Barbet and its nest

It is really interesting to see how these small birds coexist with each other. I was watching this pair of Coppersmith Barbet building their nest and in the process saw many other birds on the same tree.

I also observed that the Barbet had a set routine during the day. At the crack of dawn he sits on the eucalyptus tree close to our house emitting his tuk tuk sound. Once he moves on, the Mynahs parks themselves on the tree creating a lot of racket. Then comes the sunbirds flitting around pretty fast, followed by the fan tail with their peculiar tweet.  Once the sun is real bright, the pair of grey hornbills do make their presence felt.

More like a fixed time slot for each bird. The Barbet  does not get distracted by the other activities on the tree, like the parrot feeding the young one.

Or the male koel sitting on the same bark where he is chipping away the wood for the nest.

Earlier he started on the east side and went pretty deep with the hole, but abandoned it. Could be the wood was hard, or could be that the sunlight would hit the young one directly.

Have made a small video with whatever I could capture. Now the Barbet is working on the west side, away from my line of visibility.  If I can capture some action from the other side, then maybe I may come up with part 2 of this video. We can name it West Side Story.

Cycle Rickshaw

One of the mode of transport used in Jaipur is the Cycle Rickshaw. It is used mostly to transport goods. 

At times they do take passengers too but many are uncomfortable sitting in it at the thought of being pulled by another human being. Before starting the rickshaw driver pulls it by hand for a short distance to gain momentum.  

Another form of transport is the "tuk tuk"  

Here our tuk tuk driver was so confident of his driving skills that he was looking back and pitching his sales talk of the places that he could take us for a small fee. 

In case you are wondering about the horse on the road, he is probably waiting for the next customer in front of the shop where you get Horses and Elephants on hire.

Talking of elephants, from the top of Amer fort I saw the elephants plodding down the slope to get the next batch of tourists. It was tough for the elephants especially when going down hill. (see video) After reading about the elephants being tortured to "train them" I wonder why jeeps (with four wheel drive) are not used to transport the tourists. 

There is a large cooking vessel on top of Amer fort. Wonder what is the point of discussion here between the tourists and the guides. A good picture for a caption contest. What is your caption?