Today turned out to be a day of birding in Ranthambore National Park since we did not see any animals other than few Sambar Deer. Sometimes the magic of light and shadows turns a common subject into a beautiful composition. This is exactly what happened with this (above) White-breasted Kingfisher. The play of lights, shadows and clear background created a lovely photograph of a not so great looking Juvenile bird. A pair of Spotted Owlets had been woken up by the passing vehicles and I caught this one as it was lazily surveying its surroundings.

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The motionless statue of the Purple Heron, as it waited patiently for a potential prey to come closer, made a decent picture too, though I wasn’t too happy with the distracting backdrop of the dead tree trunk. The friendly European Roller gave us a cool pose as it was cooling off in the late afternoon heat.

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The Oriental Honey Buzzard (Juvenile) flew by and perched on a near eye-level branch giving us an opportunity to get some decent pictures. A flock of Alexandrine Parakeets sleeted down on a nearby tree and the below couple were busying foraging the fruits when I framed both of them in a tight crop.

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Finally we spotted this Intermediate Egret who was using a Sambar Deer as a mobile perch. It made for a lovely image and we clicked the picture before heading out of the park.