Pet Birds of Bengal/The Fatik-jal (Iora)

The "Fatik-jal" or Iora, as it is known to the Europeans, is a beautiful little bird with a sweet though melancholy note. Its plaintive cry just before the rains is so pathetic that popular imagination interprets it as an appeal to Heaven for water. This bird is happy only in Nature's bosom and becomes so morbid in the cage that it seldom lives long. Insect-feeding birds seldom thrive in captivity unless they take to artificial food. The Fatik-jal is so thorough-going an insect-feeder that it appears to derive very little nourishment from the prepared food supplied by man. Not that captivity tells upon its temper and makes it refuse food altogether. On the contrary, it greedily devours the food offered, unlike many insectivorous birds. It languishes, notwithstanding, for inexplicable reasons.

​It is greatly sought after by bird-lovers who bestow on it much tender care. The reason is two-fold. It is, in the first place, a bird of beautiful plumage—an attribute not found in all song-birds. Its green, set off by yellow, makes it very attractive. Secondly, there is an irresistible charm in the appealing sweetness of its voice which ranges from a loud and clear fluty octave to a very low, tender, almost melancholy whistle.

The Fatik-jal is a resident bird all over India except Sind, Rajputana, and the Punjab. In Southern India it is numerous in the plains as also in theDistribution hills all along the Western Ghats except Southern Travancore. It does not generally ascend the hills to more than 3,000 ft., but it has been recorded in Ootacamund. Eastwards from the Northern fringes of the Western Ghats, it is found in the Central Provinces, Chotanagpur extending to Oudh, and the lower ranges of the Himalayas up to Assam in the East. It is a common bird all over ​Bengal but it is rare in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta. To the West it is found in the Ajmere district up to Mt. Abu. Here there is a break in the continuity of the distribution, for immediately east of Abu and up to Bundelkhand, the country is inhabited by another species of Iora.

Every orchard and garden give shelter to this active and restless bird. Amidst the thick foliage of the spreading mango, tamarind,Field Notes and clumps of tall and nodding bamboos, the Iora keeps for hours ​searching minutely every leaf and twig for insects. It does not, however, show any partiality for particular trees. Any leafy tree, affording plenty of shade and cover, may be its hunting ground. Gardens and orchards are not the only places where we find this bird. The edges of jungles, and trees around cultivated fields are its haunts as well, and I have noticed them also amidst roadside foliage in Deoghur. It is not easily detected amidst its haunts in spite of its bright plumage. As it selects the most leafy and luxuriant trees, which afford it the most effective cover, its green colour and small body help admirably to defy detection. Snugly concealed, it proclaims its presence only by its incessant vocal efforts. "A voice and nothing but a voice" is the aptest description that may be applied to it.

The male keeps up a continual strain of music, sometimes melodious, sometimes querulous, at others merely chattering—but each note different from the other. ​Just before the rains, its cry becomes appealingly plaintive, quite powerful, and very much flute-like. Now it is raised to the highest—almost a shrill—pitch, and then suddenly it falls to a soft, mellow, and plaintive note. This last note has a sad sweetness in it which makes it the more charming. The distinguished "Eha" while admitting the sweetness and variety of the Iora's notes, says, "It has no song." To this Dewar retorts with this happy, if sarcastic, reply, "it continually makes a joyful noise", and says that "it is a good songster".

The cry of the bird sounds like '​ta-fee-ka​' or, as rendered in Bengal, Fa-tee-ka (whence its name), the second syllable being deep, long and loud. Layard describes this note as a "clear bell-like whistle which can be imitated on an octave flute." Legge renders it as 'chee-tooo'. The people of Upper India interpret it as '​Shou-biga​' which to Dewar hears like '​So-be-ye​'. The people of Bengal identify this bird ​with the "Chatak" of Sanskrit literature, wherein it is described as a thirsty bird, always invoking the cloud-gods in a plaintive voice for drops of heavenly water, as it refuses to quench its thirst with water from the earth. European Orientalists believe that the Chatak is a different bird—Coccystes jacobinus, which has a "rather plaintive, not unmelodious call."

It hops about the leaves with marvellous dexterity and searches them in the fashion of White-eyes. Sometimes, it may be seen hanging on, like a tit, to a slender twig scrutinizing the surrounding foliage. It seldom leaves a tree unless it has been thoroughly searched and then makes a rapid flight to another, where also it remains for hours. As it hops from twig to twig, it may be noticed that every time it utters its low whistle, there is a soft echo from the same or another tree. This is its sweet-heart which is always near or around its gallant. Sometimes two hens and a cock may be seen together; and ​though several pairs of these birds may occasionally be seen in the same tree, it is not usual to find more than one couple close together. But immediately after the breeding season, we find three ​or four birds in the same tree enjoying a joyful dinner. This is not a social gathering but a purely family group. The one or the other of the fond parents generally looks after and, perhaps, educates the children by practically demonstrating to them how to fly and hunt—even when they are grown up and ready to take the chances of life independently. After the day's incessant hunt for food, when the bird retires to roost at dusk, it rolls itself up into a ball and tucking its head and bill under the feathers goes snugly to sleep.

The flight of this bird, though rapid, can scarcely be said to be graceful. It is a combination of quick flappings of the wings and dipping of the body, which produces a strange sound. The Iora catches its prey on the wing sometimes, but comes down to a branch or to the ground to swallow it. Larvae, spiders, caterpillars, and small insects chiefly form its food. From an economic point of view, it is distinctly beneficial, as it feeds on injurious insects.

​In the nesting season, the male becomes exceedingly lively. It is supposed by many that the Iora mates for life, "till death do them part". But unlike many a human husband, the Iora's love for its lady never wanes. Every season, the cock bird tries its best to please its partner by showing off its physical charm and vocal attainments. It would indulge in short fluttering flights from tree to tree with its black tail spread out and the white plumes of the flanks puffed up. Sometimes, it rises up into the air, and when descending, it comes spinning round and round, its small body looking more like a fluffy ball of down than a bird. All the time it descends, it utters a strange protracted sibilant sound. At other times, it darts out from one tree with a moth or butterfly in its beak and vanishes amid the foliage of another. "When their nests are meddled with", says Munn, "the old birds are most vociferous, crying and fluttering about quite close, and often ​
IORA ​making a curious buzzing noise with their wings."

The mating period of this bird extends from May to September according to locality. In our province, June-July seems to be the height of the breedingNests and Eggs season for this bird. The rains commence in those months, and the bird is also in the splendour of its song at that time. The nest is generally built at a height of from ten to twenty-five feet from the ground. It is placed on the upper surface of a horizontal branch. Sometimes, a slanting bough is selected when the nest assumes somewhat of a pocket-shape. Occasionally, it is built between three or four slender twigs forming an upright fork. The nests are deep, and neat little thin-walled cups—an "after-dinner coffee-cup" as Eha puts it—made up of fibres, grass and hair, thickly coated externally with cobwebs by which it is firmly attached to the branch on which is is placed, and also to any little twig spring​ing out of that branch that may adjoin the nest.

Three is the usual number of a clutch of eggs, which are broad ovals slightly pointed at one end. The eggs, however, vary a good deal in shape and colour. Their ground-colour is grey or dirty white, but some have a creamy tinge, with large brown or reddish-brown streaky blotches more numerous at the thick-end.

Many an honest attempt has been made to familiarise it with the cage but all attempts have so far been disappointing. When first caught, the IoraCage-life shows little shyness, utters its characteristic call, and readily takes insect and artificial food unlike many newly-caught birds that disdain prepared food. But the food apparently fails to suit the bird which pines away soon. I made several attempts to reconcile the Iora to captivity. Only a few lived appreciably long, the majority perished within a short time. Among those that lived ​for sometime was only one adult which survived for two months. The others of this group were nestlings. I noticed that adult birds would show distinct signs of misery in the cage. When the bird-catcher brings one to you, it is already stripped of half its feathers, and is a pitiable object, bare and clumsy. Nevertheless, it would take its food and drink water, as if mechanically, then go to a perch where, rolling itself into its sleeping posture, it would remain quiet for hours moving down again only when impelled by hunger. In this most doleful state, it lingers for a day two and dies a victim to the bird-catcher's thoughtless handling of a soft-feathered bird. The Iora's feathers are so soft that they come off easily by the least rough handling. In my opinion, we should begin with nestlings in our attempts to cage the Iora.

A neighbour of mine had a hand-reared Iora for a long time; the bird was evidently happy, for it used to sing very blithely. ​Its cage was kept covered with & piece of clean linen just as the Shama is treated in this country. Finn relates his experience of this bird as follows—"A tame bird I kept recalled in its actions Chloropsis and Leothrix; it………grasped food in one foot like the latter or a Shrike. It was shy at first, but soon got tame. I was told adults could not be kept, and mine was a hand-reared one. ………I did not see it show any sociability, and it seemed able to take care of itself with other birds".

Early Ornithologists classified the Iora with Chloropsis, while others grouped it as a Bulbul. Legge names it the "Bush-bulbul". But if, on account of its supposed resemblance, we treat an Iora as a Bulbul, we shall not get satisfactory results. For the Iora is not like the latter a fruit-eater. Oates says that the Iora shows affinities with the Sylviidae as it has two moults a year. I believe that if we treat the captive Iora as to its food ​like the warblers, we are likely to get better results.

An intersting habit of one of my Ioras is worth mentioning. It used to drink water in a peculiar way. When the plants of the aviary were sprayed with water, the bird used to drink the small dew-like drops that remained on the leaves. Does this support the Fatik-jal's identity with the classical Chataka which quenches its thirst by catching the rain-drops as they fall from the sky?

In summer plumage, the male has a very handsome appearance, its black upper body contrasting with the vivid yellow breast. The whole upper body—Colorationforehead, crown, back, upper tail-coverts, and tail—is black, except a streak of white on the wings, and a greenish yellow rump. Chin, throat, breast, and neck are deep intense yellow; abdomen, sides, and vent are greenish yellow. In some birds the yellow bases of the feathers on the head peep through ​the black. In winter the bird loses all or most of the black on the upper body and becomes yellowish green except on the tail. In Southern India and Ceylon, these birds retain, more or less, the black on the upper plumage in winter. "Throughout its great range" say Oates, "the Common Iora is subject to variations in its plumage which appear to be due chiefly, if not entirely, to climatic influences".

The black plumage is generally supposed to be the mating attire. But, "in the breeding season" observes Munn, "the males have very little black on the upper parts, being chiefly yellowish green on the head and back, and differing but very little from the winter plumage". My observations also happen to corroborate this. Legge says that he has seen the black plumage at all seasons of the year. The safest hypothesis, in his opinion, is that some breed in the green and some in the black stage. "It may be," he adds, ​"that black plumage is, to some extent, a sign of age rather than a seasonal dress." In the new edition of Avi-fauna of British India Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker divides Aegithina tiphia into three sub-species, all of which become more or less black on the upper body in the breeding season. His description of the breeding plumage of the male Aegithina tiphia tiphia is—"Lores, forehead, crown, back, upper tail-coverts and tail black". But further down he adds, "The description of the male given above is quite exceptional, more green and much less black being the rule and many breeding males have practically no black on the upper parts other than the wings and tail". This is rather puzzling as it shakes the very foundation of his "Key to subspecies A",^[1] where ​black seems to be a sine qua non for a breeding male. Is it not worth while to find out if these "many breeding males" are sufficiently many in number to warrant their inclusion into a fourth subspecies in which the male, whether breeding or not, has no black on the upper parts other than its wings and tail?

The female is at all seasons green above, the sides of head and the whole lower plumage being yellow.

The young birds do not assume the full adult plumage in the first spring.

The Iora is a fluffy-plumaged bird, with a short and straight bill, and rounded wings. Iris yellowish white; lower mandible and the margins of the upper part, almost up to the tip, blue, the remainder being black; legs and feet weak; tarsus lengthened and covered with smooth scales; toes sharp.

It is quite a diminutive bird, smaller than a sparrow, being a little above five inches in total length.