Tourists make a beeline for Bharatpur in winter, when the Keoladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary is full of exotic, foreign winged visitors who migrate here from across the globe. The other seasons too have their own attractions. Spring is the time for courtship and nesting, when all the species become lovebirds. The rains are for breeding and rearing young, with nests across the parklands brimming with mottled and speckled eggs of many colours. But there's no doubt that it's in the late, deliciously cold winter that the quantum of birdsong rises to a raucous crescendo.
Once the hunting ground of the Maharaja of Bharatpur, the scrub, swamps and marshes of the 29-sq km Keoladeo Ghana was later turned into a bird sanctuary, and now ranks among the most visited in India. This is manifest in the huge fan club of homo sapiens who migrate here in winter as well to give their feathered buddies a rousing welcome.