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I clicked this picture from my balcony in Lucknow, last winter. Peacocks and peahens don’t mind our home in the dense green surroundings. They sit on my rooftop at times, and even come to feed on the roti served for birds that are more frequent in visiting my balcony: warblers, babblers, mynas,the lone coucal, pairs of pink flecked doves and crows.
In this picture the peahens and peacocks are sitting on a neem tree, laden with the Giloi (Amruth, Guduchi) climber.
I feel so lucky that Peacock, the National Bird of India, lives so close to me.
In an age of so much inconsequential tweeting, it’s worth recalling the advice of yogis: Sit still, they say, so still that a bird can land on your head.
From the cold lakes of the Himalayas to the sand dunes of western Rajasthan to the tropical rain forests in the south, India hosts a dizzying variety of birds, like a dizzying variety of everything else. Residents and visitors, common and rare, more than 1,200 species have been recorded in India, which puts it somewhere between the United States (just under 900 recorded species) and Colombia (more than 1,800 species).
More: The New York Times
Time: Pre sunset, Month: December
On the road from Guwahati to Jorhat, Assam
Welcome to a view of Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site, famous for the one-horned rhino
There are 3 rhinos at a distance in this photo. Try and spot at least one!
[Photo credits: Anisha Sharma]
The white cheeked barbet is a common bird in my garden in Lucknow, North India. In this picture it is eating giloi berries. It also see it enjoying figs, and the banyan tree fruit.
Yesterday, I saw 5 white breasted kingfishers on my neighbour’s roof! It is a commonly sighted bird in Lucknow’s green areas.
Peacock is the national bird of India, and the Sarus crane is the state bird of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.
Last year, members of the Society for Conservation of Nature identified 1,005 Sarus birds in the districts of Etawah, Auraiyya and Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh.
A four-hours exercise to identify and count Sarus Crane (Grus Antigone), the state bird will be organised across the state on Sunday, June 20. After a span of almost a decade, such an exercise is being launched and it will be conducted by the state forest department and its associated agencies, volunteers and various NGOs in the thousands of wetlands in the state as per the sources.
Out of the total number of 10,000 Grus Antigone, Indian Saras, Demosil Crane and Common Crane, nearly 2,500 of them are said to be nesting in and around Etawah and nearly 1,000 in Mainpuri district besides a good number of Sarus birds have also been spotted in Aligarh and Etah districts, claim the wildlife experts.
More: Times of India
Neel gaay or Blue antelope is easy to spot in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
A train journey from Agra to Mathura (morning or sunset hours) is a perfect way to see a herd or at least one of them.
These blue antelopes often visit cultivated fields for food.