Red spurfowl

Thattekad Eldhose bird hide, Kerala

There was a time when I used to ran for any spurfowl like crazy. I used to see photos of red spurfowl in social media and thought how can people get it with such flawless frame! Actually that I time I did not know its habitat and the adequacy of finding this bird in South India. So when I came here, in Valley school first I saw it inside the bushes and heard its call. That day I was eagerly hoping it will come out but it didn’t. So I had got a record shot from there. But it made me more thirsty and I kept thinking where and when should I get it.

Then I heard about Ramnagara hide in Karnataka. But did not get any company to go there and people who get it from hide, unfortunately they never go there again. So I kept counting my turn. In December 2023 finally we made a plan for my dream birding destination in India that is Thattekad Kerala. And this time I was pretty sure that I will get to see this bird in hide for sure. So we went to the Eldhose hide for an evening session birding. And guess what!!!

On the start of the show surprisingly it call from the hide. And it gave me goosebumps when I saw it first inside the bushes. We all knew it will come in front of us and it did not take 2 min that it appeared after the female arrived. Ohh boy what a beauty it was. It gave ample amount of time while foraging from the ground. It’s movement and color totally pour joy inside my heart.

Female arrived first and started consuming worms given on the trunk. After 10 min of eating it went back to the jungle. Later I understood went to call its male pair, and they both arrived. It is easy to get its picture as its behaviour is similar like a rooster, but once you get it in jungle and it tries to run away, it is difficult to capture because within a fraction of second it hide itself inside bush and then pop up inside of the clutters.