Birding !!

Well I mean it in the "wild" sense and not the "urban" sense ;-)

With photography and bike trips, came a lot of seeing colorful birds on trees. Always used to watch these little winged beauties, but never had the equipment to capture them on film :(
Watching their preening, beahviour and hunting skills, I would always imagine myself capturing crucial moments on camera.
And when it was time to upgrade from my 3.3MP 3x optical zoom cybershot, I looked at a lot of options. Settled in with the Sony H2, with it's 12x optical zoom, 6.2 MP.

The increased focal range gave me an opportunity to capture birds too, along with my usual landscape and macro shots.

Living close to Kanakapura road, I most of the time head on towards Kanakapura riding. Lots of shrubby little jungles, lone roads... all perfectly set for watching birds in action.
Had seen a lot of bird shots from Sudhir Shivaram and Kalyan Varma
they provided me with lots of inspiration and techniques to shoot birds (with the camera :D )

Here are a few shots from my "birding" trips lately :)

Called a "laughing dove"(Streptopelia chinensis), one of the most beautiful plumages with the loads of pink


The "Green bee eater" (Merops orientalis), a sparrow sized highly energetic insect hunter, hangs out in groups on fences and lines.




The "purple moorhen"(Porphyrio porphyrio) can be seen in most water bodies, nests in the reeds.




"Indian pond heron"(Ardeola grayii) stays still in one position for a long time, waiting for the right time to strike at unsuspecting fish






"Blue throat kingfisher"(Alcedo atthis), as the name suggests a wonderful hunter of fish, flies low on the water surface and snaps them. This one's a juvenile, hasnt got the very vibrant colors of an adult.


"The common coot" (Fulica atra)


Kites n eagles, still havent found out how to differentiate between them :(




"Indian robin"


"Little egret"(Egretta garzetta)


Some unknown type of swan, shot in Boston's frozen rivers :)


More posts to come soon :-)