Contrasting birds comes rather organically as one scours a landscape for their activity… and so was the case as one mused upon an Imperial eagle and a Grey francolin, diametrically opposite for the most part but then there are some similarities the more one thinks about it… while one bestrides the high skies and canopies, the other subsists among the undergrowth… the eagle looks domineering in its perch, an unflinching gaze building up to precise attacks, while the partridge tiptoes around jumpily, probing the ground for nibbles… one a ferocious hunter and the other a popular gamebird…
Both birds prefer some foliage in otherwise open countries, not afraid to venture out into the open but preferring the privacy of some vegetation, the eagle perching itself between high branches of mature trees and the francolin rustling about the understory, although they come up the lower ends of the trees for roosting… and there’s a grace… to the way the eagle hunts and the partridge runs, the latter reminding Rudyard Kipling’s father of a girl skipping along with her skirt held up… having flushed quite a few out while running, I can agree, mildly envious of their flawless gait…
Tolerating some level of human disturbance, they are both tamed for rather violent avocations, the eagle for falconry and the francolin for sport fights… rather ingenious (despite being flagrant) in a way, for what better than making a cold-blooded killer out of a quintessential loner, and for those who revel in their covey, turning them against one another…
Monogamy is the way of life for the eagle and the partridge, mating for life, even though the parenting styles vary, the former painstakingly raising a brood in nests high atop trees with an expression that can be best described as brooding (one can’t resist), while the latter takes the kids around the park every now and then… as above, so below, one concludes the thought, shifting the attention to other raptors that abound in these arid surrounds…
Musing on an Imperial eagle and a Grey francolin, Tal Chappar, Rajasthan
