My name is Amy and I live in the Chicago area.
Besides birding I love to travel. 
Birding In Keoladeo National Park
Categories: India
Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, is an important bird sanctuary and was declared to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. The park is nearly 29 square kilometers and can be explored on foot, by bicycle or cycle rickshaw. Motorized vehicles are not allowed in the park.
We visited the park on 7 and 8 March, 2006.
We rented bikes from our hotel, the Falcon Guest House. There are several budget and mid-range hotels located within cycling distance of the park entrance. With names like The Spoonbill, Hotel Nightingale, Birder’s Inn and Hotel Pelican, the hotels know their clientele well and many offer bike rental. Binoculars and guidebooks may also be available, though it is also possible to rent binoculars as well as bikes at the entrance to the park itself. Of course, we saw many serious birders who brought their own equipment.
At the main entrance of the park you can buy admission tickets (good for one entry only – bring lunch with you) and hire binoculars of bicycles if required. Cycle rickshaws are also for hire; official rickshaws have a yellow plate on the front and the driver will act as a guide.
The park has a great new visitor center, the Salim Ali Visitor Interpretation Centre. Inside, there are interesting displays on the important role water plays in life on earth, plus dioramas of bird life and other animals that can be found in the park.
After purchasing an admission ticket, visitors proceed down the main road into the park. A hotel and restaurant are located about a mile past the main entrance. The second checkpoint is nearby; motorized vehicles may drive to the restaurant and hotel, but cannot proceed past the second checkpoint. There is also a small bookshop by the checkpoint, offering Indian bird and wildlife guidebooks and some souvenirs such as t-shirts, postcards, stickers, caps, and paintings of birds.
Past the checkpoint, the paved road continues south through the park. Cycle rickshaws may only drive on the main bisecting road. There are benches along the way and some informative signs giving details on the kinds of birds you can find in the park. There is a paved trail across the water at the Ghana Canal, and from that road you can find a brick trail. This and the many other side trails in the park are better navigated on foot rather than bike.
Over the two days we visited the park, we saw many birds. Below is a list. All species of which we managed to get a photograph are available on MFB Life List (click on the links below to see them).
Glossy Ibis
Black-Headed Ibis
Great Egret
Common Spoonbill
Black-Necked Stork
Little Cormorant
Variable Wheatear
House Crow
Purple Heron
Little Egret
Bar-Headed Goose
Spot-Billed Duck
White Pelican
Indian Darter
Painted Stork
Pied Kingfisher
White-Throated Kingfisher
Marsh Harrier
Spotted Owlet
Oriental Magpie Robin
Red-Wattled Lapwing
Black-Winged Stilt
Black Drongo
Common Moorhen
Indian Pond Heron
Laughing Dove
Grey Heron
Little Green Bee-Eater
We also saw these birds, but did not capture them on film.
Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
Rose-Ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)
Sarus Crane (Grus antigone)
Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus)
Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis)
Woodpecker (Black-Rumped?; Dinopium benghalense)
Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
Common Crane (Grus grus)
White-Breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus)
Common Coot (Fulica atra)
Red-Headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus)
Tawny Eagle (Aquila rapax)
Indian Cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscicollis)
Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
White Stork (Ciconia ciconia)
Long-Tailed Shrike (Lanius schach)
Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus)
Small Minivet (Pericrocotus cinnamomeus)
Ruddy Sheldrake (Tadorna ferruginea)
Finally, here is a video of the heronry in the park.
Related articles:
India Bird Sanctuary: Rickshaw Drivers Trained As Guides
Water Brings Birds Back To Indian Bird Park
April 15th, 2006 at 10:40 am
[...] The park is an important bird sanctuary. The wetlands host many transitory birds during their migration, as well as several impressive heronries where hundreds of water birds raise their young during the breeding season. The bird species we saw, as well as details about visiting the park, are mentioned in a separate article on our sister website, Magnificent Frigatebird. [...]