Friends ??

[jayesh joshi]

Friends ??

This was the question came to my mind when i noticed the scene from my camera sensor.

It was October`2006 & it was my first visit to a major wildlife sanctuary ( Bandhavgarh) with DSLR. After returning from
morning safari,i went around the backside of the hotel .I wanted to utilize all the possible time .My full concentration was on the common kingfisher-my target, which was flying around a small puddle. Than i heard a bird calling repeatively...a drongo ! very common -i thought -lets not waste time on it & i diverted my attention to my target again. Suddenly the Kingfisher disappeared, so i had no other option & i directed my lense towards the drongo & to my surprise i noticed multiple white spots on its body-Must be a juvenile-i thought ... the Drongo continued calling & soon i saw a tiny bird coming & sitting very close to the drongo-- Friends ?? I thought casually & in the next few seconds they came very close &
suddenly i was unable to see the tiny bird as drongo had opened up its wings,camera continued firing !
The preview was something like this........

[jayesh joshi]

After reaching the hotel room,opened Grimmet & confirmed the drongo to be juvenile of `Drongo-cuckoo'.

The foster parent i thought was `Tawny bellied Babbler' Which i confirmed taking help of friends & respected
Mr.Bill harvey on delhibird forum. His reply was like this....

Yes indeed. A very interesting pic which I hope you will post to all
groups, mentioning date! There are no other pics I know of Drongo
Cuckoos with their foster parents.

You might like to include the following para in your caption in case
it illicits responses from others.

As would be expected this is the peninsular form ducruroides which
Birds of South Asia postulates as a separate species. If it is,
differences in choice of foster parents may be significant so all
record shots of definite foster parents are important.

cheers Bill

[Ganesh H Shankar]

This is amazing and very interesting Jayesh ! Thanks for sharing Bill's reply too !

[Vijay Mohan Raj]

I have seen foster parents of different cuckoos but a Drongo cuckoo very interesting indeed. I wonder how the tiny Tawny bellied babbler could hand a large egg of the Drongo cuckoo.

[sandeepr]

Fantastic to see this! The size of the babbler and drongo is so evident here. I've always heard that Koel's young looks very much like crow and hence crow foster parents koel, but this is something amazing to see.

Thanks for posting this on monthly round up summary. I had missed this earlier.

[S. Das]

This is an Amazing Story and Record Jayesh Bhai !! Thanks to Bill too for his note. I have encountered a similar feeding of a Banded Bay Cuckoo juv by a female Common Iora in Coorg this August. It happened very far from me and I could only shoot some documentation images of it through the leaves ! Your story and these images are Awesome !!!

Cheers !