Spotting Sarus Cranes near Sultanpur | The Travelling Slacker

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I’d seen sarus cranes before. But mostly from running trains passing through the fecund hinterlands of Northern India. Nevertheless, the bright white body and scarlet head of the crane in the middle of lush green fields is always a brilliant spectacle. My wish finally came true near Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary. The guide informed us that some of them have been sighted in a nearby village and so we drove there and even as the car was passing through a narrow road through the fields, we noticed a couple of them.

We clicked, and kept getting closer and closer, till the moment they got suspicious and flew away making a screeching sound. I of course kept ruing my limited 200mm zoom. But thankfully it was such a huge bird (taller than average humans) that I still managed some half decent shots. Just for the record, do not mistake the white spots in their heads as blurry eyes.It is just that, a white spot. The eyes are tiny and as red as the rest of their heads.