Not more than five hundred

[Samrat Sarkar]

But even after this much of manoeuvre if the nearby female does not respond then it will again fly off in the sky and will try to impress the females with more enthusiasm. These flights of flying into the sky, how beautifully a male can do this, will melt the heart of a female bird and if the female bird approves the stunt that the male shows during its flight only then it will give its consent to mate with her. During this time the male bird will chase its competitors from the area and that is when the males fight each other so as to become the favoured partner of its female counterpart. They say that if a male bird, during the time it chases some other male bird, manages to pluck off one or two feathers from its competitor, it wins the game. The one which loses its feathers is considered defeated and has to leave the area immediately. Sometimes the two males are seen to fight on the ground as well. On one occasion Sir Hume quoted one Mr. Blyth (another famous ornithologist and an officer of the Government of the British India) and said that he witnessed two males fighting each other on the ground. But the moment they realised his presence both of them fled away. After that Sir Hume Quoted “They renewed their conflict at a short distance, and thus allowed him to bag both” Mr. Blith made a very good use of this situation; he gunned down both of these birds. Sir Hume has given a description of the famous flight in his book and has written in detail about its food habits and lifestyles etc. Researchers had of course carried out many more research works afterwards. The scientists of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have done many more important research works on this particular bird. But, it is that first upward flight of the bird from the ground that has made the bird unique. To see the beauty and the uniqueness of that flight many birdwatchers and photographers visit the Manas National Park every year between March and June. I also visit that place during that period of the year to experience that spectacular event and watch them until the sun sets beyond the horizon in the evening.

In one April noon after a short spell of drizzle as I was sitting at Rupohi Camp in Manas. The vast expanse of grass in front of me was looking just like a green bed set with springs. All of a sudden a Florican appeared from nowhere and in a fraction of a second jumped
upward and flew in the sky above. It was like a spot jump by its legs and the height of the jump was not less than three metres. At that moment my vision was fixed at some distance place through the lens of my binocular and the bird seemed to jump from my backside but flew away in front of me. It was quite an amusing experience to me. In between, I click my shutter and sometimes, draw some pencil sketches.