It is not JUST some flowers in this collage – please look carefully to see the exotic birds with the exotic flowers!
Have been visiting Uttaranchal for more than two decades and have a small home there too. I was always enchanted by the blossoming Buransh (Rhododendron) flowers in Feb-April months. This year in February, for the first time (as a relatively novice birder), I had a camera in hand too when the flowers were in full bloom! Red in most places but pinkish in higher altitudes. Buransh is a flower that the locals use to make juice, chutney, curry, and liquor too! No wonder the birds were so intoxicated by it!
So, a target oriented person that I am (😊), I set myself a modest target of clicking at least 10 birds with the Buransh flowers in frame – and over those 2-3 days, after waiting patiently around several of these Buransh trees, I ended up getting more than 25 such photographs with different birds (missed many of them too). All between Almora and Munsiyari districts! Was initially confused to find many of them looking similar, having whitish kind of powder over their faces – realised later it must be the pollen from the flowers!
Here is a colourful collage of 20 of them – with all the colours splashed around just in time for the Holi! Happy Holi week ahead to all humans, and to all the birds who bring the real exotic colours into our world!
