Brown-headed Barbet: Ashok Country Resort, New Delhi, India, March 2023 — Though we were to hear the monotonous single note call of the Brown-headed Barbet where ever we went in Rajasthan, the best view any of us had (if you can call this a good view), and certainly the only photo I was able to get (if you can call this a photo), was right on the grounds of our first hotel in Delhi…the Ashok Country Inn. Though it says “country inn” it was well within greater Delhi…an old “farm house” converted to a hotel as so many of them have been. It took me some time and some questioning of our local agent to figure out that “farm house” in India has a very different meaning than in the west. The English would call it a “country house” or “stately home”, and if we were in Maine, we would call it a “cottage”…an equally inappropriate name for the 14 bedroom summer estates where the women and children of the railroad and steel barons, and the great industrialist and merchants of the late 1800s retreated from the heat and bustle of the city for the summer, and their husbands visited by train or steamship on weekends. The Brown-headed Barbet on the other hand, is indeed brown headed. It calls endlessly, incessantly, all day, more frequently as the temperature rises, and its call carries form the high tree-tops over a great distance. This one had come down somewhat lower just at dusk a we were headed in for our first dinner as group and the light was failing, hence the poor image. Our guides must have pointed out its call a hundred times in the two weeks we were in Rajasthan, but we never saw another one. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 2EV.