Bird identification: Warora, India !A bird with vertically elongated body, perched upright, moderately long beak !The bird now extended its neck taking a gopher like stance !The same bird having white ventral surface and soiled brown back, back to its resting position These photographs have been taken in Warora, India. Could someone please help identify this bird?

This is a pond heron or paddy bird. The de-facto source for identifying Indian birds is Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp. The book is remarkably complete and contains the vast majority of species found in the Indian Subcontinent.

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