After Deepak Karra moved from India to Australia, he was taken aback by the vivid colors of birds fluttering amid the hundreds of waterfalls and lush mountains whenever he went hiking near his home.
While the common North American robin has dull, drab feathers over a rusty-orange breast, there is a more exotic robin found only in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania that sports a bright pink breast. This shock of highlighter-pink contrasts sharply against its sleek black head, tail, and back feathers. Plus, their puffy bodies make them adorable.
Even in these regions, though, pink robins aren’t always easy to spot.
The first time Karra googled Australian birds in preparation for a bird-sighting adventure, after moving to Melbourne in 2010, he saw a pink robin online and thought it was fake.
“I thought it wasn’t a real bird initially because it looked unreal,” he told The Epoch Times.
Karra, 40, who always loved connecting with nature ever since he was a boy collecting fireflies near his childhood home in Allachaur, Punjab, took up bird photography in 2018. It became his passion to photograph exotic avians in his spare time—whenever he wasn’t on shift at the Royal Children’s Hospital where he works as a nurse.
“I believe birds embody the extraordinary diversity and beauty of the natural world,” Karra said. “Every vivid feather, every unique pattern or shade, tells a story.”
Though his bucket list of birds to photograph is “extensive” he finally managed to cross the pink robin off his list when he photographed one at Erskine Falls, three hours southwest of Melbourne, after months of scouring the densely forested mountains. Following a waterfall downstream, his photography buddy whispered to “stop and look up.”
“There it was, sitting straight up, roughly five feet above my head,” Karra said. “I couldn’t stop smiling. One of the best experiences of my life.”
Pink robins ultimately became his favorite birds to photograph. Karra last sighted one in the Yarra mountains, an hour-and-a-half northeast of Melbourne in Victoria, where he says he and his birding buddy have become familiar with one particular pink-breasted male (only males display bright neon while females feature a duller pink). They gave him a decidedly unmasculine name: Pinky.
“It almost feels like he waits for us,” Karra said. “No matter how often I see or photograph him, he never fails to bring a big smile to my face.”
“To our surprise, Pinky flew over and perched right on top of the camera!” he added. As the robin perched on his friend’s camera, Kumar let his shutter fly. Both men burst out laughing. “It was one of those spontaneous, joyful moments in nature that you never forget,” he said.
During the same trip, Karra used his video camera to film a pink robin uttering its distinct “chwit-tr-tr-tr-tr” followed by a sharp “chi” to send as a warning. But with their adorably plump body and tiny size, pink robins probably won’t be scaring off many photographers any time soon, though perhaps their natural defense, Kumar says, is that they’re hard to find. Fortunately, pink robins aren’t shy. Many will just sit still and watch as Karra takes his long-exposure shots.
While Karra continues traipsing Australia looking for more birds on his bucket list—including the ground parrot, rose-crowned fruit dove, superb fruit dove, grey grasswren, Gouldian finch, and the elusive night parrot—he’s already snapped too many to count.
He notes the azure kingfisher he shot at the Lotus Garden in Victoria and buff-breasted paradise-kingfisher he found in the Far North Queensland as top specimens.
“I took ten days off work and, accompanied by my wife, drove to Julatten,” Karra said. “We camped and photographed birds along the way.” He describes the buff-breasted kingfisher as “a striking bird, known for its long white tail streamers, rust-colored underparts, and large bright red bill.”
The azure kingfisher is a small, vibrant bird found in northern and eastern Australia and Tasmania, he said, adding that their calls sound like a high-pitched “pee-ee, pee-ee” while in flight.
On his most recent trips, visiting the Artemis Station wildlife sanctuary in Far North Queensland and Perth in Western Australia, Karra racked up several dozen others. Where to next for the bird lover?
“We are off to Hattah-Kulkyne National Park chasing pink cockatoos and regent parrots next week,” he said.
More Bird Photography By Deepak Karra
