Greater Coucal: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Birding Keoladeo National Park is a unique experience. Pedal Rickshaws pick you up from your hotel (if your hotel is close enough to the park entrance, and most are) and you spend the day in and out of the rickshaw as you penetrate deep into the park along the dyke roads. You might get out and hike back on roads and trails where the rickshaws can’t go, but they are always there waiting to take you the next location when you get back to the “main” road. The drivers do this every day, year round, and enough of their customers are birders so that they know the English names of all the birds (though they may speak very little English beyond that), and have developed sharp eyes for spotting, and good instincts for positioning the rickshaw for the best views, often without even getting out. Luxurious birding indeed…if only the rickshaw was not always trying to shake your bones apart. 🙂 Still we covered much more of the park than we ever could have on foot…and motorized traffic is forbidden in much of the park. This is one of the first birds we encountered, just inside the main park gates, still in the dry area of the park. The Greater Coucal is, of course, reminiscent of the Coucals of Africa, but it is “greater” in every way. It is huge! And it is loud. Its calls carry across the dry scrubland like a horn. And it is relatively common so we did see several of them in our three days at Bharatpur (and elsewhere in our journeys). A shot to set the scene taken with the Sony A5100 and the ultra wide combo lens…and then the Coucal with the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.