A surprising share of Indian birds hunt the same way: find a perch with a clear view, sit still, watch the ground, drop on whatever moves. It is called perch-and-pounce, and once you recognise it you stop scanning the landscape and start scanning the perches.
This is useful, because a bird sitting on a wire is a bird you can actually photograph.
The drongo owns the best seat
The Black Drongo is the most aggressive small bird in India and the best example of how much a good perch is worth. Glossy black, deeply forked tail, red eye, and a willingness to attack crows, kites and even eagles that come near its territory.
It hunts insects from a perch — sallying out, taking them in the air, returning to the same twig. And because it drives predators away from its patch, other birds deliberately nest near drongos. Orioles and doves have both been recorded doing it. The drongo is unpleasant to everything, which makes it excellent protection.
Farmers understand this bird
Drongos follow grazing cattle and ploughing, taking the insects that get flushed. They also follow forest fires at a safe distance for the same reason, and they will trail langur troops through the canopy.
They are accomplished mimics too, working other birds’ calls into their song — including, unhelpfully, the alarm calls of the birds they are stealing food from.
The kingfisher that is not near water
The White-throated Kingfisher is the bird that breaks the beginner’s assumption that kingfishers eat fish. This one hunts lizards, frogs, crabs, large insects, mice and small snakes, mostly on dry land, and it is perfectly happy on a wire over a field with no water in sight.
Chestnut body, brilliant turquoise back, white throat patch, heavy red bill. In flight the white wing patches flash. The call is a loud descending cackle that you will learn whether you want to or not.
The hunting method is identical to the drongo’s in structure: a high perch, a long motionless watch, a steep drop, and back up to the same spot to deal with the prey. This is the bird to practise flight shots on, because it uses the same perch for hours.
The eagle doing the same thing, slowly
The Changeable Hawk-Eagle is a forest raptor that hunts almost entirely from a perch — sitting quietly inside the canopy for long periods, watching, then dropping onto junglefowl, hares, squirrels and lizards.
“Changeable” refers to its plumage, which varies enormously. Some birds have a tall thin crest and some, like this one, effectively none, and the pale and dark forms look like different species until you learn them. It is the most misidentified large raptor in India for exactly this reason.
Perched hunting is why you find them on the edges of clearings and above waterholes. If you are on safari and want raptors, stop looking at the sky and start looking at the dead branches at mid-canopy height.
And the bird with no perch at all
The Rufous-tailed Lark is here as the contrast. It has no perch, wants no perch, and makes its living walking about on bare open ground eating seeds and insects.
It is stocky for a lark, with a heavy finch-like bill, a streaked breast and rufous in the wings and tail. Everything about it is the colour of dry earth, and you will normally see it only when it moves.
This is what makes dry-country birding hard and grassland birding harder. Perch-hunters advertise their position; ground birds do the exact opposite, and finding them is a matter of walking slowly and letting them break cover.
How to use this when you are out
- Scan perches, not scenery. Wires, fence posts, dead branches, telegraph poles, the topmost twig of a bare tree.
- Note the perch and come back. Perch-hunters reuse favoured spots all day. You do not have to catch the bird; you have to be there when it returns.
- Watch the drop, not the bird. If you want an action shot, prefocus on the ground below the perch.
- Mid-canopy dead branches for forest raptors. That is where hawk-eagles sit.
- Walk, do not scan, for ground birds. Larks, pipits and coursers are found on foot and by luck.
A note on bird names
We identify these birds ourselves, from photographs taken in the field, and we do not always get it right. A great many Indian species are close cousins separated only by a head pattern, a leg colour or a wingbar, and several have been split or renamed in recent years — so two good field guides can genuinely disagree about the same bird.
Where we are not certain, we say so rather than guess. If you think we have named a bird wrongly here, please tell us — we are still learning this ourselves, and we would far rather correct a name than leave a wrong one standing.
Frequently asked questions
What is perch-and-pounce hunting?
A strategy where a bird watches from a fixed vantage point and drops onto prey below, returning to the same perch afterwards. Drongos, kingfishers, shrikes, bee-eaters and many raptors all use it.
Do White-throated Kingfishers eat fish?
Rarely. Most of the diet is lizards, frogs, insects, crabs and small rodents taken on dry land.
Why do other birds nest near drongos?
Drongos aggressively drive crows and raptors out of their territory, so nesting nearby gives smaller birds free protection.
Why is the Changeable Hawk-Eagle hard to identify?
Its plumage varies widely and the crest may be prominent or absent, so pale, dark and crestless birds look like different species.
Where should I look for raptors on safari?
Bare mid-canopy branches at the edges of clearings and above water, rather than the open sky.
Related: Changeable Hawk-Eagle and Sit Under a Fig Tree.