forktails

Common waterbirds include the red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus), wagtails, sandpipers, forktails, and river chat (Thamnolacea leucocephala).

Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests 2007

In India forktails are confined to the Himalayas and the mountainous parts of Burma.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

Indeed I know of few things more enjoyable than to sit, when the sun is shining, on the bank of a well-shaded burn, and, soothed by the soft melody of running water, watch the forktails moving nimbly over the boulders and stones with fairy tread, half-flight half-hop.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

Spotted forktails are often seen near the places where the _dhobis_ wash clothes by banging them violently against rocks, hence the name dhobi-birds, by which they are called by many Europeans.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

As I have already hinted, forktails are rather shy birds.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

My arrival was of course the signal for loud outcries on the part of the parent forktails.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

The young ones were covered with tiny parasites, which seemed quite ready for a change of diet, for immediately after picking up one of the young forktails, I found some thirty or forty of these parasites crawling over my hand!

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

Having duly inspected the blind, naked, newly-hatched forktails, I went farther down the stream to try to see something of a pair of red-billed blue magpies (_Urocissa occipitalis_).

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

However, after I had been squatting about ten minutes in my _cache_, to the delight of hundreds of winged insects, the suspicions of the forktails subsided, and the birds began collecting food, working their way upstream.

Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916