Tender Talons

There’s never a dull day at our Nandi Hills home. This morning, while I was having breakfast, my house help rushed in to say that a medium-sized bird was in the garden — seemingly hurt or exhausted, making only small movements and feeble attempts to fly.

On a closer look, it didn’t show any obvious injury. Most likely, it had either hurt itself accidentally or been harassed by a larger bird. Its plumage and the piercing yellow eyes helped me identify it as a juvenile shikra (tachyspiza badia), also known as the little banded goshawk.

I always keep my macro and zoom cameras ready, since I never know what the day will bring in terms of wildlife encounters. As the young raptor wasn’t flying off immediately, I took the opportunity to make a few close-up portraits.

After some time, the shikra seemed to gather strength. It hopped onto a boulder, then onto the flowering stalk of an agave in the garden. Finally, with renewed energy, it lifted into the sky.

What began as a seemingly quiet Sunday morning turned into an exhilarating one, leaving me with not just the thrill of the encounter but also a series of intimate images of this striking juvenile raptor.