City - kolkata State - WEST BENGAL Country - India
About
Coppersmith Barbet(Megalaima haemacephala)
The Coppersmith Barbet or Crimson-breasted Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala), is a bird with crimson forehead and neck. It is a resident near passerine bird from South Asia, with occasional presence in Southeast Asia. The name barbet refers to the bristles or barbs fringing its heavy bill. It may sometimes be referred to simply as Coppersmith. The Coppersmith Barbet is a resident breeder practically throughout South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc.), and is extralimital in Southeast Asia, with related races in Indonesia and the Philippines. The most common barbet, it is found in plains, foothills and terai up to 200m in dry- and moist-deciduous biotope. It is entirely arboreal (like most barbets), preferring open wooded country and urban gardens and avoiding dense forest[2].
Local names: Hindi: chhoTA vasant, Bengali: chhoTo basanta, bhAgirath, Gujarati: TukTukiyo Sinhala: mal kottoruwA Tamil: sinna kukuruvAn). The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk (or tunk), reminiscent of a copper sheet being beaten, giving the bird its name. Repeated monotonously for long periods, starting with a subdued tuk and building up to an even volume and tempo, the latter varying from 1.5 to 2 per second.
The beak remains shut during each call - a patch of bare skin on both sides of the throat inflates and collapses with each tuk like a rubber bulb, with much body and tail shaking. Not very vocal in cold weather - a spell of rain or cold immediately silences them, but it is "one of India's most familiar sounds in the hot season"
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{K:32538} 8/13/2009
