The name red-whiskered bulbul reminded me of two lines I had read in a museum ages ago:
Bulbul ko bāġhbāñ se na sayyād se gila
qismat meñ qaid likkhī thī fasl-e-bahār meñ
(The bulbul has no complaints from the gardener, or the bird-catcher.
It knows that it is destiny to get caged, even if it is springtime.)
— Bahadur Shah Zafar, the Last Mughal Emperor
In the last days of his captivity, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar wrote a beautiful poem about destiny. And in that poem, he also talked about the bulbul— an otherwise jocular songbird which was earlier kept as a pet in India because of its fearless nature and beautiful songs. As CW Smith reported,
‘These birds are in great request among the natives, being of a fearless disposition, and easily reclaimed. They are taught to sit on the hand, and numbers may thus be seen in any Indian bazaar.’
But enough with the literature. Let’s look at the basics of the red-whiskered bulbul.