Category: Bird Watching in north-east India

Situated in the Brahmaputra floodplain and wedged between two major rivers, the Dibru and the mighty Brahmaputra is the recently gazetted Dibru-saikhowa National Park, which protects an extensive mosaic of swamp forests, grassland, and shallow wetlands. Dibru-Saikhowa is home to a whole host of threatened and range-restricted species including the impressive  Black-breasted Parrotbill, the highly skulking Marsh and Jerdon’s Babblers and North-east Indian endemic, Swamp Prinia. The open wetlands and rivers inside the park usually hold a variety of wintering waterfowl, waders, and large waterbirds. The park is also a home to a variety of mammals including a giant Asian Elephant, Asiatic wild water-buffalo, Royal Bengal Tiger, Wild Horse, and Barking Deer.

Nameri National Park is a national park located in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in the SonitpurDistrict of Assam, bordering Arunachal Pradesh with an area of 200 sq km it is just the place for wildlife enthusiasts and nature lovers with its breathtaking natural beauty and diverse flora and fauna. It is also an ideal habitat for a host of other animals including the tiger, leopard, sambar, muntjac, gaur, wild boar, sloth bear, Himalayan black bear, capped langur, and Indian giant squirrel. Nameri is a bird watcher's paradise with over 300 species of birds. The white-winged wood duck, great pied hornbill, wreathed hornbill, black stork, ibis bill, blue-bearded bee-eaters, and many other birds make Nameri its home. The Jia Bhoroli river makes the park more special as many birds and mammals are dependent on it. This beautiful perennial river enters Assam in the plains, near Bhalukpung after swirling through the rugged mountains of Arunachal Pradesh, which is a home for many aquatic animals and birds. River rafting in the rubber raft makes more special for the birder as it is only the way to see some of the rare species of birds like Ibisbill, Small Pratincole, Great Thick-knee, Indian Stone-curlew, Goosander, Ruddy Shelduck etc. The park is a delight for birders. A stay here is a colorful experience, with colorful birds flying here and there everywhere. This national park is one of the thickest as well as the most threatened reservoirs of flora and fauna in the world and is also known for having some of the world’s best plant functional type and complexity. These deciduous forests of the park are a mixture of tropical and semi-evergreen forests accompanied by cane and bamboo expanses, which is a great place to escape.

The Mishmi hill a hill of Edu Mishmi tribe, situated in the Eastern part  of Arunahal Pradesh in the district of lower Dibang Valley. The rugged Mishmi hills have barely been explored ornithologically.  During the post-war expedition led by Salim Ali and S. Dillon Ripley, to a different parts of the hills, the discovery was made of a bird endemic to the region, the Mishmi (or Rusty-throated) Wren-babbler. Although quite common in this remote hills, it remained unrecorded again until December 2004! To get to the Mishmi hills you need to drive North-east from Tinsukia town in Assam. You will be crossing the huge expense of the Brahmaputra River on a small ferry at Saikhowa Ghat, before continuing across the plane to the state border post, about half an hour’s drive before Roing town. In the river plains, on can get to see some Vultures, as mixed flocks of White-rumped, the very rare Slender-billed and Himalayan Griffon. Our birding area is stretched about 56km along Roing-Mayodia pass road, reaching a maximum elevation of about 2800m. There are extensive areas of bamboo which provide habitat for the superb Blyth’s Tragopan. This high elevation bamboo and road-side vegetations are also home to rarely seen, restricted-range  Manipur Fulvetta and to Bar-winged Wren-babbler. Mishmi hill is incredibly versatile in bird habitat, as it has dry shrubberies and low-land bamboo to moist ever-green forest to high altitude bamboo forest, which makes al land paradise for birders.

Kaziranga National Park, a world heritage site lies partly in Golaghat District and partly in Nagaon District of Assam. It is the oldest park in Assam covers an area of 430 Sq km along the river Brahmaputra on the North and the Karbi Anglong hills on the South. Kaziranga National Park is famous for the Great Indian one-horned rhinoceros as well as many mammals, including tigers, elephants, panthers and bears and hundreds of migratory as well as residential birds like Bengal Florican, Pallas’s Fish Eagle, Swamp Francolin etc. All the excursions into the park will be by open-topped jeep, with regular stops at watch-towers and other vantage points, where you will be treated to some superb panoramic views of the grassland, marshes, and lakes dotted with herds of large mammals and an impressive array of waterbirds. The extensive grassland in the park holds some rare and restricted-range birds. You will have a good chance of seeing the threatened Slender-billed Vulture and Bengal Florican, and may also come across more skulking and rarely seen species such as Slender-billed Babbler and Finn’s Weaver.  Scattered throughout the grassland tracts are a series of shallow wetlands which support a good number of waterfowl, waders, and other waterbirds during the winter months, includes the endangered Spot-billed Pelican, Grey, and Purple Heron, Woolly-necked and Black-necked Storks, Lesser and Greater Adjutant etc. The sky will be filled with raptors and you will be on the lookout for Osprey, Black Baza, Pallas’s and Grey-headed Fish- Eagles, Red-headed Vulture, Eastern Marsh, Hen, and Pied Harriers, Greater Spotted Eagle, Changeable Hawk-Eagle and Peregrine Falcon etc. The park is open from November to April and in this period of time, one can enjoy the Elephant ride too, approaching an arms distance of some mammals.