Bird
Watching in a Balinese Village
If you'd like
to explore the Balinese village through the off- beaten track,
make your time to see their birds diversity of more than thirty
species. It is not necessary to enter the deep forest. By taking
soft adventure like crossing the rice field is a wise choice where
you could see day-to-day life of Balinese farmers and their birds.
You may encounter some activities in the village or in the rice
field. It is an amazing experience where bird-lovers may indulge
in their favorite activities.
Make sure
that you already bring binoculars or a camera to capture a nice
shot. Ask your tour guide to lead you to the rice fields. When
the farmers cultivate the land at post- harvest time, you will
see some local birds around the farmers. Some birds like to chase
food on the open area, like the white heron. They usually look
for food in groups. Foods they like best are eel, frog and small
fish. Sometimes this kind of bird run after their "target"
over the white-leafed seedlings. This can destruct the growth
of it. That's why farmers always cover the seedling with alang-alang
grass and then uncover it until it is high enough or within four
days. Anther bird is the spotted dove. It looks for grain in the
rice field or cereal on the cash-crop spaces. This bird is widely
looked after by the villager due to its nice sound and the united
colors of its feather, gray, black and spotted black and white
on the neck. While other birds that never disturb farmers are
Java kingfisher. Characters of this bird are that it has a long
red beak, contrast blue on the feather and bright blue on the
wings. It looks for food as white herons do.
You still
have another opportunity to see the rich bird's life of the rice
field. When the paddy grows high and also the fruits, many kinds
of small cereal birds will have a party on it. At the same time
it will also be a disaster for the farmers. They will not kill
the birds but dismiss them. To protect against the birds, farmers
make papier-mâché figures in the middle of the rice
field and animated it by pulling the rope from remote place. These
small birds are from the Munia family and usually come in a large
group, such as white headed Munia, scaly-breasted Munia and chestnut
Munia. The most beautiful bird among the cereal-eater birds is
gelatik or Java sparrow that has gray feather, white to pink beak,
white feather under the ears and light gray wings.
The bird
that likes to be alone or just group of two is called white-breasted
water hen. They look for food under the paddy sheath. This kind
of bird prefers to explore closed space like under paddy sheath
or in the bush near creek. It has limited ability to fly. If it
flies long distance it will be four or five hundred meters. When
it reach the third fly, it is generally unable to fly any longer
and hide himself or dive into the water for security purposes.
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