Well, since That Mammal is still grimly determined that I will never see its visage (or even a twitch of its tail), let me share all the other wonderful sights of Bandipur…. Here are some of the birds (all pretty common, no Darwinian discoveries here!) that I saw.

Very common at this time of the year is the BLACK-RUMPED FLAMEBACK WOODPECKER (Dinopium benghalense…dunno why it’s called “Din-OPIUM”!!), which can be seen flying about, and boring the tree-trunks (you can see a small piece falling to the ground from its work, if you look carefully!)

Also fairly easy to sight were the CRESTED SERPENT EAGLEs; this one was sitting not too far away for a brief while:

Here's a closer shot...love that sharp look! And then the eagle flew away, but I loved the picture the bird's wings and the tree-branch made (even though not terribly in focus!) Also easily spotted was the GREY JUNGLE FOWL: Of course, many birds kept to their rule of keeping their back to me at all times. Here's the CHANGEABLE HAWK EAGLE; I struggled to get a decent shot in the low light: The amazing thing was, this eagle was being mobbed by this RUFOUS TREEPIE! But ultimately, it was the treepie who flew away, and the Hawk Eagle remained... The PEAFOWL were out in full breeding plumage at Bandipur. Here's a female, showing the typical orange under-feathers: The beauty of a full-grown male is...incredible, no matter how many times one sees it: Here's the beautiful horizontal arc the bird makes against the ground: As I went to the gate to leave, I caught sight of this LARGE GREY BABBLER making a meal of someone's banana on the JLR campus:

We did see several other birds, but these were the photographs I got! As always, the mammal sightings were great too, but that’s going to be another post….