Birder Young

TS Chanakya wetlands: A birding hotspot in the middle of Navi Mumbai 28-JUNE-2026 The Waders In terms of Waders, we saw 6 species, out of them 3 are migratory but sticking late until June this year for a reason that nobody knows. There were 100s of Tibetan Sand Plovers still frolicking around in TSC and there was a Common Greenshank and a Curlew Sandpiper. All of them are migratory. We also found a resident Litte Egret on the path along with a Little Heron and an Indian Pond Heron. Tibetan Sand Plovers A Curlew Sandpiper record shot from far A Common Greenshank A Little Egret on the Path Waterbirds In waterbirds we covered 5 species, 2 are migratory and have not left India yet, The Lesser and Greater Flamingo, we also saw an Indian Cormorant, Indian Spot Billed Duck and Painted Stork. The migratory birds not leaving India keeps a big concern in my head about when they will go, if they do go in the first place. A Lesser Flamingo which is solitary in a pond An Indian Spot Billed ...

  Part-4 Thattekad and the Nilgiris 1.     Jerdons Nightjar A weird looking nightbird which we saw along the banks of the Periyar river. Its eyes shine red when a light shone on it. It has good camouflage and we were only able to see it because of the eye shine. 2.     Nilgiri Pipit A bird which we saw from our car while driving up to Doddabetta peak. It is a very streaky pipit which is endemic to the western ghats. It looks similar to Tree and Olive Backed Pipits but they are not found where we saw the Nilgiri Pipit. We saw it sitting on a rock surrounded by a grassland in the Nilgiris. 3.     Nilgiri Sholakili A bird which we have near missed multiple times because we frequently visit the Nilgris. It is found around forest streams north of the Palghat gap. It is separated from White Bellied Sholakili (no overlapping range) because its white belly spans from breast to tail unlike the White Bellied Sholakili whose belly is mo...

  Part-3: Munnar and Thattekad 1.     Palani Laughingthrush It took a lot of searching to find this skulker at Munnar. It has a prominent white eyebrow and a black spot above the bill. In overlapping range, it is separated from Nilgiri Laughingthrush by lack of the black chin (area below the bill). We near missed it 3 times before seeing it. 2.     White Bellied Sholakili Yet another Munnar Skulker where finding it requires immense effort and a lot of near misses (4 for us). You can see the white belly spot and the red eye in this blue colored robin-like bird. It is only found south of the Palghat gap while the Nilgiri Sholakili is only found north of the Palghat gap. It is separated from Nilgiri Sholakili (no overlapping range) by a smaller white belly (I know, it sounds weird that the White Bellied Sholakili has a smaller White belly than the Nilgiri Sholakili) and no orange patches on the side of the belly. 3.     Malayan Ni...

 Trip Summary We went to Thattekad, Munnar and the Nilgiris from 5-9 June 2026 and found 12 lifers and 110 birds. We covered all types of habitat from the scrublands of Mettupalayam to the high-altitude shola forests of Munnar. This is a blog about all our 12 lifers and how I saw them. Part-2: Thattekad Bird Sanctuary 1.     Common Flameback A mid-sized woodpecker which looks similar to the Black Rumped and Malabar Flamebacks. It has 2 stripes on its head while Malabar and Black Rumped Flamebacks only have 1. One stripe runs from the tip of its golden wings through the eye and the other stripe runs parallelly below the first one. We saw it on the dry banks of the Periyar river while it was climbing up a tree. 2.     Heart Spotted Woodpecker   Another mid-sized woodpecker with a completely different built to all the other woodpeckers. Its back is broader making it look unique in that sense. It has a black crest and we observed a white fo...

Trip Summary We went to Thattekad, Munnar and the Nilgiris from 5-9 June 2026 and found 12 lifers and 110 birds. We covered all types of habitat from the scrublands of Mettupalayam to the high-altitude shola forests of Munnar. This is a blog about all our 12 lifers and how I saw them.   Part-1 Thattekad Bird Sanctuary (sec-1) 1.     Crested Goshawk A bird which looks similar to a Shikra and a Besra but the Goshawk has a noticeably bigger built. We saw it 3 times over the course of the trip but we saw it for the first time while stopping for Chai and we saw 2 Goshawks were sitting on a tree stump. 2.      Blue Eared Kingfisher A bird which we needed to put in effort for. In our ‘Namdapha Mishmi Dihing’ trip we near missed the Blue Eared Kingfisher because while we were looking for it a Burmese Elephant passed us 3 meters away. While looking for it this time we got 10 leeches each on our shoes which is not as extreme but this time we got a...

 Note: This was a day trip and we had 0 lifers. Unlike my ‘Namdapha, Mishmi, Dihing’ trip blogs I am mentioning every bird, not only lifers. I have been to Karnala 17 times and TS Chanakya 9 times before so I am experienced with the hotspots and know the bird micro-hotspots. In TS Chanakya we only tried to scan through flocks of waders and did not try to find other birds like both the species of Crake. Karnala Bird Sanctuary As it was raining in Mumbai and we had a plan to go to TS Chanakya for the waders in full breeding plumage. But because of the rain we decided it was a better option to go to Karnala first and then go to TS Chanakya in the afternoon because most waders stay during the afternoon. At Karnala, we first went to the Hariyal trail where we were immediately greeted by Southern Plains Grey Langurs and went on a bit further. We stuck around for some time where flocks of Brown Cheeked Fulvettas cross and eventually found some along with a Common Iora . We continued o...