Blonde beauties...: My daily wildlife photo, species info and musings

"I like to feel blonde all over." — Marilyn Monroe

And blonde she was! Marilyn Monroe formed the gold standard of a blonde bombshell in the good old days. Many of us old guard may remember her with a 'smitten' look on our faces.

What is Marilyn Monroe doing in a blog about wildlife you may ask. Well, this little Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus), always reminds me of a blond beauty ...

A pretty blonde beauty of the jungle!

Once on the subject of blondes, one can not but help to remember some of the greatest blonde ladies that have ruled millions of hearts and Marilyn Monroe just about tops the list.

A real blonde beauty ❤️

Blondes have always been stereotyped as dumb. I really can not imagine why. Perhaps it is true that they, being inherently able to charm people around them to do their bidding, do not really have to exert their brains about too many things. Perhaps that is why they appear to be just happy-go-lucky and without a lot of seriousness. I really do not know and NOT really qualified to comment. I know for a fact that the stereotype is NOT true because I have come across many very intelligent and capable blonde ladies during my career.

If someone, perhaps even a blonde lady, wants to throw some light on this subject, I welcome the enlightenment. Please comment freely on this post.

Well - having paid homage to my favorite blonde and having cleared my conscience on the blonde stereotype, I finally turn to the bird.. (Whew!!..)

I was soooooo excited to see this tiny blonde beauty in Australia. The bird literally could hide behind a leaf as it hopped around on the tree. I recall it was in Reitville dam reserve that I first saw this bird years ago. I was so excited to be able to capture a shot and thought I had discovered some really rare bird. Guess what, I returned to India couple of years later and found the very same bird dancing around on the vines right outside my bedroom window!! I felt so stupid. LOL. Then a year later, insult got added to injury when the bird was officially renamed as Indian White-eye instead of Oriental white-eye! I felt even more stupid for having gone and 'discovered' the bird all the way in South Africa when it was really common in my own back-yard (literally!)

Me - the great explorer finding birds in my backyard by going to AFRICA! 😂

I feel like kicking myself and at the same time feel amused when I remember the excitement of 'discovering' the bird for the first time.

Hope this little story amused you too. Have a smiley and great day.😀

Here is the photograph I took, in India, in original size and form:

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Information about the bird

• Name: Oriental or Indian White-eye

• Scientific name: Zosterops palpebrosus

• Size: Around 9 cm (3 inches)

• Conservation status: Least concern (IUCN 3.1)

• Description (based on e-bird, Wikipedia and my observations): Noticeable for it's all over pale yellow striking color and the white eye ring, this small bird is mostly found in the Indian sub-continent. It has a wide ranging habitat from scrub jungles to moist forests. These birds are mostly found in small groups and forage on nectar and insects.

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Information about photograph

• Aperture: F5.6
• ISO: 1000
• Shutter: 1/1600
• Support: Handheld shot
• Camera: Nikon D500
• Lens: Nikkor 200-500mm
• Image format: Photo clicked in RAW and edited for presentation sizing

A big thank you for support

Thanks to c/hive-106444 (Feathered friends community) for providing this wonderful opportunity to present my experience and photographs. Thanks to @barbara-orenya and @melinda010100 for all the support and encouragement to this community. Special thanks to @nelinoeva also for starting the Species hunt initiative. My posts are not exactly in that format but have all the necessary info and Good original Photos. Further guidance will be very much welcome.

Thanks to HIVE for this wonderful platform. I am using the Hive logo in the collage for showing that the image and post is a dedicated HIVE post. Hope that is OK. The HIVE animation is a graphic created by @doze and free to use as per his post. Many thanks to @doze.

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Note: All images and collages in this blog are created by me, based on photos clicked by me personally and/or free vector images from Pixabay
Quotes used, if not credited, are either from unknown authors or are proverbial old sayings.

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