Our utility space has a little garden of five planters with Tulasi, Doddapatre, Marigold, Chilly and Aloe Vera. The chilly plant is a rare variety called Jeerige Menasinakayi which is small and grows upright. They turn red as they ripe. Bulbuls come and eat the red ones. So now I know that besides parrots, bulbuls too like chilly. Recently we noticed that another type of bird had taken to our chilly plant which turned out to be Spotted Munia also called Nutmeg Finch.
In the past two weeks the spotted Munia have been checking out the exhaust fan vent in our utility area. They would perch on the plants, fly in, hover around and then dash out. About Five or six days back, the birds started bringing blades of grass and grass shoots. They had selected our utility as their nest site.
They occupied the exhaust fan vent. Three days back, a clump of grass was dangling. We pushed it up with our mop stick. By evening, the grass was on the floor. We moved it from the floor to the planters but the birds did not recycle, they wanted fresh leaves. They got busy flying out and returning with green grass and still continue to do that.
They work in pairs. While one is out foraging, the other one keeps a watch. I've seen them make a trip every minute... swift workers. At times, both fly out and return after several minutes and then the frequent trips happen.
Looks like they were resting.
Its nice to see them flying in, hovering, perching on the plants or grills and sometimes chirping. Looks like they are readying a nest to grow their family. Eagerly waiting to see what they do next.
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