Nature's Amore Photography: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan - what you can photograph in 2 hours

Oriental White Eye

There is no denial that Keoladeo National Park (this will be referred in the blogpost as KNP) or formally known as Bharatpur National Park is one of the Heavens / Paradise for Birders, Bird Photographers and Ornithologists.

A little bit about the Bird Sanctuary:

KNP is in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India. It is a bird sanctuary which hosts thousands of birds throughout the year and has over 230 species of birds that are resident. It is a World Heritage Site and also a protected Sanctuary. It's a man-made and man-managed wetland (😮). The reserve is locally known as Ghana and is a mosaic of dry grasslands, woodlands, woodland swamps and wetlands. These diverse habitats are home to 366 bird species, 379 floral species, 50 species of fish, 13 species of snakes, 5 species of lizards, 7 amphibian species, 7 turtle species and a variety of other invertebrates (imagine the potential of Macro photography, the cart puller (ricksha) told me that they see a lot of beetles and variety of beetles around).

The walkway

If you wish to read more about KNP - kindly visit:

Rajasthan Government Tourism website or Wikipedia or NPS

Entry Timings: The park is open from 6:30am to 5pm during winters and 6am to 6pm during other seasons. The best time to visit is during the winters or the monsoon time.

Entry Fee: Indians INR 50, foreigners INR 400 (less than USD 6)

Cost of a rickshaw with driver: If I remember correctly it was INR 50 per hour.

Why I only spent 2 hours in the Bird Sanctuary:

Initially, the plan was to visit Mehndipur Balaji (Lord Hanuman temple in Rajasthan) and get back to Delhi the same day. With amazing driving skills of my brother in law, we reached Balaji Temple 3 hours early. My brother in law had to meet an old colleague of his in Bharatpur and I got a chance to spend that 2 hours in the park. I had borrowed Canon 6D Mark II & Canon 75-300mm lens from my brother in law's friend to shoot at the park.

All the photos below are taking in November 2018 in KNP.

Count the Species of birds on this tree

PS: there were more which flew away by the time I framed

Black-rumped Woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense)

Black-rumped Woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense)

Indian Vultures

Spotted Owlet (Athene brama)

Spotted Owlet (Athene brama)

Spotted Owlet (Athene brama)

This little spotted Owlet showed very strange behaviour while it was resting on the branch nearby. I have kept the sequence and the GIF for the last (scroll down).