Slaty-breasted rail

Happy Valley, Baruipur, West Bengal

Baruipur happy valley used to be my one of the favourite bird watching destinations while living in Kolkata. For me if I won’t get this extremely colourful rail anywhere in Kolkata, I will get it in Baruipur for sure. I watched many individuals there multiple times while watching birds in that area. Sometimes it becomes shy sometimes it’s not. It’s times was morning and afternoon when there is no harsh sunlight appearing. It used to come out of the reed and walk around the edges of any water body and foraging snails from the ground.

It is a medium size bird not so hard to get photographed. But like other birds, as per the locations their behaviour gets changed. I saw the same bird in Bangalore where I found it very very shy and doesn’t give time to take a single picture. But back in Kolkata I saw it concentrating its own activities with the presence of photographers. So it was pretty amazing to be a witness of this rail.

I have taken this picture in morning at golden light on the same day I photographed Eastern water rail in Baruipur. So it was like a double dhamaka for me and I ended up birding with smile face.