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A Very Casual World List, part VI: India (1 Viewer)

nartreb

Speak softly and carry a long lens
(Continued from Part V: United Arab Emirates)

India is a whirlwind of impressions - many amazing sights, mostly annoying sounds. The crowds and traffic are a wonderment, the car horns are constant (trucks actually have "please honk" written across the back), and the smog hides the sky.

I'm taking so many photos I'm going to get weeks behind again, though Internet and cell coverage are mostly excellent.

Bird-wise, first thing I noticed was large numbers of kites overhead. I assume these are Black Kites, Milvus Milgrans (not sure I can tell the subspecies - lineatus and govinda would both be in range for Delhi, right?).

Here's a close-up:

Black Kite

The next bird you'll notice (but this would be after the monkeys on the rooftops, and the cattle wandering the streets) are the rose-ringed parakeets (seen here in the village of Holipuri).
 
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India part 2: Chambal river

We took a short boat ride on this nearly pristine river a short drive south of Agra.

The garials and soft-shell turtles were the main attractions, but there were plenty of birds.

In another thread I showed poor photos of black-bellied tern, and eastern buzzard.

There were also stilts, sandpipers, and a few others that I didn't get any photos of, but there were some eye-poppers that I did capture.

greater thick-knee

little cormorant

river lapwing

ruddy shelducks

great egret

grey heron

great cormorant

egyptian vultures

pied kingfisher
 
India part 3: Agra.

When in northern India, the Taj Mahal is a mandatory stop. Both the grounds and the neighboring Yamuna river were birdier than expected.

House crows were anywhere food might be found, including on the backs of passing nilgai.

The famous Himalaya-crossing bar-headed geese packed the riverbank, along with many other swimmers and waders - stilts, egrets, herons, cormorants, lapwings, and others too distant to ID with confidence.

In the fountains and courtyards of the Taj itself I got good close-ups of a white-throated kingfisher and of a cattle egret.

I also got a half-decent photo of a common mynah, which for some reason I haven't gotten a satisfactory shot of since seven years ago in Hawaii.
 
India part 6: Jaigarh fort.

This is the fort overlooking the old palace at Amer, which was the capital before Jaipur was founded.

Not a lot of birds, but did see a Brown Rock Chat, and got a good photo of a kingfisher by the baori.
 
India part 8: Kochi

From Jaipur we headed south. First to Goa, then Kochi. Goa was not very birdy, at least not during a brief tour of churches (and a synagogue!) and museums, but Kochi supplied a striated heron in a ditch beside a palace.

Naturally there were many egrets, herons, cormorants, kites, crows, kingfishers etc by the Kochi fisheries and backwater, but not much I hadn't seen before. I'll just mention an action shot of a cormorant preparing to swallow what I think is a snake - sorry about the long range.

Also of note, some fine photos of a sandpiper I could probably identify with enough effort, and, at the Naval museum, a fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo.
 
India part 9: Bangalore and environs

Bangalore the city didn't yield much at first. It's crowded, dusty, etc - though not quite as hot or quite as polluted as other Indian cities. But a day trip to see the waterfalls on the Cauvery river (practically dry, it turns out, during dry season) yielded a serendipitous discovery of a "bird sanctuary" within a village called Kokkarebellur. The "sanctuary" consisted of a few backyard trees, in which both painted storks and spot-billed pelicans roost in large numbers.

Then, during longer visits to the parks in Bangalore, we found grey-headed swamp-hen, plus (previously seen) white-browed wagtail, and more close-ups of house crows.
 
Edit: never mind, I think you're right. The white feathers at the vent had me fooled.

It catches out lots of people when they're new to Asia, don't worry about it ;). The Drongo Cuckoo is MUCH harder to see, sometimes even if you can hear it calling in the tree above you.
 
Sorry for late reply
Bird-wise, first thing I noticed was large numbers of kites overhead. I assume these are Black Kites, Milvus Milgrans (not sure I can tell the subspecies - lineatus and govinda would both be in range for Delhi, right?
Yes both would be in range.Black-Eared is a winter migrant here. Is it near Ghaziabad Dump?

Black Kite
Black-Eared Kite to me
 
Sorry for late reply

Yes both would be in range.Black-Eared is a winter migrant here. Is it near Ghaziabad Dump?


Black-Eared Kite to me

Too long ago to be confident, but pretty much anywhere with enough open space to allow a view of the sky. The park inside Connaught Place, Humayan's tomb... don't recall getting as far as Ghaziabad.
 
Too long ago to be confident, but pretty much anywhere with enough open space to allow a view of the sky. The park inside Connaught Place, Humayan's tomb... don't recall getting as far as Ghaziabad.
Ok, had seen scores of Black Kites (probably 1-2 thousand, but that's before I started birding so don't consider much about this) in November '19 while on a trip to Uttarakhand (non birding, still regretting for not starting few months earlier).
 
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