Bird Watch: Blue Whistling Thrush, a bird known for its loud, human-like whistling song

A dark blue-black bird with its head and body spangled silvery blue, the Blue Whistling Thrush has a yellow bill in contrast to its body colour. The size of this bird is 31-35 cm and its colour is its distinguishing feature. It marks its presence with the usual alarm call, which is a shrill kree.

The Blue Whistling Thrush is categorised as a very common bird in the Inter State Chandigarh Region (ISCR) because of the ISCR’s close proximity to the Shivalik foothills from all sides. As there are plenty of forests and wooded areas in ISCR, bird lovers can observe this bird at Sukhna forest reserve, Botanical Garden Sarangpur, Kasauli Hills, Morni Hills etc.

The Blue Whistling Thrush is largely found alone or in a pair, rarely in a group. Even the nests of these birds are found at an appropriate distance. The thrush prefers to make a cup-shaped nest of moss and roots beside streams or seasonal rivulets. A female lays 3 to 4 eggs at a time.

It feeds on fruits, insects, crabs, earthworms and snails. In the wild, the bird has also been recorded preying on small birds. In an alert position, its picked tail and fans give an impression of the style of fantail birds.

The thrush walks in a jumping style on its two feet like a babbler and takes short flights. April to August is the breeding season for this bird.

The Berwala Bird Safari on the two sides of a seasonal small riverbed in Morni Hills is a place where many pairs of blue whistling thrush are seen. I encountered the bird returning from Berwala Bird Safari last Sunday. It attracted my attention when it jumped from the riverbed to the scrubs. After a brief hot chase during which the bird moved from one branch to another, I was able to capture it on my camera. However, I was not fortunate to hear its human-like whistling song and the reason, I realised, was the time, around 10.29 am.