The Red-vented Bulbul is a medium-sized bird with a black crest and a white rump. It eats fruit, flower buds, and insects, often found in urban and rural areas, perched high in trees or on wires. Its calls include chirps and whistles, and it's native to South and Southeast Asia.

The Indian Golden Oriole is a bright yellow bird with black wings and a masked appearance due to a black stripe through the eye. Females are dull greenish-yellow with brown/green wings and a yellowish tail. They feed in tree canopies, giving a harsh "krrrrrrrrrrrr" call, and have a distinctive dipping flight style.

The Green Munia is a lovely, small bird resembling a finch, with red bill, red eyes, and barred flanks. Males have brighter greens and yellows. They're found in dry areas with open woodland, scrub, and agriculture, often seen in flocks. Their call is distinctive, a cheerful chirping that echoes through their habitat.

The Asian Openbill is a small stork with a grayish-white body, black wings, and a gap in its yellow bill. They live in wetlands like marshes, flooded fields, and lakes, and they walk slowly in shallow water to find food. They fly in big groups with their necks stretched out, which sets them apart from herons and egrets.

The Brown Noddy is a seabird that lives near coasts and islands. It eats small fish and squid it catches while flying over the ocean. You can often hear its call, which sounds like a sharp "kaaark" echoing over the waves.

The Variable Wheatear is called so because the males have different black-and-white patterns that catch your eye. The females are brownish and not as variable, but they can also be darker or lighter. These birds live in dry places like foothills, plateaus, valleys, and mountains, where they eat from perches and the ground.

The Zitting Cisticola is a small bird found in open grasslands, meadows, and marshes. It mainly eats insects and small invertebrates. Its call is a repetitive “tsik, tsik” sound, often heard during its flight.

The Sirkeer Malkoha is grey-brown with a red hooked bill and dark patches around its eyes. It hunts for food on the ground or in thick bushes in dry forests and scrubby places. When startled, it moves quickly or flaps its wings heavily to escape.

The Nilgiri Sholakili is a small bird found in the Nilgiri hills of India. It eats insects and seeds, living in forests and scrublands. Its call is a cheerful whistle, often heard echoing through the trees.

The Common Merganser is a large duck with a slender body and a long, narrow bill. It lives near rivers, lakes, and ponds, where it dives underwater to catch fish, insects, and crustaceans for food. You can recognize it by its loud, croaking call, which it uses to communicate with other ducks.

Legend has it that storks bring babies. And in the real world, pigeons deliver messages and were used extensively for this during World War I. But in the Harry Potter film, it is owls that deliver letters. Strangely owls are considered wise in the West, but the opposite in India. 

Do you know whether we have hornbills in India? Have you seen one? Indian Grey Hornbills are found all over Bangalore. Do you know something unique about how hornbills make a nest and raise their babies?

What we commonly refer to as parrots are actually parakeets. But are there any true parrots in India? Yes, just one. The proportion of their tails to their bodies sets parrots and parakeets apart; parakeets have longer tails than their bodies. Fortune tellers traditionally used to use parakeets to pick out a card from a stack and then use that to tell the person's future. But keeping parakeets is illegal now.

Weavers, tailorbirds and sunbirds are rightly called bird architects for the intricate nests they build. Tailorbirds sew leaves together with plant fibres, weavers skillfully weave grass into hanging nests, and sunbirds construct delicate cup-shaped nests, often suspended from branches.

Vultures, once abundant in India, have faced a drastic decline due to the use of diclofenac in cattle. This decline has significant cultural implications, particularly for the Parsi community, which traditionally relies on vultures for the "sky burials" of their deceased.

In 1975, a set of commemorative bird stamps was issued, featuring the Black-headed Oriole (Oriolus xanthornus), Indian Pitta (Pitta brachyura), Western Tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus), and Monal Pheasant (Lophophorus impejanus). Notably, the Western Tragopan, designated as the state bird of Himachal Pradesh, in a 'Vulnerable' status on the IUCN Red List, became the first endangered bird to be showcased on Indian stamps.

A philatelic release in 1994 featured endangered species. It showcased the Andaman Teal (Re 1.00), Oriental Stork (Rs 6.00), Black-necked Crane (Rs 8.00), and Pink-headed Duck (Rs 11.00). These stamps depicted an endemic bird and two endangered species, with the Pink-headed Duck being the first extinct bird honoured on Indian postage stamps. Unfortunately, due to a private printer using water-soluble and defective ink, the stamps were of poor quality, leading to their withdrawal. Despite this, some were sold before removal, and today, these stamps are highly sought after for their rarity, commanding exorbitant prices.

Indigenous to Mauritius, dodos were often captured by sailors for fresh meat, ultimately consuming them to extinction in the 17th century. The introduction of domestic animals by the Portuguese and later the Dutch to the island nation is also implicated in their extinction. Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" features a character named Dodo, and the book's popularity contributed to the widespread adoption of the expression "dead as a dodo," indicating something that is extinct or no longer in use.

Long ago, people believed that albatrosses held the spirits of sailors who had passed away. They thought these birds had magical powers that could help heal others. But, if someone hurt an albatross, it was seen as a warning that the sea might bring punishment. The phrase "to have an albatross around your neck" is derived from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In the poem, the main character kills an albatross and the mariner is forced to wear the dead albatross around his neck as a punishment.