OL RED EYES

Some of my readers may still remember the singer Frank Sinatra, whose bright blue eyes earned him the nickname ‘Ol Blue Eyes’. You couldn’t miss his eyes, especially in films, as the cameras would zoom in on them. ‘Ol Red Eyes’ I am featuring is quite the opposite – in fact, it is often difficult to catch its red eyes on camera! Photographing black birds is never easy, making it important to catch at least a spot of light in their eyes. I had more luck recently, however, when this Fork-tailed Drongo obligingly perched on a fig tree branch and sang and sang, and sang!

Not only did its full-throated song catch my attention – so did its red eye gleaming in the sun. I could even see its glowing red eye from underneath when it perched in a different tree.

There is always a Fork-tailed Drongo in our garden – at least one. This is breeding time now – which would account for such delightful arias – and so there have been several of them chasing each other around either amorously or combatatively to get rid of unwanted suitors. I score either way.