Our second stop on our winter getaway was in Bharatpur, to visit the Keoladeo National Park. Over 366 species of birds have made the park their home and every year thousands of migratory waterfowl visit the park for the winter. Keoladeo was declared a protected sanctuary in 1971, and it has one of the richest populations of birds in the world. We stayed at a small rest house called the Birder's Inn, which was just down the street from the park, so it was just a quick walk to the park entrance. Once there we were able to join a guide we had arranged for ahead of time and jump onto a bicycle rickshaw for our tour of the park. Our guide knew all the places to stop where birds were nesting, and was amazingly good at identifying birds. In all, and with our guide's help, we identified over 70 species of birds including an endangered crane called the Sarus Crane and the Indian Painted Stork. Both Conor and Ryan developed some incredibly strong spotting skills, and we all enjoyed the time together in nature.
You would think Ryan couldn't see with his hat this way, but somehow he was often the first one of us to spot birds way off in the distance.
A partial list of the birds we spotted:
coppersmith barbet, jungle babbler, oriental magpie robin, Indian spotted eagle, tawny eagle, crested serpent eagle, Indian peafowl, a few varieties of kingfisher (these are so colorful and cool-looking!), black redstart, shikra, black-shouldered kite (these had the most interesting flight pattern, they became very easy to spot), coot, ruddy shelduck, bar-headed goose, lesser whistling duck, common teal, northern pintail, rufous treepie, dusky eagle owl, rufous-tailed shrike, and quite a few herons, parakeets, bulbuls, flycatchers, swifts, swallows and prinias.
There were other critters in the park too, like this monitor lizard, and a baby boa constrictor.
We also spotted jackals, turtles, mongoose and a few different varieties of antelope and deer.
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