In the winter of 2010 I traveled to Orchha, India, a small village about four hours by train or bus south of the city of Agra (site of the famous Taj Mahal), in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Orchha was founded in 1501 by Rudra Pratap Singh, who became the first king of Orchha, a small empire in central India. After ruling for 30 years, the story goes that he apparently died attempting to save a cow from an attacking lion. Throughout his rule, as well as afterwards, a number of impressive forts, palaces and temples were constructed in this area on the banks of the Betwa River.

I stayed there for about a week, and ended up noticing these large, spectacular birds everywhere. It turns out they were Indian vultures, but they looked a little more dignified (when they were flying at least) than the vultures you see in the American west. They liked to hang out on the tops of some of the temples, and so I positioned myself to try and get some decent shots of them. This involved a LOT of waiting with camera poised, because they liked to sit around a heck of a lot more than they liked to fly. And then once they did fly, it was tough to get a shot. If the camera was zoomed in to focus up close (which was necessary from my vantage point for many of them, which was from another nearby temple), then they were gone in mere seconds.

But my persistence ultimately paid off and over the course of a few days of hanging out in different spots here and there, I managed to pretty much get the photos I was hoping for. Also, there were some small green and blue birds there. I was able to determine that the green ones were some sort of species of parakeet, but have no idea on the blue one. If anyone knows what they are, feel free to post it in the comments below!