I don’t have bucket lists. My existential excuse is that they seem too purposeful. It would be a disaster given how instinctive I am. Of course the obvious reason is bucket lists require a lot of planning; something I am not good at.
I did once try to think of five birds I would want to spot in India. The list started with Black Baza and ended with Fire-Tailed Sunbird. I never gave it much thought until recently when it occurred to me that I might be a discriminatory birder.
I realized that I have been judging birds by their wing colours.
There were some gorgeous birds on the list. I doubt if anyone could deny just how enchanting each one looked. But there was a troubling pattern to their physical appearances. They were either bathed in bright hues of the rainbow or blessed with unique aberrations. I had picked colourful birds with extravagant crests, peculiar posteriors and striking tail-feathers.
My parameters for selection were purely cosmetic. I felt like one of those film protagonists who stalk women under the pretext of true love. While it is obvious that mere physical attraction is the reason.
It got me thinking about how superficial my appreciation for aesthetics is. Can I ever see the beauty in house sparrows if they are surrounded by fire-tailed sunbirds? Probably not. Does is it mean that the sparrow looks any less magnificent? Certainly not!
Like so many, I too respond positively to bright colours and blatant irregularities in the natural world. But in doing so I limit my understanding of what may constitute to true beauty in my eyes. After all there is inescapable love in even the most ordinary of grey and brown plumage.
In case you were wondering, here is the list:
A poem for the house sparrow:
She burns, but never breaks;
my cheeks thirst for her songs
and with hope – I lay awake,
quaking in the fire of her embrace.
lovely poem and as usual the birds! 🙂
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Thanks buddy! Been a while. Hope all is peachy in apu land.
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haha yeah its been a long while….i just got a little busy that’s all…all’s well….how are you doing there?
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Good to hear apu. Summer is on its last legs here, so grinning, bearing and waiting for birding season to begin again!
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& we are drowning in rains here! 😀
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Hehe I heard. I am dearly hoping Thattekad gets dry soon!
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yeah me too! 🙂
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Ooh, these sparrows seem so endangered now – well, they are – that I felt so good on seeing one in the rural part of town and pointed it out to my cousin as if it were the most amazing thing on Earth. 🙂 They look so cute, hopping from one place to another. Of course, my cousin looked at me as if I was crazy and I guess, yeah, we subconsciously give importance to superficial appearances more often than not. Enjoyable read, and once again, beautiful photographs! 🙂
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Thanks Sheth, I have a soft corners for sparrows too since my city was blessed with them during the 90s. Lovely to hear you react that way!
And I do want to kick myself in the head for not paying enough attention to the brown shrikes, pied bushchats, mynahs and wrens.
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Aw, it’s okay. It’s never too late! You’re acknowledging the beauty in the smallest of things, and that’s what matters. 🙂
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Never too late indeed, I ll heartily subscribe to that!
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Sweet! I have also given this some thought and, in fact, have a poem about it in my blog.
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Thanks jane, I shall do some Indiana Jonesing and find it if you don’t have the link handy!
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Sorry, didn’t mean to sound coy. It’s titled “Chorus of the Nin-description,” and it went up on May 18, in case you’d like to find it. I’m not good about categories and tags, so that’s the easy way.
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Crud. “Chorus of the Non-Descript.” Stupid autocorrect. Sorry to clutter up your post.
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Oh gosh no need to be sorry at all, auto correct is the bane of my life sometimes! Thank you so much for the point-out, will check it out!
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Oh a burning sparrow song.. I hesitate but here’s one of my old sparrow poems 🙂 https://thotpurge.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/9/
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Hesitate again, missy and I shall send my flying monkeys upon you! That was a beautiful poem, “remix” for sure buddy!
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What can I say to a bard with flying monkeys 🙂 🙂
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(continues to strokes hairless evil kitten called Mr Fuzzymister but takes finger off button titled “launch monkey”) Attagirl!
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Brown and plain, but oh so cute! Once, a regular visitor to our balcony, now a rare sighting. I miss these darlings. I saw a few near my old office building and pointed towards them with joy. My colleague wasn’t impressed. I remembered thinking at that time, what sort of an individual doesn’t get excited about seeing sparrows? And I realised most ‘urban’ people find excitement only in malls. Sigh! I’ll take the great outdoors any day.
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Well said K! It’s so strange that a lot of us have been shocked by people’s indifference to sparrows. They have become such rare sightings in our state! I ll take the outdoors any day too, dear friend, only a terrace garden can have me appreciating the indoors.
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Sometimes it’s hard to love the LBJs as much as the brightly-colored and highly visible. But still, there is an undeniable joy in simply watching them – and I think therein lies the difference. The colorful birds you point out are to see, and there you find the joy – birds like sparrows, though not immediately visually pleasing, can reveal immense pleasure in simple observation.
(A side-note – I share most of the same birds on your list, except the Black Baza, which is the only one I’ve already seen. Not a good view by any means; it was a hundred meters away across a reservoir, but an enjoyable one nevertheless.)
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Very well said about simple observations! The more colourful ones are lost to complex and sometimes befuddled gazes. Thanks for pointing this out.
Black Baza (shudders) look at him! Apparently he soars above chennai in winter. He’s incredibly rare. Sigh (but not really). I heard he is seen often at thekkady reserve forest although I have never seen him there. Must have been an invigorating experience for you!
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In Singapore he’s fairly common, actually – relatively speaking, of course, during migration. It was quite a fantastic experience, though if I have to be truly honest I was somewhat distracted from it by the presence of a grey-headed fish eagle and later a black-capped kingfisher, as well as ospreys and white-bellied sea eagles (it was a raptor-plentiful day).
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Awesome!!! But somewhat distracted? You are clearly a stronger person than I am, my friend. I would have ostensibly jumped off something high in contentment and never be seen thereon.
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It’s a good thing I didn’t and resigned myself to happy squeals because if memory serves me right it was later on that very walk we spotted a twin-barred tree snake (the posts about it are on my other blog, savemacritchie.wordpress.com). MacRitchie Reservoir never fails to surprise. 😜
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Wooaw (stands up to applaud). The next generation has good hands!
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A sparrow! A sparrow! A sparrow! * dancing around in circles * They’re just going the extinct path in cities. Where my parents stay, the nature lovers have posted “MISSING” posters all over the city to grab the attention and for urging to keep the environment clean. Sigh. I love sparrows. ❤
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Woaw now there’s a response arig! Blow up the excitement barometer to smithereens, I say. A nice initiative too (although I am not the biggest fan of printed material). These little beauties must be brought back.
In China, the govt once ordered people to kill sparrows due to misinformation on crop damage. It took months for the idiots to realize that sparrows have been eating the insects that actually damaged the crops. In the end, the farmers lost their businesses and the land – its soil. The government had to bring in sparrows from Burma to restore balance.
I wonder what india has to lose to learn.
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Hmm.. At least the nicer parts (untouched by cement jungles) still have sparrows and likewise, many other wonderful birds in abundance. I miss sparrows chirping on my window in the morning. Those kinds of mornings are the best, that are wished well by sparrows 😀
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I miss these house sparrows 😦 when I was a kid I remember it entering our home and building best inside the room corners…. Aah! Now that’s only a memory!! Bdw nice poem:)
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Thanks shweta! Lovely memories those were with sparrows in the city. I remember crying when one crashed into our ceiling fan many moons ago.
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Awww… I too had the similar heart breaking moment 😦
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I recollected this morning that a song from a shivaji movie – “yeh kuruvi chittu kuruvi” was a constant reminder of this moment. Do listen to the song when you get the time, it’s from a movie called “muthal mariyathai”.
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I’ll 🙂 Have a great weekend!
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Nandri. You too buddy!
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Haha!! Never mind at least you have a list of birds, I don’t even know any other bird than like sparrows or pigeons.
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Giggles. There are several types of pigeons no matter where you are, so perhaps you can start with that!
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What a spectacular bird bucket that is! ‘Discriminatory’ indeed. LOL I like you, will still love the House Sparrow as well as the pigeons and doves. You have to hand it to them for their persistence and cunning and confidence — traits I hope my young people to have as well. Flashy is so overrated.
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It is overrated isn’t it, but even these days nothing distracts me like the yellow in an oriole. It’s one habit I dearly hope to break.
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beautiful Sparrows! Being spontaneous is not everyone’s cup of tea and being it, is awesome. Keep it up.
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Thank you, Hemangini!
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