Feels Like Fleeting Love - Scarlet & Rosy Minivets

Pics : 1 - 8 = Scarlet Minivet, Male & Female ; Shri Vijayapuram | Pics : 9 - 16 = Male Rosy Minivet ; Manas National Park

My adventures in Shri Vijayapuram took me into a little lane which was a treasure trove for small birds like I was telling you in “The Cousins, Shama.” It was a narrow, small, overgrown lane with a dead end and with no houses or habitation nearby. Although eerily beautiful, it was seldom used and exists with its intended purpose forgotten in time. That little lane nonetheless gave me access to quite a number of species of little birds which I would never have been able to see otherwise given my cane aided mobility needs. I can’t do treks like most who indulge in this hobby and my friend Mani’s knowledge about his habitat enabled us to pull our vehicle into that treasure trove and spend an afternoon there which in turn taught me about so many fascinating birds whom I’d have missed cause of my personal limitations. I needed the car there to rest and take breaks in between the photography and Mani thankfully had done his recee of the area before my arrival to plan my trip with my preferences in mind.

I could tell that Mani was excited about this planned outing and its prospects when we set out after lunch that day and the most stunning bird out of the lot that I met that afternoon was undoubtedly the Scarlet Minivet. That bird along with the other minivets whom I’ve met since have taught me that they are pretty tough to lock your camera's focus into because that’s just how restless they are. They’re not the smallest or the lightest and while smaller birds move their heads a lot, these guys move their entire bodies when perched and they are always fluttering from one spot to the next. They make you work hard for a variety of reasons actually but then I guess that’s what makes their clear images so special for me at least. These birds like the security that thick foliage provides them with and that’s why they stay in dense forest and not by the road. Foliage though is clutter for a cameraman and comes in the way of a clear image of the subject. You also have limited manoeuvring space for yourself in these spots with dense vegetation and lining up your shot becomes another challenge as well.

Despite all the difficulties and challenges though, the Scarlet Minivet was not difficult to spot at all even in the thickets and I caught his arrival into my field of vision pretty easily from the corner of my eye as I was photographing the Andaman Shama. The Red or Scarlet, if you prefer was instantly noticeable and made my attention shift right away. Now, Red isn’t uncommon on birds. So much of it though, at such high saturation levels is very unique and I’m sure that pretty much everyone would react with surprise like I did on seeing this bird for the first time. My guy gave me a few poses on a perch as you can see here (Pics : 1 – 5) before he dashed off into the clutter again but his departure brought out his mate (Pics : 6 – 8) who was in as much of a hurry as well. I’ll have to admit that this couple had me dancing like a fool after their initial perched introduction. One dashed off to my left, the other to my right and both were darting from one cluttered perch to the next while I struggled comically to photograph and keep an eye on both simultaneously for a chance at some clear images which just didn’t come my way despite the struggle that they put me through. I got nothing but fleeting glances of both the birds after that and they soon disappeared into the dense vegetation where they’d emerged from. The bright saturation of the colour on these birds was easy to spot but catching them in the clear for a steady image was a tough task and I was left panting and thankful for the initial clear shots that I had landed of the two at the start of the sighting. The rest of the images were all headed straight to the bin. I was also thankful to have Mani there to identify the female because there’s no way that Id’ve guessed then that these two were of the same species. Sexual dimorphism in birds is common but not to this extent in my experience. I’ve learnt since that all the females of the different kinds of minivets look similar to each other while it’s the males who flaunt these flamboyant and saturated colour combinations that sets the species apart usually. The Male also gave me first hand experience with a moulting bird for the first time. See how my scarlet friend has loose feathers that seem like they're gonna fall off, well they will cause birds change their feathers on a schedule that differs according to species and that's the "moulting" process. These two were the ideal introduction into the lives of these brightly coloured wonders for me and taught me what to expect when I encounter their kind. You need to be a lot more alert and aware around minivets in comparison to other birds of their size because these guys are in a perpetual hurry like much smaller birds and their preference of staying in the thickets adds to the difficulty of landing good images of their kind. I know that I have to be quick with minivets now and that there’s no chance with them if your camera isn’t already in your hand and set up for speed with at least 1/2500 already dialled in at Shutter Priority and all of that learning pretty much started with these two.

These birds can get upto 22 cms in length and 34 gms in weight. So they’re middle weights but like I just said, these guys have the attention spans of birds which are usually half their weight like the smaller Tits of the lower Himalayas. They belong to the Cuckooshrike family of birds which isn’t named so because of any behavioural or habitual links to the families of Cuckoos or Shrikes actually. I met the Oriental Cuckooshrike on the same trip as the Scarlet Minivet and this family was named because of physical resemblances to the other species whose names it carries. They somewhat look like Cuckoos and Shrikes and hence the name, apparently. That sorta, kinda makes sense, but oh well. Bird’s names man ! The birding trip in Andaman introduced me to a couple of other kinds of Minivets and all those sightings were similar and hurried. These brightly saturated birds and especially the males among them always command attention because of their flamboyant colours and yet though, they did not change the scene that they entered quite as dramatically as their Scarlet cousin who is just impossible to miss because he is coloured like love itself. You just cannot miss that bird even if you can only see him partially.

My visit to Manas National Park a year or so after meeting the Scarlet Minivet was planned to observe, learn about and photograph the primates who live in the thick vegetation of that landscape. The forests in Manas are old, tall and ancient and the landscape also has grasslands scattered in between but the thick vegetation of the woodlands there introduced me to a cousin of the Scarlet Minivet that brought back memories of my first meeting with the minivets. The subject in question was the Rosy Minivet (Pics : 9-16) and this guy looked pretty much like love to me just like his cousin whom I’d encountered in the Andamans. Hey, I can’t really help it if conditioning has programmed the association of love to the colour red but it’s also the fact that most birds that have red feathers, have the red in patches and these guys stand apart easily because they’ve got red all over. The Rosy Minivet, pretty much like all of his kind, only gave me fleeting glimpses mostly and I could score clear images from just one of the perches that I caught him at. I wasn’t even as successful with his mate and don’t even have a single clear image of the female Rosy Minivet who was around the male that you see here. Manas is a Reserve Forest and photographing these guys from the confines of my safari vehicle added a whole new level of difficulty to a tough task cause you just don’t have the manoeuvrability that you need for pictures of fast birds when you’re limited to the space in the vehicle.

The Scarlet Miniver and The Rosy Minivet are coloured like love with their bright, saturated, red hues and their restless actions whether they are in flight or perched are adorable to witness always. I guess that it’s natural to want to watch them do their thing for longer but they usually just don’t give you that chance because of the perpetual hurry that they are in. They always leave you wanting for more and I guess that’s why everyone falls in love with these fleeting beauties. You just have to see them to know and I for one know that these birds give me the happy feeling inside every time I see them. Now, I just have to somehow score more images of them I guess.

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