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Birding in North East India :India February 11, 2006

North East India is a vast area comprising of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. The variations of altitude, diversity of habitat, and extreme precipitation are factors which are responsible for the diversity and abundance of resident birds in this region. The region boasts of varied habitat - wetlands, marsh, grassland, woodland, sub tropical and warm broadleaved forests cool broadleaved forests, coniferous, fir, oak, bamboo, Juniper, Rhododendron, and alpine scrub land, is spread over an accessible altitudinal range of 100m to over 4500m. A string of National parks and Wild Life Sanctuaries enables focused birding. Some of the important birding areas are Kaziranga (Bird list 450), Dibru saikhowa (Bird List 350+), Namdhapa (Bird List 650+), West Arunachal Pradesh (Eagles Nest, Pakke and Dirang-Sela: Bird List 450 +), Manas (Bird list 380) and Nameri (Bird List 350). In addition vast areas remain unexplored, waiting for the intrepid birder. Except for Namdhapa NP, and some remote regions of West Arunachal, all birding areas are accesable by jeep.

Onarrivalat Kolkata our Guide will receive you at the airport. We will spend the morning to look for the Fulvous Whistling Ducks and Swinhoe’s Snipe in Kolkata. Then we will fly same afternoon to Mohanbari Airport at Dibrugarh. If flight is on time we will spend some time at Borajan to see some birds and primates. We will stay at Tinsukia.

India is a country with an unrivalled range of cultures, landscapes and birds to match. From the Himalaya worth the highest mountains in the world to the Jungles and beaches of the south, from the great Thar desert in the west to the wettest place in the northeast- India is truly a land of contrasts which never fails to surprise and fascinate the visitor.

The opportunities for pioneering bird watching are breathtaking! Its avifauna is a unique blend of Indo-Burmese, Sino-Tibetan and Himalayan forms, which thrives in the bio-diverse habitat. Largely unexplored 665 species of birds have been recorded, of which some are exotic - Wards Trogon, White- Winged Wood Duck, Rufus necked hornbill, Blue napped Pitta, Wedge-billed Wren Babbler, snow throated Babbler, and Beautiful Nuthatch. Brown Hornbills may occur here, together with a fabulous list of pheasants, babblers and laughing-thrushes, which include the Arunachal endemic - Austen’s Spotted Babbler.

In 2003, I had operated and guided two short tours on the fringes of the Great Himalayan National Park ( GHNP). This year in compliance with client wishes, Gurudongma organized a 15 days birding trek across the watershed of the Tirthan and Sainj Rivers, for an American couple, in June 2005.. It was a great challenge, as no trip reports of this route were available. Moreover I was busy appearing for my Master of Ecology examination. My Assistant Sudesh Pradhan carried out an exploration, provided the logistics and operated this trip with Norbu, who has been trained by me as a birding guide for Bhutan. The trip operated to the satisfaction of clients, yielding a bird list of 200+. This included Western Tragopan, Monal, Koklass, and Himalayan Snow-cock. As a result of the experience gained, Gurudongma is now offering a 16 days “Pheasants of India birding trek through the GHNP, in June every year.