Purple Sunbird

The purple sunbird gets up to 3.9 inches long. The male is a glossy metallic/bluish to purplish black on the upper parts with wings appearing dark brown. The breeding male has underparts of the same purplish black, but non-breeding males may show a central streak of black on yellow underparts. Breeding males may also show a patch of bright blue on the shoulder. A maroon shine on the collar is also mainly visible during breeding. 

This male purple sunbird in breeding plumage was found near Diphlu Lodge on the edge of Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. 

Sucking nectar out of a flower while it stands on a branch.

Females are olive/brown above with a yellowish underside. The throat and breast are yellow. 

This female purple sunbird was found on the grounds of our hotel in Guwahati, Assam, India. 

The purple sunbird is found from northern Oman and the United Arab Emirates, through southern Iran, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and down into Southeast Asia as far as Vietnam and southern Thailand. 

Range of the purple sunbird from Birds of the World. 

Crimson Sunbird

Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae which consists of 151 species. I saw my first sunbird one in Singapore in the Botanical Garden (it appeared to be all red), right before we went to Indonesia, and was unable to get a photo of it. I finally got photos of sunbirds in India. 

We saw several crimson sunbirds near Kaziranga NP in Assam, near the Diphlu Lodge, where we were staying. Most sunbirds feed largely on nectar, but will also eat spiders and insects and some will also eat fruit. The shape of some flowers prevents access to the nectar, so the sunbirds pierce the flower at the base with their bill and sip the nectar that way. They are distantly related to hummingbirds in the Americas and honeyeaters in Australia, both having nectar feeding lifestyles. Some sunbirds will hover to gather nectar, like a hummingbird, but most perch to do so. 

This one is a little different than the description, but was confirmed as a crimson sunbird on iNaturalist. Perhaps it is a juvenile male. The tail is not very long, it does have white-tipped tail feathers, but also has some red on the breast. 

The crimson sunbird is only about 4.3 inches long, has a thin down-curved bill and a brush-tipped tubular tongue to help it eat nectar. The male has a crimson breast and maroon back, with black malar stripes, a yellow rump, and an olive-green belly. The female has a yellowish breast, an olive green-back and white tips on the outer tail feathers. Most males have a long green-blue tail. 

It is a resident of southern Asia from India to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar to Indonesia and Brunei. 

Yellow-Footed Green Pigeon

The yellow-footed green pigeon is a beautiful bird I wanted more photos of, but had a hard time getting my camera to focus on it. I think it was reflecting the light and making focus difficult. There are five subspecies and they are highly variable. The nominate subspecies, which we saw, has a grayish blue back of the head with a yellowish forehead and chin and yellow on the tip of the bill. The nape, neck and breast are a golden yellow, with more grayish blue on the underparts and back, then a yellowish green on the back and wings, with some violet on the feathers, yellow feet, a yellow band on the tail and darker grayish blue tail. Other subspecies vary with more or less yellow on the head and the shade of yellow on the nape, neck and breast.  

This was the first one I photographed, in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga NP, and it was sitting in the open. I took dozens of photos and was the best I could get. Very frustrating. 

This is a much better photo, also from the Eastern Range. 

The next photos were very near where we stayed at Diphlu Lodge. They were also much better. 

The nominate subspecies, Treron phoenicopterus phoenicopterus, is found in northern India east through the Himalayan foothills and Gangetic Plain from Himachal Pradesh to Assam and Bangladesh, and southwest to central Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Considering other subspecies, it is found in most of India, eastern Pakistan, portions of Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, Myanmar and further into southeast Asia. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Asian Barred Owlet

The Asian barred owlet is a little larger than the spotted owlet I featured yesterday. It gets up to 9.8 inches in height and there are eight subspecies. The subspecies I saw, Glaucidium cuculoides austerum is found in northeast India, Bhutan and northwest Myanmar. Asian barred owlets are either dark brown or olive/brown with a white throat patch and densely barred. The breast and belly is white with dark brown bars (how can you tell its not brown with white bars) and the tail and wings are dark brown with whitish bars. It is primarily diurnal and perches on bare branches during the day to hunt, which is how we saw it. 

They are found in northeast India, along the foothills of the Himalayas into Pakistan, in southeast China, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal and Bangladesh. 

Range of the Asian barred owlet from Wikipedia. 

I felt lucky to see two owls in Kaziranga. 

Spotted Owlet

While driving in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga NP in Assam, India my guide spotted a small owl in the cavity of a large tree branch. He called it a spotted owlet. I'd never heard the term "owlet" before. It is a term for a young owl, but also a name given to several small owls which I saw on this trip. 

The owl in the cavity of a large tree branch.

A progressively closer view. 

It is a small owl that breeds in tropical Asia from North Pakistan to Southeast Asia and has adapted to living in cities, although the one we saw was in the national park. 

Spotted owlet range from Wikipedia.

It is about 8.3 inches in height with gray/brown upperparts spotted in white. The underparts are white streaked with brown and it has a yellow iris, white neckband and white supercilium. There are five subspecies and we saw the subspecies in northeastern India.  

River Lapwing

The river lapwing has a black face and crown and the nape feathers can be raised to form a crest. It also has a black central throat and belly patch, black tail and black legs. The back is brown, the rump is white and it has gray-white neck sides. 

It is near-threatened and has a small total population, possibly no more than 15,000 individuals. It is found in the Indian Subcontinent, including much of northern and northeastern India, and extends through Southeast Asia to Vietnam. 

River lapwing range from Birds of the World. It is resident in its range.  

We only saw one small group, in the far western Burapahar Range of Kaziranga and they were far away so I did not get good photos. I've seen one photo of a river lapwing with a raised crest and it looks very cool. 

Gray-Headed Lapwing

The gray-headed lapwing has a gray head, neck and upper breast, a black breastband, brown upperparts and a white belly. Its tail is white with a black tip, its bill is yellow with a black tip, its legs are yellow and its iris is red.  Non-breeding adults have a browner head and neck and the black breastband is partially obscured. Juveniles have a brown head and neck and the breastband is absent or more difficult to see. 

Note the gray head, yellow bill and feet, red iris and brown upperparts. These were seen in the Western Range of Kaziranga. 

Here we see the black breastband and white belly. 

It winters in northern Southeast Asia from northeastern India, where we saw them in Kaziranga NP in Assam, to Cambodia. It breeds in northeast China and Japan and Japan also has a small area with a permanent population. 

Light blue is non-breeding or winter, orange is breeding or summer and purplish blue is year-round. From Birds of the World. 

Although Kaziranga is a winter range, this brown-headed version must be  more non-breeding than the ones above, has it has a brown head and it has a black breastband so it must not be a juvenile. 

Northern Lapwing

The northern lapwing, also known as the green plover, is an interesting mix of unrelated parts. It has a short, thin black bill and a very thin black crest which consists of a few strands of feathers, like an old man's comb-over standing up off his head. It has a black crown, throat and breast and some black around and under the eye like the smudgy eye black a football player uses. The back is tinted green with various shades that really stand out in sunlight, from greenish yellow to raspberry, plumb and forest green. It also has dark red legs. 

The black crest is going every which-way. These lapwings were in the Eastern Range of Kaziranga NP. 

The color is in the wings. 

We saw it in its winter range in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. It also winters in small portions of north Africa, southern Europe and China. It is found year-round in some portions of Europe, like Portugal, England and Ireland and spends summers in northern Europe and mid-Asia.

Light green is summer range, blue is winter range and dark green is year-round. From Wikipedia. 

This lapwing was in the Western Range of Kaziranga. 

This one is really dapper. The crest looks slicked back, it has more white around the eye, and the back is a kaleidoscope of colors. 

Eurasian Wigeon

I've seen quite a few American wigeons, which are beautiful, and I've been on the lookout for Eurasian wigeons as they are occasional visitors to the U.S. I finally found some, although not in the U.S. It was in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. They were quite a distance from us so my photos are not as good as I would have liked, but I was thrilled to finally see some. 

The male Eurasians have the same buff/flesh colored crown/vertical stripe on the head as the Americans, but lack the green eye stripe and have a chestnut colored head instead of a blotchy tannish head. Their chests are the same color, but the back is silver/gray instead of brown. Both sexes have the same bluish/gray bill with a black tip and the American female is a darker brown than its Eurasian counterpart.