I had a dream of clicking this exquisite beauty for years. Last August 2025, I finally got the time and opportunity to visit Panvel, Karnala Bird Sanctuary. My fellow photographer friends and I, a group of five, got down from our car at 5 am in the early morning and began walking into the forest slowly and steadily. One of our friends was well conversant with the jungle and had known this forest for a long time.
After a continuous walk of around 2 km for about 40 minutes, we stopped beside a narrow brook inside the forest. There were lots of trees and bushes hanging over the brook on both sides. We set up our cameras and lenses and began our patient wait behind the trees and bushes. Gradually, the sun started rising with all its sunshine and light. But even after waiting for 2 hours, there was no sign of the bird. Our patience was getting tested, and we were becoming restless. The sunlight on the tree branches created a golden hour for photography. We started pondering whether we had the luck to see this resplendent beauty at all.
Suddenly, a flash of exquisite colours passed in front of our eager eyes and stood steady on one of the branches. To our joy and delight, it was none other than our bird of desire, the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, aka the Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher. It gave us sufficient time and flew in and out quite a few times, allowing us to get some good pictures of it. Our heartfelt gratitude to this exquisite beauty for its different poses as a model. We got the reward for our hard work and patience.
