Namdapha-Mishmi-Dihing: A Trip of a Lifetime, Grand Birding Experience-Part 1

Trip Summary

This trip was an exploration through Assam and Arunachal Pradesh for birdwatching. I visited these states during late April 2026 during peak season for Mishmi Hills and Dihing-Patkai National Park. We visited 3 bird hotspots (Namdapha National Park, Dihing-Patkai National Park and Mishmi Hills) and saw quite a few birds between the hotspots. This blog is about my trip and how the birding went. In the trip I saw 40 lifers which boosted me to 721 bird species observed in India, the rarest being the Silver Backed Neeedletail

Part-1: Namdapha National Park & Surroundings

As our first destination and our first visit, Namdapha was amazing. Namdapha is also the first place where I saw a Wren-Babbler before it got renamed (Spotted Elachura and the Cupwings). Our stay was at Deban Camp, a government property in the center of dense jungle. When we arrived from Dibrugarh Airport, we drove 3-4 hours to Namdapha, sighting a Lesser Adjutant en-route. It was raining intensely so no birdwatching was possible on the first evening. In terms of other wildlife, we saw a Red Giant Flying Squirrel, the second flying squirrel species I have seen, the other being the Indian Giant Flying Squirrel which I saw in the Western Ghats. On the second day we woke up at 4:30 A.M and the sun was already up as we set off for birding. On the first morning, we went down the forest road. We started by going into the forest and observed the abundance of Emerald Doves in front of our vehicle. These Emerald Doves were so common that we saw one every 10 minutes walking on the dirt road. As we moved on, we noticed calls of a White-Tailed Flycatcher with a mixed hunting party, so we stopped the vehicle and saw how hyperactive these birds are. After some intense effort we found a female bird. This bird had a very distinctive broad-ish beak which I haven’t seen in flycatchers before. After that sighting we heard a few Snowy Throated Babblers in the same flock when the White-Tailed Flycatchers flew away. The Babblers were hiding behind a Wild Banana tree below us. After a lot of reluctance, the bird finally decided to come out for but kept jumping around and give only glimpses but was a sufficiently good sighting as I could see the whole head clearly. After further driving we noticed a Large Blue Flycatcher was calling and with surprising ease, we saw the bird which turned out to be male. This was the third rarest bird of the trip and we were joyous to see it. We went till the 22^nd Mile mark, where there was a bridge. We were searching for the Blyth’s Kingfisher but our efforts went in vain. I slept in the stationary car near the bridge. When I woke up, I saw that our naturalist had just spotted a flock of Collared Treepies. As I stepped out of the car to watch the flock, after a second, I saw the noisy flock in flight and observed the white collar while the bird was in flight. I then had breakfast. On our way back, we saw a Pale Billed Parrotbill flock resting on bamboo stilts and what a wonderful sighting it was. I was thrilled but had to move on to the calling Rufous Throated Fulvetta, a level-10 skulker which we found difficult to find as it was showing it’s very own hyperactive behavior in it’s very own dense undergrowth where it hides. Finally, after what I would say was an hour’s effort we found the millisecondial view but could not observe the beak clearly. We went back to Deban to end the day’s efforts and slept off. On our first day we had 6 lifers.

On the second day, we had the same ‘wake up’ timings and went birding. Before even exiting the property, we saw a White Crowned Forktail fleeting in front of the car’s driving window and heard it calling. This was a rubbish sighting and we decided not to mark it on eBird. While waiting there, we saw multiple rubbish 0.01 millisecond sightings which we didn’t mark on eBird. We also failed to observe the majestic Wreathed Hornbill where again I had a fleeting sighting where it flew over and our naturalists saw it and since we were focused on trying the Forktail, we did not get a good glimpse and decided not to mark it. Moving on, we heard an Eyebrowed Wren Babbler and with minimal persistence (for a Wren Babbler) we saw it nicely. Next up was a bird from the same family, the Streaked Wren Babbler where the bird was reluctant to come out but when it did, it gave better views. We also saw a Hoolock Gibbon after that sighting. We decided to push further but it started raining and we decided to leave for the Mishmi Hills.