Birds of Rao Jodha Park

We were trundling along a dusty semi-desert countryside when suddenly two birds flew across the road. The Family and I said simultaneously “Black-headed Ibis.” We stopped the auto and saw that behind the rocky wall on the left was a large but shallow lake. This was full of birds. Northern India, even the arid region of Jodhpur, is full of winter visitors. We got in an unexpected bit of bird watching, with multiple lifers.

Black-headed Ibis

Indian robin

Knob-billed duck

A female purple sunbird

Common pochard

Black-winged stilt

Little cormorant

Common moorhen

The lake was Devkund, a part of the Rao Jodha desert park. Later we had an interesting lifer elsewhere in the same park. My lifers are marked in bold-face in the list below. Amazing that we had two lifers in a place where we were not aware that there was birding! Our bird list would have been longer if we had binoculars with us.

1. Black-headed Ibis
2. Common coot
3. Gadwall
4. Eurasian wigeon
5. Mallard
6. Common teal
7. Great cormorant
8. Little cormorant
9. Common pochard
10. Knob-billed duck
11. Black-winged stilt
12. Little grebe
13. Egrets
14. Red-wattled lapwing
15. Red-vented bulbul
16. Jungle babbler
17. Indian robin
18. Purple sunbird
19. Black kite
20. Long-legged buzzard
21. Blue rock pigeon
22. Eurasian scops owl