I have been a part of a bird-watching group in Bangalore since around the year 1999-2000. The group, comprising of experts, amateurs, hobbyists and others interested in birds have been conducting bird-watching outings in and around the city of Bangalore for many years now.

Every second Sunday of the month, the group organised a bird-watching trip at Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in the heart of the city. This must be one of the oldest, continuously held bird-watching outings in India (couldn’t find any content on this online, so happy to stand corrected). The group is also quite active on email and social media, and a great resource to learn more about nature.

It was quite a large group that met this Sunday. It was great to see a group of school kids (in their uniforms) participating enthusiastically in the session. This session is specifically aimed for new comers to the field of bird-watching and the group leaders (typically Mr. J. N. Prasad) leave no stone unturned to ensure that people get a good idea of bird-watching, how to spot and identify birds, handy guides, etc.

Here’s a list of the birds that I observed (nomenclature as per The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali):

1. Little Grebe
2. Great Cormorant
3. Little Cormorant
4. Darter
5. Little Egret
6. Indian Pond-Heron
7. Spot-Billed Duck
8. Shikra
9. Black Kite
10. Brahminy Kite
11. Blue Rock Pigeon
12. Spotted Dove
13. Rose-Ringed Parakeet
14. Asian Koel
15. Spotted Owlet
16. Coppersmith Barbet
17. White-Cheeked Barbet
18. Ashy Drongo
19. Common Myna
20. Jungle Crow
21. Red-Whiskered Bulbul
22. Common Tailorbird
23. Tickell’s Flowerpecker
24. Purple-Rumped Sunbird

And some photos from a beautiful early winter morning at Lalbagh below: