From the hotel roof - Fort Kochi, India

I'm currently in Kerela, India for three weeks, mainly to attend my sons three day wedding which starts on Friday. Most of my birding so far has been either from the rooftop area of our hotel in Fort Kochi, or while having a beer at the wonderful Hotel Seagull which is just down the road. So limited birding so far but still plenty of great birds to see.

Probably the most unexpected birds from the rooftop were two southern coucals, a type of large cuckoo.

By far the most obvious bird in Fort Kochi and the commonest raptor is the Brahminy kite with often 300 birds in the sky at any one time.

Black kites are also pretty numerous, with 50 seen daily.

There are a lot of egrets at Fort Kochi and many roost in the trees outside the hotel. It's a good vantage point to watch them from because the hotel rooftop puts you on a level with the birds.

I was surprised to see a couple of coppersmith barbets in the trees and also a pair of white-cheeked barbets. Other smaller birds include oriental magpie robin, red-vented bulbul and black drongo.

Three species of swift fly around the roof in the evening, including this species which is Asian palm swift.

Indian swiftlet is another, plus little swift which I have not so far been able to photograph.

This is a juvenile Asian keol, which is another type of cuckoo which parasitises the ubiquitous house crow.  We actually have a house crow feeding this bird right outside our bedroom window.