We had rain on one of the days on our Mishmi Hills tour and that meant a few hours break from the hectic dawn-to-dusk birding. After a few hours wait at Tiwari Gaon, the heavy downpour stopped and we set off again hoping for some good luck.

Earlier on the trip, while we had seen the Striated Bulbul, I decided not to click any pics at that time since I just didn’t like the frame (bird up on the canopy and against the sky). As luck would have it, this was the bird that we sighted first after the rain break. Actually, the rain hadn’t completely stopped and there was a gentle drizzle. And even better, we were at a place where the canopy was not too high above us and the background was the forest. The bulbul calling with the drizzle in the frame was something that I instinctively loved when I clicked it.

Another one of those moody shots, this time of the Grey-Chinned Minivet in the drizzle. Minivets are typically high canopy birds and one would grab any chance at getting them with a non-sky background. The slight drizzle and low light (must have been around mid-day I reckon) meant that the frame was going to have a moody, grey cast to it despite the forest in the background. The rusty colours of the leaves that he is sitting on as well as the orange throat and under-parts of the minivet stand out against this background in contrast. And the drizzle enhances the entire effect as well.