There are several oriental garden lizards living here. They are territorial creatures that stake a claim in certain areas – like a tree or stretch of the wall – and you can count on seeing them at the same place every day. This fellow caught my attention because he got alarmed when I walked by with the camera, and changed the colour of his head to warn me off. When calm, the entire body is the same colour as the lower half in this photo. Only males change colour like this.

This is one of the best shots I’ve ever taken of the Brown Shrike. While small in size, they are hunting birds that like to take a high perch and watch for prey on the ground. They eat insects and small creatures like lizards. My mum refers to it as the “Bandit Bird”. Can you guess why? :D

Here’s another “bandit” – the black-naped Oriole. They are very alert and shy, and tend to fly off quickly whenever we pass by, so I count myself lucky to have taken this shot of it in the jambu tree.

Here are two sets of birds demonstrating their differences in diet – mynahs eating up a papaya that had fallen from the tree, and a dove busily pecking at grass seeds (which is why you don’t see its head).

These speckled doves also seem to like to perch in many places – here is one on the wall between houses, seemingly very happy amidst the thick ivy!

This photo is not rotated in the least – the green parakeets that visit our peacock trees have been seen in all kinds of acrobatic positions as they feed on the bean pods on the trees.