Revealed presence

chet kamat
Aug 15
2 min read

Updated: Aug 26

Since I first began visiting our site, the red-vented bulbuls have been familiar companions. They perch openly, flit across the garden, and are never shy of being noticed. Other bulbul species, though, have been far more elusive.

My phone app, which identifies birds by their calls, has often picked up the songs of red-whiskered bulbuls and even a couple of other varieties. I had seen the red-whiskered ones before, but only from a distance — always appearing shy, never letting me near. The red-vented bulbuls, in contrast, showed themselves freely.

That is why it was a delight when a pair of red-whiskered bulbuls finally revealed themselves in the northeast corner of our garden, choosing the umbrella palm to build their nest. Their first attempt was abandoned just before eggs were laid, but they returned at the end of July, rebuilt, and this time committed. Two eggs appeared, and the mother incubated them patiently.

By mid-August, the chicks had hatched. The parents were in constant motion, flying in with food. I set up a simple perch near the nest so they would pause on their way in, and from a small hide five meters away, I could watch and photograph them without intrusion. Red-whiskered bulbuls are far more skittish than the red-vented ones, which made these close encounters — wings taut, beaks full — especially rewarding.

The feeding was precise. In the early days it was insects: mantises, crickets, larvae, crane flies. Later, as the chicks grew, berries appeared. Somehow the parents know exactly what to bring, and when. Instinct, signals from the chicks, and the season’s offerings guide them — protein first, fruit later. Simple, exact, and always enough.

For me, the real gift was not only sighting a species I had long heard but never seen in my garden, but also being close enough to