Kingfishers of Kaikondrahalli Lake.

Located near sarjapur road Bangalore, Kaikondrahalli Lake was once a big lake. My granny who is now a retd teacher recollects how difficult it was to travel from city limits to govt school besides lake, back in 90s. Lake was full of water and vegetation around the lake was dense, population was thin, buses were less and roads were small. Now after a decade major part of the lake has been encroached, civilization has flourished. However, the remaining part of the lake has been maintained properly. I found this lake clean and pleasant compared to other lakes of the city.

Small Blue Kingfisher.

On cement Pavement.

As I entered the park I noticed atleast 3 common blue kingfishers flying from one corner of the lake to other. They sat on the cement pavements to fish.

Purple Rumped Sunbird--Female.

Eurasian Coots.

Little Grebe.

Purple Heron.

The lake had other guests as well: A pretty flock of eurasian coots, few grebes, couple or more purple herons, grey herons, oriental darters, black crowned night herons, white brested waterhen, purple swamphen. It was a healthy environment around the lake. Kids admired the birds.

Purple Swamphen with chick.

Red-Whiskered Bulbul.

Painted Stork Family.

Juv Painted Stork.

Grey Heron.

Bronze Winged Jacana.

And now the show-stopper. Couple of Pied Kingfishers caught my attention. One landed on top of a bald tree and stayed there, it was probably waiting for fishes to come up. I kept my fingers crossed to see it's hovering while trying to fish. However, wasn't lucky enough. It flew away to a distance.

Pied Kingfisher with a crest.

Vigilante.

In-flight Pied Kingfisher.

I had to end the session, it was hot and sunny and most of the birds flew towards the island for shade.
I began searching for white throated kingfishers and guess what I found..?

Pair of White Throated Kingfisher.

Finally Kingfisher mania came to an end. For the first time I witnessed 3 types of kingfishers in the same trail. 

Reaching Kaikondrahalli Lake from Banashankari:

Banashankari >> Jayadeva Hospital >> BTM layout >> Central Silk Board >> Agara >> Sarjapura Road >> Total Mall >> Kaikondrahalli Lake.

Members of BNG birds group visits this lake on every month's 4th sunday for bird watching. Subscribe to bngbirds@yahoogroups.com for updates regarding birding trails.