A birder's paradise at an Indian festival

Encountering a peacock in the wild is a surreal experience. Just one of the sightings among a wealth of exotic and unfamiliar birds at the Uttar Pradesh Bird Festival

There was a flash of the richest blue, as the bird emerged from the forest and strutted across the path in front of us. Instantly recognisable, yet at the same time oddly unfamiliar, it lifted its neck and flicked an enormously long tail, before melting into the vegetation, never to be seen again.

Encountering a peacock in the wild, in its native India, is a surreal experience. I regularly see them in the grounds of Bath Spa University's Corsham Court, where they strut around as if they own the place. Yet now I was watching them in the fields and forests of India's most populous state, home to the second Uttar Pradesh Bird Festival.