It seems like ages ago now, but in April we visited India, spending most of the trip in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve - see here for a write-up of the non-birding element of the trip.
Whilst not caring what birds I saw as long as I saw a
Tiger, I did of course want to see as many birds as possible... Having been to
Goa in 2007, I had also seen many of the available species before, but still
had plenty to go it; in the end, I saw 164 species, of which 37 were new for me (pushing me through the 1000 species barrier for my life list).
I didn’t take a scope (instead taking my DSLR), and most of the time didn’t
miss it – although it would have been useful for distant waders at Okhla Bird
Sanctuary and raptors and pipits in Bandhavgarh.
Agra
Agra provided a gentle reintroduction to Indian
birding. The Yamuna River held a nice selection of wetland birds, visible from
the Taj Mahal, which included Painted Stork, Ruddy Shelduck, Bar-headed Goose
and River Lapwing. Brown Rock Chat and Booted Eagle were seen here, but not
elsewhere.
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| Brown Rock Chat |
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| Laughing Dove |
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| Ruddy Shelduck and Black-winged Stilts |
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| Bar-headed Geese |
Our
free afternoon in Agra involved an explore of the environs of our hotel; a
stroll along some leafy streets, peering into the gardens of some large houses,
and then having a drink in the garden of a restaurant added several species to
the trip list.
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| Purple Sunbird |
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| Little Green Bee-eaters |
Bandhavgarh
Bumping along rough tracks at 30mph in the back of a jeep is not the easiest birding in the world; in fact, I found it very frustrating, catching tail-end glimpses of things disappearing into stands of dense bamboo. As no-one else in the group was a birder, I had to be very careful about picking my moments to ask to stop. Nevertheless, I ended up seeing a good proportion of the available species, including Asian Openbill, Lesser Adjutant, White-naped Woodpecker, Grey Francolin, Jungle Bush-Quail, Painted Spurfowl, Red Junglefowl, Indian Stone-curlew, Alexandrine Parakeet, Sirkeer Malkoha, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Orange-headed Thrush, Tawny-bellied Babbler, Indian Nuthatch, Brahminy Starling, Indian Golden Oriole and White-bellied Drongo, to name but a few.
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| Asian Openbill |
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| Woolly-necked Stork |
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| Lesser Adjutant |
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| Black-rumped Flameback |
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| White-naped Woodpeckers |
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| Yellow-crowned Woodpecker |
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| Indian
Grey Hornbill |
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| Malabar Pied Hornbill |
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| Indian Roller |
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| Common Hawk-Cuckoo |
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| Black-naped Monarch |
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| Brahminy Starling |
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| Greater Racket-tailed Drongo |
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| Grey Francolin |
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| Jungle Bush Quail (running away) |
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| Painted Spurfowl - beauties! |
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| Peacock |
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| Red Junglefowl |
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| Rufous Treepie |
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| Sirkeer Malkoha |
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| Puff-throated Babbler |
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| Tawny-bellied Babbler |
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| Small Minivet |
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| Greater Coucal |
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| Black Redstart (rufiventris rather than phoenicuroides?) |
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| Blue-bearded Bee-eater |
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| Indian Stone-curlew |
However, one of my main disappointments was missing White-rumped Vulture (a Critically Endangered species which occurs in Bandhavgarh) – although I did, unexpectedly see, a single Himalayan Vulture over Tigergarh, and there were reasonable numbers of Indian Vultures, plus occasional Red-headed Vultures and a good selection of other raptors.
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| Indian Vulture |
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| Red-headed Vulture |
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| Red-headed Vulture with a Wild Boar |
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| Egyptian Vulture |
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| White-eyed Buzzard |
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| Oriental Honey Buzzard |
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| Shikra |
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| Crested Serpent Eagle |
Scarcer owls also proved troublesome; other people seem to have no problem seeing Brown Fish Owl, and many see Indian Scops Owl and Mottled Wood Owl; but despite asking the guides to show me owls, and a special trip out with the owner of Tigergarh to look for the latter species, luck was not on my side - although two roosting Nightjars - Indian and Savanna - were pleasing.
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| Jungle Owlet |
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| Spotted Owlet |
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| Jungle Nightjar |
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| Savanna Nightjar |
Finally, Indian Scimitar Babbler also eluded me, although this was less of a surprise...
What
with game drives starting at dawn and finishing at dusk, opportunities to bird
the open land around Tigergarh were limited to the middle of the day. Trying to ID flighty pipits in 35oC heat
with only binoculars was a challenge (and there were a confusing selection of
calls being produced…), but all that were seen well were Blyth’s.
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| Blyth's Pipit |
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| Blyth's Pipit |
However, the area held a good selection of other birds,
focussed along a small watercourse, including several Palearctic migrants not
seen in Bandhavgarh itself, including Brown Shrike, Blyth’s Reed Warbler,
Booted Warbler and Wryneck, plus Black-shouldered Kite, Indian Black Ibis and
Red Collared Dove.
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| Red Collared Dove |
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| Brown Shrike trying to keep cool |
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| Common Mynas |
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| Spotted Dove |
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| Red-wattled Lapwing |
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| Wryneck |
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| Red-naped Ibis |
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| Hoopoe |
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| Large Grey Babbler |
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| Long-tailed Shrike |
Delhi
Delhi itself proved to be surprisingly productive. A visit
to the Lotus Flower Temple allowed a walk through the adjacent Aastha Kunj and Kalkaji
Distict Park from the Nehru Place metro station (note that you can’t actually
get into the temple grounds from the park), which produced a good selection of
birds, including several additions to the trip list, namely Common Babbler,
Asian Pied Starling, Ashy Prinia and Lesser Whitethroat (the latter seen too briefly to even attempt to assign to race). We also visited Humayan’s
Tomb, although the grounds of this site (whilst very pleasant) didn’t produce
much of note, except some large flocks of Rose-coloured Starlings.
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| Common Babbler |
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| Jungle Babbler |
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| Lots of Rose-coloured Starlings |
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| Scavenging Black Kites |
I had wanted to visit either Sultanpur National Park or Okhla Bird Sanctuary whilst in Delhi, ultimately choosing the latter as Sultanpur is more of a journey to get to; that said, travelling the relatively short distance to Okhla by auto-rickshaw turned out to be a bit of an ordeal (as it soon became apparent that the driver didn’t know where he was going). However, once we’d arrived, I was impressed with this site, and could happily have spent the whole day here (instead of the couple of hours I was allowed…). We accessed the site through its southern entrance, initially disappointed that the impounded areas was almost dry; however, the small areas of remaining water supported a decent selection of waders and wildfowl, including Marsh and Wood Sandpipers, Temminck's Stints, Painted Storks, Black-headed Ibis and Indian Spot-billed Duck – although a human skull was a bit of an eye opener....
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| Wood Sandpiper |
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| Indian House Crows... and a skull |
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| Painted Storks, Black-headed Ibises and Spoonbills |
The northern part of the site was most productive, with the reedbed area particularly interesting, with Striated Babbler, Yellow-bellied Prinia, Siberian Stonechat and Red-whiskered Bulbul amongst others, and the wooded area held Asian Koel and Sulphur-bellied Warbler. Three Citrine Wagtails of the black-backed calcarata race were found in a nearby marshy area. A good description of this site, including how to find it, is available at:
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| Asian Koel |
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| Citrine Wagtail (calcarata) |
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| Indian Pond Heron |
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| Sulphur-bellied Warbler |
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| Pied Bushchat |
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| Yellow-bellied Prinia |
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| Striated Babbler |
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| Red-whiskered Bulbul |
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| Siberian Stonechat (maurus or indicus?) |
In Delhi, we stayed at the Hotel Vikram, which we found to
be fine for our needs, and conveniently located next to a metro stop. Our room
at the rear of the building looked out over some greenery, and it was nice to
be able to see Coppersmith and Brown-headed Barbets and Yellow-footed Green
Pigeon from the window.
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| Yellow-footed Green Pigeon |
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| Brown-headed Barbet |
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