Bird of the Day: Coppersmith Barbet (Athoor, Dindigul, Tamil Nadu)

In the late 1880’s, the citrus orchids which produced California’s world-famous oranges were devastated by a plague of aphids and scale insects. The biggest natural enemy of the aphid is the ladybird beetle. The California fruit growers introduced ladybirds in the orchards. Within a few weeks, the number of aphids decreased dramatically. Since then, the farmers…