The bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is a a small, brightly colored migratory insectivorous species found in North America only on the tundra of Alaska and the Yukon Territory and breeding in wet birch wood or bushy swamp in Europe and Asia. It nests in tussocks or low in dense bushes. It winters in north Africa or all the way across the globe in the Indian subcontinent.
On the visit to Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary on 25th Jan, 2013, I reached there about 7:30 am, I asked my guide Sh. Pritam Singh that we shall try and find out a Bluethroat bird again and he was all game. We went around the park looking under the shrubs and bushes where this bird is usually found feeding. But since Bluethorat is a very shy and evasive bird, even after searching on foot for this bird for about 3 hours we were unsuccessful so I sat down on a small track in the water body and put my camera on tripod to get some well deserved rest. I was hoping to get some good shots of water birds specially Pelicans - playing, fishing, flying around and enjoying in the water and marshy land, when all of a sudden I sensed some movement behind me.
The track on which I was sitting is a small man made track of earth and soil which is hardly 7-8 feet wide, it leads about 50-70 meters in the water. There are a few of these at Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. When I sensed the movement behind me, it was very subtle sound of dry leaves on the ground without any other sound (like flapping of wings or light thumping of foot) so I got a little alarmed half expecting an encounter with Indian Rock Python as these are very common here. I slowly turned my head without moving the rest of my body and there I saw a little brown bird of the size of house sparrow hopping under some bushes and in the base of trees. But It was not a sparrow. It turned a little and I was able to see its side profile. Voila!!! There it was! A male bluethroat, which I was searching since morning. I saw it for few moments absorbing its movements, grace and beauty. Then I slowly removed my Camera with Huge lens mounted on it from the tripod (On this trip, I was carrying only one camera body) and slowly turned around for clicking a picture. I fumbled a little with the heavy equipment and raise the camera to my eyes in a very awkward position as I was almost sprawled in the base of a tree. I took some shots quickly and just because of the sound of shutter, this bird flew and went away. This is one of the the clicks from that day.
The bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) is a a small, brightly colored migratory insectivorous species found in North America only on the tundra of Alaska and the Yukon Territory and breeding in wet birch wood or bushy swamp in Europe and Asia. It nests in tussocks or low in dense bushes. It winters in north Africa or all the way across the globe in the Indian subcontinent.
The bluethroat is 13–14 cm in size. Almost as small as the size of a house sparrowIt is plain brown above except for the distinctive black tail with red side patches. The male has an iridescent blue bib edged below with successive black, white and rust coloured borders.
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