Book Hounds
We are a perpetually curious group. Like members of secret societies of the Middle Ages, we quickly recognize each other.
2y ago
The Enigmatic Thick-knee
Whenever I hear “Thick-knee” I think of Majeda Haq, birder, conservationist and friend who left this world too soon in 2019.
2y ago
Good-looking Birds
We all have our notion of “good-looking” when it comes to people. This idea extends to other creatures.
2y ago
The Dining Room
One of my most memorable jobs was being waiter. My cousins in Chicago had invited me to spend the summer after college freshman year. Looking for summer work there, I responded to a newspaper advertisement and was hired after an interview. My title was Waiter at the restaurant of Metropolitan Club on the 67th floor of Chicago’s Sears (now Willis) Tower.
2y ago
Predators of Muhuri
Screaming loudly and wildly flapping their wings, the ducks abruptly took off from the water about two hundred feet from our boat.
2y ago
Red Munia
The Red Munia entered my childhood through a story about the Creator painting birds after creating them. However, one fidgety bird has flown off before being painted and returns just when He finishes. There are a few drops of paint remaining with which He splatters this bird. And so this exquisite bird was created with spots of white sprinkled on red.
2y ago
Primates of Bangladesh
On a summer morning several years ago I climbed up the watchtower in Satchori National Park looking for birds. In two hours I saw little.
2y ago
April 24, 2021
Crested Serpent Eagle
I was walking downhill along a narrow plantation trail in Moulvi Bazar when my eyes caught movement in the Kodom tree abutting a pond at the end of the trail.
April 17, 2021
Our Deer
Four species of deer are found in Bangladesh: spotted deer, barking deer, sambar deer and hog deer.
April 10, 2021
Bazas of the World
In late 2019, while visiting Bandarban with friends, I saw a medium sized brown bird perched on a distant tree. It looked like a bird of prey. After looking through my binoculars for a few seconds, I saw a crest of upright feathers on its head. Instantly I knew it was a Baza, or “Baaj Pakhi” of my childhood.
April 3, 2021
My Photography Teachers
I thought I knew everything I needed to know about photography. Then I found myself in a photography workshop taught by Sam Abell. That week ten years ago changed my photographic life.
March 27, 2021
Pallas’s Fish Eagle
One day, I was looking for birds in Hail Haor, a low-lying wetland near Moulvi Bazar where monsoon rain accumulates in large saucer-shaped depressions creating beels and fishponds.
March 20, 2021
Mr. and Mrs. Gould
I became interested in the work of the Goulds after noticing that two of the prettiest birds I have seen bear that name. John Gould (1804-1881) was an English ornithologist and author. His wife Elizabeth Gould (1804-1841) was an artist. The aforementioned birds are Mrs. Gould’s Sunbird and Gouldian Finch.
March 13, 2021
Shikra
Shikra is a bird of prey found all over Bangladesh in forests, village groves, orchards and tea gardens. It is a handsome bird, the size of a large pigeon, with a fine bluish-grey back.
March 6, 2021
What’s in a (Scientific) Name?
In 1758, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus introduced a naming system for living organisms.
February 27, 2021
Feathers
I recently finished the novel Where Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Set in the 1960s, the story is about a girl, Kya, who grows up alone in the marshes of North Carolina after being abandoned by her family.
February 20, 2021
Twilight for the Masked Finfoot?
Rare, endangered and beautiful, the Masked Finfoot shines among the birds of Bangladesh. In the entire world, it is only the Bangladesh Sundarban where it can be found in good numbers.
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