A Trip to Thattekad ..... A bird watchers Paradise

Thattekad become popular after Dr. Salim Ali called it the "richest bird habitat in peninsular India". We made a trip to Thattekad and Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary during the 3rd week of December 2015.  We took 7 pm special train from Chennai to Ernakulam but it was unusually 6 hours late. We got down at Angamaly railway station and took a taxi to Thettekad. It cost us Rs 1200 .  Once you cross the Periyar river, you reach the entrance to the sanctuary and the ticket counter. Thattekad Birds Song Homestay is about 200 meters walk inside the main gate of Thattekad Bird Sanctuary. We arrived Thattekad Bird Song Home stay around 11 am, bit sad as we missed the morning trek.  Birds Song has two rooms with attached bathrooms on the first floor. The ground floor is the residence of Vinod and his family. After a quick refreshment...we set to our first trek near the homestay area. 

As we started our trail, we first spotted Brahminy kite as we walked little further to a small pond which was full of Lesser whistling ducks, darter and kingfishers. The other side of the pond has rubber plantation which we sighted Purple Sunbird, Green Bee-eater and Chestnut-headed bee-eater. We returned back to homestay for our lunch. We were served with pure authentic Kerala lunch. Due to low light and the distance the images quality was poor.

Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus)

Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus)

Chestnut-Headed Bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti)

Indian Rock Turtle

After a small nap we got ready again at 3.30 pm to start our next trek. This time it was led by our guide Vinod Narayanan. This time we planned to go to other side of the river. We crossed the bridge which had an excellent view of Periyar river. We able to sight stock billed kingfisher and common kingfisher. We walked a little further and entered into forest area. 

Stork-billed kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) Not able to get a good picture as it was far away...

As we walked down we saw lots of Drongos, swift, parakeet, grey hornbill, barbet etc. We had a numerous sighting of various barbets, bulbul, and parakeets. The catch of the day was Grey hornbill and Indian Pitta. With the help of Vinod we able to sight the migratory Indian Pitta.



Plum-headed parakeet (Psittacula cyanocephala) which is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent.

Racket-tailed Drongo

Crested treeswift (Hemiprocne coronata)

Indian pygmy woodpecker (Picoides nanus)

Malabar grey hornbill (Ocyceros griseus) is a hornbill endemic to the Western Ghats

Indian pitta (Pitta brachyura) 

Rufous treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) 

The Second day we started early to the other side of the hill. It was around 30 minutes drive and reached a small hill. You can get beautiful ariel view of the forest. We able to sight good number of birds like Minivit, Hill Myna, Parrot etc... The catch of the day was Ceylon Frogmouth. From the rocky hill we moved back to Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary. It was a good trik overall as lot of birds I saw was for the first time.

Ceylon frogmouth (Batrachostomus moniliger) The reddish brown colour is female and light brown is Male.

 

Orange minivet (Pericrocotus flammeus) - Male

Orange minivet (Pericrocotus flammeus) - Female

 






















Black-hooded oriole (Oriolus xanthornus) 

Asian fairy-bluebird (Irena puella)

Vernal hanging parrot (Loriculus vernalis)

Malabar parakeet (Psittacula columboides)

Verditer flycatcher (Eumyias thalassinus)


Golden-fronted leafbird (Chloropsis aurifrons)

It is a place for serious birders and if your not one just skip this place. The entire day is spend to look for feathered beauties and be ready to walk the whole day. It will be sweatingBirds Song Home Stay is a good place to stay as it is just inside the sanctuary, its clean and comfortable. The verandah outside the room is cool place to see nature and relax . Vinod Narayanan is very good in identifying the birds and with his help we able see some of the rare birds. He is genuinely interested to make sure we are satisfied with the stay and trip. Airtel mobile signal was very weak, but it maybe good as u r disconnected from the outside world. It had been some incredible birding at Thattekad and we would have seen over 50 species of birds in a day. Some of the birds I saw is listed below. 

Some of Birds Sighted:
Bronzed Drongo
Black Drongo
Black-hooded oriole
Black rumped flameback woodpecker
Brahminy Kite
Brown-breasted flycatcher
Chestnut-Headed Bee-eater
Common hill myna
Common Iora
Common kingfisher
Crimson-backed sunbird
Crimson-fronted barbet
Greater Coucal
Golden-fronted leafbird
Indian golden oriole
Indian Pitta
Indian pygmy woodpecker
Indian swiftlet
Malabar parakeet
Oriental magpie-robin
Plum-headed parakeet
Purple Heron
Purple Sunbird
Racket-tailed drongo
Red-whiskered bulbul
Rufous Treepie
Spotted dove
Stork-billed kingfisher
Streak-throated woodpecker
Small green barbet
Southern hill mynas
Vernal hanging parrot
Verditer flycatcher
White-bellied treepie
Whistling ducks
White Throat Kingfisher

Birding Team