ML84097881

Observation details

A couple of days before this we had chanced upon a large flock birds around 23 km before Pungro, near the village of Chomi, in a patch of degraded forest. Since we could not see them well, this day we went back to the location and searched extensively, and finally located the flock. They had move about one km from the previous location. They were very skittish, stayed behind the vegetation and seldom came out in the open. Due to this, counting the birds were difficult and the three observers estimated different numbers between 30 and 45, with 30 being the most conservative number. This habitat was shared with small flocks (c. 8-10) of Rufous-necked Laughingthrushes Garrulax ruficolli. UNLIKE the illustrations in field guides, the birds had white (not yellow) vent and dark blue ear coverts. Ramki Srinivasan and Shashank Dalvi, who first photographed the birds in that region three years back, had also reported the same features.