But first let me show the landscape:

Rocky desert with an abundance of shrubs.

Euphorbia caducifolia is everywhere.

But the vegetation is much more diverse and lush in creeks and around lakes and ponds.

Impaler

Can you recognize this "sparrow"?..

A shrike!

Seems to be the steppe grey shrike (Lanius excubitor pallidirostris).

I photographed a shrike in Bangkok for the first time. I was impressed by this "hybrid" of sparrow and hawk... And remembered its features well.

Here, in Jodhpur, as soon as I noticed this creature, sitting on euphorbia, quite from far actually, I immediately thought "a shrike!" - not without pride.

Let's crop to see the beast closer:

This is my entry for Show Me A Photo Contest Round 245

If you don't know, this family are relatives to sparrows indeed, but has another lifestyle - known as butcherbirds for their habit of impaling prey (including small vertebrates) on thorns.

Meeting Munias Again

I discovered munias in Bangkok - but those were scaly-breasted munias (Lonchura punctulata) and, here, I met their cousins, white-throated munias (Euodice malabarica) known also as the Indian silverbill.

Different name but same-same character.

Munias love being close to each - that's how I recognize them from far. And their flocks move with greater synchronicity than those of sparrows.

They also have these cool seed-cracking beaks.

Look how they try to make an annoying mate go:

Tiny brawlers! And an instance later, they were almost kissing:

Asian Green Bee-Eater

Bee-eaters are definitely critters from fairy tales - strangely bright, strangely shaped, looking like cartoon characters.

There are A LOT of them in Rao Jodha Park. I saw many in Bangkok parks and the streets of Songkhla City (Thailand), but Rao Jodha Park is a pure bee-eaters' pride parade - especially before sunset.

Black Kite

I really wanted to see raptors in Rao Jodha Park, and I saw them.

Alas, they belonged to the most common species - black Kite (Milvus migrans).

Black kites are everywhere in Indian cities; in Delhi, they perch on electric wires in the city center. In Jodhpur, you can see them at the main railway station. There are a lot in Kathmandu, Nepal, as well.

The problem is that it's not always possible to take a nice photograph of them - you normally see them from below, their bottom side only.

In Rao Jodha Park, I was lucky to witness how a black kite was searching for prey, flying low, ready to dive.

Parakeets

These guys are usual in Roa Jodha Park, but normally a small flock of them are rushing over your head, and you only have time to look up and sigh with excitement.

I had only one chance to photograph this rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri), and here we are:

Bulbuls

Red-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus cafer) are numerous in this park.

Not yet knowing the name, I called them black-headed blood-shitters 😁 for a spot below their tails:

There is an abundance of another bulbul species in the park - white-eared bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis):

Pond Species

They have two ancient ponds there with the surprising diversity of birds.

A sandpiper:

He ignored me, kept hunting, but chose to move away from me.

A cormorant drying itself on the stone. There were 3 of them, they were afraid of my attention but didn't want to give up their hunting grounds so eventually I could photograph them - alas, it was very shady there at that time.

Red-wattled lapwing (Vanellus indicus), I spotted at least two of them. This was quite close:

Not for the first time - I saw this species in Bangkok.

Other Species

In the pond, I noticed birds floating on the water's surface like ducks, but they were escaping my attention (towards Padamsar Pond Ghats) and were too far from me. I guess they were Indian spot-billed ducks.

I saw an Eurasian moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) in the pond.

I saw an Indian pond-heron (Ardeola grayii) in a creek.

I think I saw a grey francolin (Ortygornis pondicerianus) - some mottled bird emerged among stones and ran away from me.

I also saw garden sunbirds, sparrows, a couple of dove species, and common pigeons.

The photos were taken with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 in November 2025, in Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.