They're Electric : Asian Fairy - Bluebird

South Andaman | Pics 1-6 = Female ; Pics 7-12 = Male, Asian Fairy - Bluebird

We were parked in an area that was teeming with wildlife that second afternoon in Shri Vijaya Puram. Thing was though that it was all around. Business had to be done hand held and on foot which is a bit of an issue with yours truly’s hip especially with the 200-600 mm involved. I’m very thankful to Mani for his help. Dude literally wouldn’t let me carry my cam from spot to spot throughout the trip. So my routine became, to walk to a spot with my cane, prop cane up to my hip, ask Mani to hand over cam, take pics and while I did, he’d invariably spot the next target, take the cam from me again and the whole process would go on repeat till I’d have to take a break and sit back in the car for 5 minutes or so and then start again. This was our system for hand held sessions and overall I think the team work paid off big time. What I’m most thankful about is that I didn’t miss many. I missed a woodpecker who I saw for a second I think and he flew off before my focus got him clear on file. We totally skipped the walking trails, there’s that obviously but I don’t think I missed a single target that my spotter laid out for me because of my hip issue. It’d be a damn shame if I did. Mani brought his A game and was very well prepared. He’d recced all the spots before I flew in cause of my current hip situation. I didn’t want to waste his efforts. By his count, we could’ve had like 10 or so more species recorded if we did those walking trails. So overall, I’d say I did pretty good thanks to Mani’s back up. Now Mani’s a pretty good photographer himself but not once did he say, “Let me take it for you”. Dude gets it and I’m so grateful.

She’d already gotten my number and was staring at me with those hypnotizing red rimmed eyes by the time I caught her on focus (Pic: 1) and she literally forced my thought process to pause. I’d just seen her from the corner of my eye and was very happily surprised to see her head on. Her first lesson was that not all midsized birds are chilled out. These guys move like smaller birds. Good thing that I was shooting the smaller Violet Cuckoo before them and I didn’t have to change much, settings wise. There wasn’t much time. They’re quick and nimble and go through the foliage in a hurry unlike any bird of their size that I’d seen before. The difficulty with that is catching them clear of foliage on file. Perhaps the story would be very different if we’d seen them someplace else but these guys are known to live in the middle of the forest. They nest in the thick of things and are known to cover their nests with moss. Everything was happening in a hurry but I do recall thinking to myself that she was pretty damn detailed for a female. Look at her (Pics: 1 - 6). Enough shades and patterns to put most male birds to shame and then, he made his entry. Electric Blue on Pitch Black (Pics: 7 - 12). I was dumbfounded behind the view finder, thinking can that blue even be natural? I honestly did not even think that that level of black could exist on a bird before I saw this guy. I lost a few seconds there. His female had paused my thought process, he stopped it. What colours on the Show Stopper man ! Overall, the couple was a fantastic find although not easy to photograph where we were at. What amazing colours, patterns and the red eyes on both. Such beauty ! The electric couple.

I just had to find out more about these guys the minute I got back to the hotel. Turns out that just as the Indian Roller has mythological significance in India, over in The Philippines, in old Tagalog mythology, the Philippine fairy-bluebirds were known as the tigmamanukan omen birds. According to legend, Bathala, the supreme God in Tagalog mythology, ordered a tigmamanukan bird to crack in open a bamboo stalk from which came Malakas and Maganda, the first humans. Looking at these birds, its no surprise they're legends.

These guys range across South East Asia with different subspecies present all over the islands. Now, given the awesome learning experience I just had on one island, it’s no surprise why I’m starting to like the sound of this word so much. Much reading to be done and contacts to be made before the next big location is decided, I think. Oh yeah ! Hip to be fixed too.