By Gigi
Every now and then a really great—or even halfway decent—birding article appears in the mainstream press. There was one back in the 1990s about a man who went birding with his father—it was in Vanity Fair or The New Yorker, we forget 
which—that was so interesting it wasn’t until the end that you realized you were even reading a story about birdwatching.
The New York Times recently acknowledged the birds of India in a feature story, too. Less intentionally introspective and more blatantly travel-oriented than the 1990s story, it was written by Somini Sengupta, the Times’ former bureau chief in India.
Sengupta notes that more than 1,200 bird species have been recorded in India, that’s 300 more species than have been recorded in the U.S. In many years covering India, Sengupta saw parakeets, blue-black sunbirds, flamingoes, sarus cranes, white-throated kingfishers (pictured), purple heron and gray francolin but noted one of the more profound truisms about birding: “In searching for birds, you end up hearing, seeing, smelling a great deal more.”
On a more practical note, Sengupta writes, “Birding lodges should have proper coffee, since birding demands early morning wake-ups. I have been uniformly disappointed. If you care for good coffee, carry your own.” Noted.