Hi,
We went to a place near Santiniketan,West Bengal,India to see a huge heronry. It was a colony mostly comprising of Asian Openbills. There, I was very much surprised to see many of them carrying the leaves of Akashmoni/Sonajhuri (Acacia auriculaeformis) trees, obviously to use as a lining in their nests. These birds selected only large Tamarind trees to build their nests and since there were no Sonajhuri trees nearby, they had to fly quite a distance across the paddy fields to collect these leaves. There were many big trees closeby in that village like mango, black plum or jamun etc but these birds were not at all interested in them. So, I was wondering whether the leaves of Sonajhuri trees have any medicinal property or serve any special purpose for them! ( May be, the semi-circular leaves of Sonajhuri only fits well in their round nests! )
Here is an image of an Asian Openbill carrying such leaves of Sonajhuri tree.
Shot on a clouded day at Yajna-nagar on 19.7.08
Thanking you,
Maitreyee
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