This beautiful bird has some peculiar habit of making a peculiar sound..It is said in books like Jungle book that certain birds survey from top by flying &inform birds &animals if they come across enemies like Lion&Tiger so thats the animals could take precaution to save themselves from being killed by wild animals.
It is also said some birds make peculiar sounds to alert other animals.The sound of Chempoth is similar to a signalling sound different from common sounds made by other birds.
When I watched them in Kerala because of its beautiful color&eyes ,I did not hear it's sound.
Vbut later on when I heard the sound made by it looked as if it was sitting alone at any place making this sound in rhythm of Music.I ,naturally,got more interested in this bird.I asked a native about this bird.He said that "Chem" means red&"Poth" means buffalos.I could not totally digest what he said .Though the color suits to "Chem" the term "Poth" did not in any way matched because the beautiful bird had nothing to do with buffalos.Then he too got interested in discussing more about the bird.I offered him Tea&Dalvada from a neighbouring Tea shopon tyhe street,They make very good Tea.He was delighted&got more &more interested in talking.
The story he said was relating to the color of the bird&the signalling sound made by it frequently.What he said was though very entertaining ,it was stunning&astonishing to some extent.
He was telling that this beautiful bird was earlier found in forestlike terrain places of the hilly areas of Kerala.
The sound it made frequently was a kind of signal to alert people hiding in the area either from Police or unscrupulous &daring animals &men of cruel nature.It helped the hiding men to change place to escape from the notice of such animals& men.
I remembered Jungle Book for a second &asked how all these he said had any relation to buffellos.His reply was rather very funny&confusing.He said this bird was friendly with the buffello like men hidinfg from Police.Most of them either Thieves or political criminals.
Though I could not relish what he said fully on thinking later on it appeared as if there was some kind of logic
in what he said.But how this bird became friendly with the hiding people was still a mystery for which there was no convincing confirmation from my friend.
Finally I had to relax myself with the not very convincing logic that the men like the Buffalos hiding there might have in token of their gratitude named it as "Chempoth".Of course the they might have also given some kind of food to the bird regulary to get friendly with the birds/
This was the best option I coulf find to digest his suggestions &logic
Sreedharan Mundanat
June 2012
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ReplyDeleteDear Sir,
ReplyDeleteI don't know too much about this bird. I read your article. I saw this bird in my village near Itaunja which is in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. I clicked few photographs of this bird. It may be a coincidence but where I found this bird there were few buffaloes nearby. These birds live near a pond (in a hiding) in which those buffaloes take dips.
Dear Mr.Sreevastava,
DeleteTwo days back I had an opportunity to see thethe red eyed bird in a colony of villas in in Kakkanad ,Kochi .The colony at one end has some place in the border like a small forestlike place where trees grow thickly.When the bird saw mev,recognized as a stranger&made peculiar signalling sound.I tried to takeca photo but could notas it flown away to one of the trees behind it.Then next two daysc searched for it in other parts of the residential colonybwhere various type of common birds were found .But never the redeyed beautiful bird.So i have come to theconclusion that they stick to a particular area and do not mingle with common birds foundeverywhere in Kerala.They reminds birds in Junglebook who have thevsin=milar habitof giving warning signals to other birds and animals when they notice wild animals.Birds have additional advatage ofvnoticing all happeings in the jungles from top ie ariel view.Wild animals can not hurt them too.
Hello Mr.Srivastava ,your comment is welcome.What I could infer from what you said is that relating to certain birds which help Buffalos to clean their body.When the Buffaloes roam for grass to seat,usually some birds sit on their back and clean it by picking up the insects that might be hiding there. obviously they eat the insects disturbing to the Buffalos. So the bird gets its prey and the Buffalo gets rid of the insects.As regards other part of the blog ,they are just story said by a villager.But the signalling part of it seems to be correct from what I had observed. Although the bird comes near houses where people reside ,they never gets friendly with people.Neither the people feed the bird.But it is a beautiful birds carrying mystery behind it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
Sreedharan.
This bird lives in areas where there are trees and undisturbed vegetation.They do fly but most of the time they walk,jump and use short flights.They enter bushes or dried leaves areas for insects.When they walk on dried leaves, insects come out and this bird catches them.They make a mook mook sound which is different from other birds.It has red eyes, red and black feathures.Its as big as a hen with longer tail feathures.Mostly found in Kerala and near the Tamilnadu border with Athibele in Bengaluru.
ReplyDeleteThis bird comes and sit near my window in borivali west mumbai-400091
ReplyDeleteTis bird might have come from borivali national park
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteI am from city 'Shah Faisalabad' , Punjab province, Pakistan. I saw it in my home today. Yes it has totally different voice.