Green Barbet - Bharatpur Bird Park, India

[Karen Pleasant]

In 2008 we were spending 3.5 wks in India. After a very brief visit to the Taj Mahal, we visited Fatehpur Skiri, then drove to the Bharatpur Bird Park (also knows as Keoladeo Ghana National Park). I had never been to a bird park before and certainly never tried photographing birds. Besides, my gear was for 3 weeks of travel photography in Rajasthan, not small birds! LOL! Soon we were in a bicycle powered rickshaw being pedaled along the paths. Occasionally birds would come close enough to the paths to be photographed. So I made do with the gear I had and substituted excitement for skill! I loved how this colorful bird posed underneath the large horizontal branch.

D300, 70-300 lens
300mm @ f5.6, 1/1750
ISO 800 (marginal for my D300)

And so it began. Within a couple of years I had acquired both a 300/2.8 and a 500/f4!

[keith mitchell]

Karen I like the way this bird is perched in it's upside down pose, bird looks nice and sharp and good colours, was it making the holes or just investigating?, nice work getting this.
Had a few cameras since my D300 which had an accident but do miss it, even thinking about another for a back up.

[Alan Murphy]

Love the upside down perspective here. Great detail.

[adrian dancy]

Good detail and colour and a really sweet and interesting bird.
I would have loved that India trip:)

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Karen, I like the inverted pose, lovely colours on this Barbet - one Ive never seen before, and nicely separated from the BG. If this were mine, I would crop away from the top to eliminate the folige 'triangle' in the URC.

[Karen Pleasant]

Thanks for the comments! Very much appreciated.

[Diane Miller]

Beautiful image -- a worthy start to a great journey!