Often, I have seen inquisitive morning walkers along the Dayananad Bandodkar Road Panjim looking up to the trees trying to find out the source of the call which goes “” non-stop.
And often they fail to spot a small green ball of feathers hopping about the branches amidst the green leaves.
When they would realize that I was watching them, they used to give me a smile and shrug their shoulders but birder that I am, I was more than happy to show them the White-cheeked Barbet () hopping along overhead.
The White-cheeked Barbet is resident and endemic to India. Its distribution starts at the north of Western Ghats, extends till south of India and also towards the Eastern Ghats. Like many of the other Asian Barbets, this species is primarily green in colour, the head brownish streaked with white and the bill is pale brownish pink. It has been noted that individuals from the north of the Western Ghats are larger in size than those found in southern Western Ghats.
White-cheeked Barbets are generally frugivorous, that is they feed mostly on fruits. These birds love figs and it is not uncommon to find more than twenty individuals of this species on a fruiting fig tree. While feeding on figs they have been noted to get very aggressive, chasing away other frugivorous birds. This species also feeds on insects from time to time as a source of protein. They also like to feed on nectar from the flowers of Silk Cotton.
They breed between December and June throughout their range in India, while it has been reported that they breed during March-May in Goa. There is an elaborate courtship ritual where the male keeps calling loudly for long periods and once he identifies the female, there is courtship feeding. Their nest is an excavated hollow in a dry tree trunk usually at a height of four meters or more. They usually lay about three eggs in each brood and both males and females participate in incubating the eggs and later feeding the young ones.
International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed this species as least concerned in terms of conservation prioritization because of a healthy population and a large range. It is not uncommon to find during this season a fledgling fallen to the ground. In case you find such an individual, it would be best to leave them at a high and safe place so that the parents can come and guide it. In case the parents are not around for a long time the best course of action would be to hand over the fledgling to the Campal Forest Department who have facilities to take care of such birds.
Image Credit: Edwin Godinho
