Three years before I heard about Thattekad BS from one of my friend and about the famous bird watcher Eldho from that place. But I could not manage my time to head out over there. So last November I decided to take this trip. It's a amazing place for bird watcher and a natural rain forest discovered by famous Ornithologist Dr.Selim Ali. Some important information on Thattekad Bird Sanctuary (Presently Selim Ali Bird Sanctuary)
From Wikipedia: The Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, covering an area of hardly 25 km², and located about 60 km north-east of Kochi (Kerala state, India & nearest Airport too), is one of the important bird sanctuaries of India. The literal meaning of Thattekad is flat forest, the region is an evergreen low-land forest and is located between the branches of Periyar River, the longest river in Kerala. The Thattekad Bird Sanctuary has a rich and varied birdlife. Several species of birds, both forest birds as well as the water birds, visit the sanctuaries, and the important ones include the following:
A) Indian Pitta : which visits the sanctuary during winter and spends almost six months here.
B) Ground Thrush : an orange-headed bird.
C) Large-billed Leaf-warbler
D) Jerdon's Nightjar
E) Indian Cuckoo
F) Darters
G) Cormorants
H) Whiskered Terns
I) Collared Scops Owl
J) Frogmouths==> which are nocturnal birds.
K) Pompadour Green Pigeon
L) Yellow-browed Bulbuls
The sanctuary is a habitat for different varieties of Cuckoos and a region of the sanctuary popularly called Cuckoo Paradise is home to them, and they include the following:
Drongo Cuckoo: which may be easily mistaken for Drongo
Indian Hawk Cuckoo: which is highly vocal
Large Hawk Cuckoo: which looks relatively massive compared to other types of cuckoos, and is characterized by a dark grey and heavily streaked throat
I stayed there for two days only. I realished after reaching, I should have been there at least 4 days to complete 25% of the resident bird species. I'll update my day by day activity from my later post. Before that I would like to list down some species that I spotted and few of them I could photographed.
1. Lesser Whistling Duck
2. White Brested King Fisher
3. Lesser Flameback Wood Peaker
4. Heart Throted Wood Peaker
5. Whiskered Tern
6. Brown Hawk Owl
7. Malabar Grey Hornbill
8. Srilankan Frog Mouth
9. Little Cormorant
10. Crested Goshawk
11. Yellow Throated Bulbul
12. Crimson Back Sunbird
13. Fairy Blue Bird
14. Malabar Blue Parakeet
15. Black Baza
16. Verdict Flycatcher
17. Great Eared Nightjar : One of the instinct species from that place.
Please follow my next post .....
