Small Attractor.
I am very keen interested in small birds. Its bit difficult to identify them due to their size, quick moment and hide in the vegetation. So Patience and more attention need to watch them. Being in wild for several years still the small birds identification is challenging job. Unless their call difficult to make out their presence also.so one of the small and interesting bird is ashy wood swallow , its one of the small swallow which fly in very height, sometimes sit together in flocks such as high tension electric wire line, and dry trees, seeing this bird really difficult with naked eye and expressing the colour is again more difficult unless seeing in book or goggled it, it looks grey colour when momently you sight, at its first look will not really attracts but if you point it with binocular or in good camera picture then spending time with it, really you will be very attentive to watch it again and again…
It has grey upper parts with a darker head. The underside is pinkish grey and the black tail is tipped in white, the bill is silvery, wing is broad in-flight. The legs are short.
These are found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, China, and Malaysia etc…
Their habit is forest, cultivated area and palm trees and open area like back water which can see perched in flocks high on dry tress.
Usually they are seen in small flocks and sometimes sit huddled side-by-side on the dry tree with big branch spreading, and preening each other early morning. They feed on flying insects and also sometimes feed on flower nectar, while they fly they catch insect and transfer it to the beak.
The breeding is observed during summer in India, the nest is round cup shape and is placed at some height dry trees and Lay of 2–3 eggs.
Male and female take part in nest building, incubation and feeding the young.
Sometime raptors and some other birds try to attack the nest, in that situation they don’t think about the size of bird just it will mob and chase them away.
Narrated and written by
Kishore. V
Naturalist (Jungle lodges & resorts)
Wildlife View 