Birds Recently Uplisted on IUCN

Meet 5 Indian birds recenty uplisted on the IUCN red list. Comic from my column with Roundglass Sustain. 

Pick up Lines from Wild Animals

Brush up your pick up lines before Valentine's Day! From my column with Sunday Mid-day.

Prints available on my webstore here. (For orders within India (A3 and A2 size posters), write to me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com)

Wildlife of Seychelles

In an exciting assignment commissioned by the Save our Seas Foundation working in The Seychelles, I created a habitat illustration of St. Joseph Atoll and D'Arros Island. I got to draw and learn about many creatures I had never heard of before, and the illustration was among my work detailed work on marine fauna. Click on the illustrations for a larger view.

Copyrights to all images here belong to the Save our Seas Foundation. While the habitat illustration is to be published in the Save our Seas Magazine and posters, each of the illustrated elements will be used in merchandise.

Some Female Indian Wildlife Artists

This Women's Day, meet some of India's female wildlife artists! Read more about them here, and I guarantee you'll be inspired through the day:

Maya Ramaswamy- http://www.artistsforconservation.org/category/news/maya-ramaswamy,

Sangeetha Kadur- http://sangeethakadur.blogspot.in/, 

Sunita Dhairyam- http://jlrexplore.com/explore/interviews/sunita-dhairyam-wild-canvas,

Hemlata Pradhan- http://www.serindiagallery.com/hemlata-pradhan/

Roshni Vyam- https://www.natureinfocus.in/author/roshni-vyam

Niharika Rajput- http://www.niharikarajput.com/about/

Nirupa Rao- http://beejliving.com/the-woman-who-paints-trees/

Ashvini Menon- http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/ecotism/article19895165.ece, http://www.ashvinimenon.com/

The comic appears in my column with Mid-Day. (The list of artists depicted in this strip is far from comprehensive; India has many, many more, both established and budding!)

Birdwatching from a Train

A comic inspired partly by Douglas Dewar's essay 'A Naturalist in a Railway Train', and partly by true incidents, that appears in my column with Saevus magazine this month. I am sure every Indian birdwatcher who has taken a train journey will relate.

Weavers of India

On National Handloom Day, meet the weavers of India! Weaver birds are small passerines known for making some of the most complex nests in the avian world. Out of the four species found in India, the Baya is the commonest, and the Finn's the rarest. Weavers are frequently associated with grasslands and reeds.

Prints and merchandise available on my webstore here. 

For orders within India, mail me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com. (Prices of prints and merchandise for Indian orders-

A1 Posters (loose)- Rs. 3000 each

A2 Posters (loose)- Rs. 1200 each

Mounted Posters (A3- Individual species and compilation)- Rs. 2000

Loose Posters (A3- Individual species and compilation)- Rs. 500 for the first copy and Rs. 200 for the second copy onwards

Fridge Magnets (65 x 65 mm, Printed in sets of 4)- 4 Weavers for Rs. 1200

Coffee Mug (Compilation)- Rs. 850

Courtship vs Tinder

Courtship vs Tinder. From my column with Mid-Day today. The animals shown in the comic are the Marsh Warbler, the Argali, the Nursing Web Spider, the Gentoo Penguin, the Baya Weaver, and the Superb Bird of Paradise.

Prints available on my webstore here.

Baya Weaver Nest- Behind the Scenes

It's monsoon! Here's a behind-the-scenes look at a Baya Weaver nesting colony.

The male Baya Weaver, a renowned architect, must build the most attractive hanging nest out of wild grass, to attract a mate. Only if the female is satisfied, does she sees his as an apt suitor. Then she mates and participates in completing the nest with the male. The male may make up to 500 trips to complete the nest!

The comic appears with my Sunday column in Mid-Day today.

The first rains

Monsoons are generally not considered a birding season, but in India, it does fill birders with much anticipation and excitement. The arrival of the Pied Cuckoo in India coincides with that of the monsoon winds and hence it is revered as the harbinger of rains. A birdwatcher's delight, this bird is an absolute thrill to track in the monsoons. It is a brood parasite that nests around this time of the year, parasitizing the nests of babblers. Pairs can often be seen courting each other, whistling a loud but melodious "peeu-peeu". Hairy caterpillars are the Pied Cuckoo's favourite food, and it is quite a sight to watch the bird tackle one, so I've drawn a caricature of the Pied Cuckoo with its breakfast-

The comic appeared in The Hindu Business Line this weekend and is available as an A3/A4 print, and so is the caricature. Mail me at rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com to book your prints or purchase your prints online here.

Also have a look at Migrant Watch's Pied Cuckoo Campaign that attempts to engage birdwatchers to study the migration patterns of the Pied Cuckoo.

15 Amusing Bird Nests

Nests are a truly remarkable result of evolution and an example of the artistic superiority of birds over the rest of the animal kingdom. Edward Hamilton Atkien devotes one whole chapter of his widely read 'Tribes on my Frontier' explaining why in his view, birds are a much more sophisticated class, owing to their elaborate coutrship displays and their preference for tastefully designed houses. Although nests are usually thought to represent decorative and elaborate structures such as the cup-shaped nests of flycatchers or the hanging nests of the weaver, the term applies to a wide variety of structures which are used to harbour birds'eggs. These may range from the intricately stitched nest of the Common Tailorbird to the shabby, haphazard arrangement of twigs used by doves. Some birds like the murres lay their eggs directly onto rocky ledges while some swifts construct their nests entirely out of their sticky saliva. Nests are yet another reflection of the fact that birds truly are creatures of taste.

A very happy Wildlife Week! And as always, the compilation is available as a poster, which you can order by writing to me on rohanchakcartoonist@gmail.com. Saevus readers will have seen 11 of these already in the August issue of the magazine.

This work by Rohan Chakravarty is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.