 Rupees (a little over $3 USD) for each new lifer (a bird I'd never seen before) our guide could find for me, so long as I could get a photograph of it. It was apparent that our guide, Ashok, a naturalist who'd been working in Keoladeo NP for ten years, knew where to find less frequently seen birds and I wanted to incentivize him to tap into that knowledge. He'd asked if I'd ever seen a black bittern, a dusky eagle-owl or a jungle nightjar before, and I acknowledged I hadn't, so it was apparent he knew where to find them. As our motorized rickshaws were stopped looking at some other birds, Ashok searched some trees with limbs hanging over a stream to the side of the road and found several jungle nightjars perched on the branches. I had a hard time seeing them, so he took some photos with my camera and set up his scope for all to see and took cell phone photos through the scope. 

Jungle nightjar photo taken by Ashok. 

The jungle nightjar is mostly gray with black streaks on the crown and has a rufous wingpatch. The tail is grayish and and has separated black bars. The male has a white throat patch that is broken at the middle and the female has a rufous throat patch and submoustachial streaks. 

This and the following are illustrations of the jungle nightjar from Birds of the World. The one above is a flying female. The two below are males, one perched and one flying. 

Range map from Birds of the World. 

It has previously been called the gray nightjar and Indian jungle nightjar. 

Dusky Eagle-Owl

Yesterday's post was on the black bittern I saw at Keoladeo NP in India. Immediately after seeing the black bittern we continued down a dirt road embankment between two swamps and a while later our guide spotted a dusky eagle-owl way off in the distance. I couldn't pick it out. Our guide set up his spotting scope and I got a view of the eagle-owl through it, then was able to see what to look for and saw it on a flat branch in some large trees. This was an additional confirmation to me that our guide had a trove of birds he'd learned about through his ten years working at Keoladeo and that this eagle-owl was likely a regular at that spot. As I noted in yesterday's post, this is exactly what I wanted when I offered to pay our guide 300 Rupees per each lifer bird he was able to find for me. I got a photo, but it was a long way away and my photo is grainy at best. 

Illustration of the dusky eagle-owl from Birds of the World.

The dusky eagle-owl is large, brown, has prominent ear tufts, and a pale facial disc framed by narrow black lines. The upperparts are dark brown with a grayish tinge, obscurely marked with long, narrow and widely spaced streaks of dark brown, with buffy-white spots on the wing coverts. The tail is dark brown, barred and paler at the tip. The underparts are a very pale brown with narrow black streaks. 

Range map from Birds of the World.