Goliath Heron-SUNDERBAN DIARY

[Vipin Sharma]

This was a surprise sighting for us , Goliath Heron ; a dream come true during Sunderban trip, this species is believed to be very shy and do not generally come out from it habitant of dense forest.
Said to be photographed very seldom and there is hardly any photographic evidences of his presence in Sunderbans.
You can count on this photo and proof of his presence in Sunderban.

The Goliath Heron, also known as the Giant Heron, is a very large wading bird of the heron family. — at Sunderbans.
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/800
Av( Aperture Value ) 6.3
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens 150-500mm
Focal Length 500.0mm

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Rare and nice image taken under most difficult conditions. Nice eye contact and wingspread. Goliath Heron is a large bird and possibly prefers to lead a solitary life for most of the time. It's Bonobibi's blessings that you could click it so beautifully that too in flight. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Did you photograph this largest Heron in Pirkhali-3 Block in the Sundarbans during October 2013? As it is one of the rarest of rare images both location and date are very important.
Wish to see many facades of the Sundarbans from your your diary.
SaktiWild

[Vipin Sharma]

Dear Saktipada , I do not remember the block and region , We saw him on 19/10/13 and sighting was for 15 to 20min.I do have full flight sequence of him and also photographed him well perched on a dense tree.
Lot of other photographs to come on Indiawilds from my Sunderbans Diary.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Very interesting sighting.
From Heron Conservation (IUCN-SSC Heron Specialist group): "It has been sighted several times in "Bangladesh (Sundarbans) and India (Assam) (Saikia and Bhattacharjee 1990, Thompson et al. 1993, Madge 1995). Given the distances involved to the core of the range, it may be that these birds represent a small population breeding in the Sundarbans or Assam, but this needs to be documented."

[Mrudul Godbole]

Rare sighting. Nice flight pose captured. You are very lucky to be able to sight and photograph this bird. Look forward to more from Sunderban. Thanks for sharing.

[Shyamala Kumar]

Beautiful and rare sighting successfully documented.Sunderbans is still vastly unexplored because of its inhospitable terrain and man eating tigers.The possibility of many rare species of animal life still breeding in viable numbers in undisturbed isolation is very high.Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Very rare sighting..one of the toughest birds to catch in India. well captured. would like to see the perched image as well. Reported sightings from sunderbans are mostly fleeting, but there are photo records. you are very lucky to get good images of this bird. well done.

TFS
Roopak

[Kaustuv Chatterjee]

Thanks for sharing and feeling good for your good fortune! Never knew they existed in that part of our country...well shot too!