Daughters of Kokrebellur

While visiting some friends in Bangalore over the weekend I managed to drag them to see the famed daughters of Kokrebellur. 

Kokrebellur around 80 kms away from Bangalore is a tiny village with a long established bonding between the Spot-billed Pelicans and the villagers who have adopted this bird as their heritage, since they consider the birds as harbingers of good luck and prosperity to the village.

One of the villagers who guided us to a large tree which had over 20 pairs of these huge birds (who return every year at around the same period to nest here) was keen to also explain that to the villagers these famed birds are "like a daughter coming home for delivery...."

Here's some photos I clicked of the Spot-billed Pelican (Pelecanus phillipensis) we saw...

Unfortunately, we were a few weeks too early to see the other famed daughters of the village - the  Painted Stork (Ibis leucocephalus), so I guess that calls for a revisit later in the season.. :-)