Crested Bunting

 Crested Bunting

The most beautiful and easily recognizable of the five wheat. 

Males: wings and tail orange, the rest of the body and edged chotli black.

Female: greenish brown at the top and dark brown lines.  Bouquet shorter than males.  The color of its tail and wings is light orange.

This beautiful wheat is a native bird of India, but it does not have a population in the state of Gujarat.  It is not in Kutch.  In Saurashtra, the Gir side is rarely seen.  Gujarat has not been seen breeding in the state.  Grass seeds are eaten from the ground.

Crestid branching is popular in Hindi and locally known as stone bird.  In Marathi it is known as Yuvraj and in Sanskrit as Chiritik.  This bird is found in many states of India, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Manipur etc.  These birds generally prefer to live in open areas, bushes, foothills of mountains in a place where there are stones.  Due to being around the stones, it is called stone bird in local language.  It likes to build its nest in stones and mountains.  There is a difference in the color of male and female.

There is a difference in color of male and female birds in this bird.  Most of the body of the male bird is bright black. The wings above are reddish brown to its tail.  The pupil of the eye is dark brown, the beak is black and the claws are bright brown.  While the color of the upper feathers of the body of the female bird is lighter than that of the male bird and the crest of the feather on the head is also smaller than that of the male bird.  These birds are seen alone most of the time.  They live in open forests, foothills of mountains or around rocks in an area with ridges.  They also like to live around stone buildings lying in ruins in mountainous areas, as such areas are considered safe for nesting.  Build a nest in stones

The staple food of this bird is small seeds and small grains of grass and other vegetation.  They usually sit on the ground and eat the seeds.  The breeding time of this bird is from April to August.  These birds nest on the ground.  Their nests are usually built in cracks under hanging rocks, erosions on the banks of rivers or ravines, and in the middle of deep bushes by hiding inside grass or bushes on the ground.  Their nests can also be seen in the walls of some old stone buildings.  The nest is Kapurnuma, which is made of grass, mosh, soft outer roots of trees, etc.  To make the inside of the nest soft, use thin soft grass and hair.  The female bird lays three to five eggs.  They feed their chickens with small insects.  Both males and females raise chickens together.