Anjana Mehta’s appa’s house is sited somewhere in the foothills of the Himalayas – Nainital to be precise. This is a popular hill station in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, at about 2,300 metres above sea level.
Birds that visit the Nainital House are many and varied. Of the 1,200 odd species found in India, 141 are endemic to this area LINK. And many are endangered.
Anjana’s appa has a feeding table of more than a metre in diameter where he feeds the birds with rice. According to Anjana, these birds prefer cooked rice to raw bird seeds.
“Sometimes large numbers eat together, nearly obscuring the table on which bird food is laid out,” wrote Anjana.
View the delightful video clip below that shows the various Indian birds.
Anjana Mehta
Rajasthan, India
25th February 2019
S DEVASAHAYAM
According to Anjana, many birds preferred cooked rice to raw bird seeds Nainital. Unlike in US and many European countries many tropical species feed on a variety of food and do not rely on grains alone. I’ve noticed that birds like Indian myna, Oriental magpie-robin, White-headed babbler and Red whiskered bulbul (and not forgetting the ubiquitous Jungle and Indian Crow) that forage around homestead gardens in India readily feed on kitchen scraps. Once I noticed even the shy Indian Pitta feeding on kitchen scraps. Probably that is the reason why bird-feeders are not very popular in India.