India: Bharatpur: Jan 30—Feb 03, 2010

Bharatpur is undoubtedly one of the world's truly great bird sanctuaries. Trumpeting chevrons of cranes herald dawn as tens of thousands of waterbirds forage in the shallows of its life-giving jheels, back-lit by pastel pinks. Here one can easily encounter 100 species of birds in a day, many of which are large, spectacular, and easy to see.

Some of the species possible include Great White and Dalmatian pelicans; Sarus and Common cranes; huge numbers of nesting Painted Storks, in addition to rare Black-necked and Asian Open-billed storks; tens of thousands of wintering northern ducks, including the beautifully-marked Bar-headed Goose; and large numbers of herons, egrets, and bitterns. All this "food" results in exceptional numbers of wintering birds of prey, especially large eagles, providing a wonderful opportunity to test our skills at sorting out the challenging Imperial, Tawny, Steppe, Greater, and Indian Lesser Spotted species.

As a result of Bharatpur's remarkable mosaic of habitats, which range from semiarid scrub to beautiful mature woodlands in addition to the wetlands, the diversity of birds is very high, and there are some very nifty mammals. Not only can we expect to see an exciting profusion of waterbirds, we can also expect to see such species as Indian Peafowl; Indian Courser; perhaps the increasingly rare Sociable Plover; impressive Dusky Horned Owls at the nest; the electrifying Indian Roller; five kingfishers; Indian Gray Hornbill; perhaps the elusive Spotted Creeper; and a good selection of dry country larks, pipits, and wheatears.