Earth Walks at Lodhi Garden

 Lodhi Garden is a well-known city park situated in New Delhi. One may not think of an urban park like this one, spread over 90 acres, as a birding hotspot, but green patches like this are great places for urban birding, as well as provide much-needed natural spots in the urban environment. 

We started our birding around 8AM with our guest, who was experiencing birdwatching for the first time! Black Kites were our first species, many on some dead branches near Lodhi’s Tomb, basking in the morning sunlight. A few steps further, we saw Little Cormorants in the water as well as White-throated Kingfisher, both of which were catching fish from the water. An interesting fact is that the White-throated Kingfisher, despite its name, actually rarely eats fish, and usually eats anything from frogs and lizards, to snakes, rodents and even other smaller birds!

Two Indian Cormorants were spreading wings to dry them, and a White-breasted Waterhen was walking near the water. Unlike other water birds, cormorants have to dry their wings as they don’t have oil glands to keep their feathers waterproof. This is an adaptation that actually helps them dive deeper into the water in search of food!

Besides watching birds, Lodhi Gardens is also great for some sightseeing. In the middle of the gardens are the Bara Gumbad (Big Dome) and Shisha Gumbad (Mirror Dome), an amazing sight in the morning light. 

Walking on the trail, we also managed to see Greenish Warbler,Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Purple Sunbird, Alexandrine Parakeet, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Common Tailorbird, Common Moorhen, Eurasian Collared Dove and Common Myna. 

All in all, it was a great short and enjoyable birding visit!