Kanha National Park - Winter & Summer Birding

Birding at Kanha

Kanha National Park along with other tiger reserves in Central India are a heaven for bird watchers. Albeit degree of difficulty is very high in winters whence the migrants arrive. The thick canopy makes visibility a challenge and greater efforts have to be made to identify avian by interpreting their calls.   

Indian SCops Owl - Monu Dubey

Brown Hawk Owl - Prayut Mandal 

Cinnamon Bittern - Prayut Mandal 

Black Rumped Flameback - Sanjeev Patel  

Northern Taxa like the Pallas Fish Eagle, Grey Headed Fish Eagle, Grey Bushchat, Osprey, Gray Lag Geese, Siberian Ruby Throat, Verditor Flycatcher, bar winged flycatcher shrike can be seen along with wintering pipits, warblers and some teals.   

Winters accord excellent opportunity to enhance skills in identifying the warblers and wintering pipits. In this region the latter are scarce but nevertheless there.  But by all means this is a strenuous and stressful exercise. Anyway better birding starts from December on words whence water begins to recede and canopy begins to thin down. 

The ever exciting tiger chases will always be there to interfere merrily. Some serious birders tell me not to indulge in the tiger chase. I am happy with that because the run for avian accords me to sharpen my birding skills especially after a gap of three months whence the park is closed. 

Painted Stork - Shreyas

For birders going into the park the Khatia Zone in the buffer with lot of mix canopy and bamboo provides ideal opportunity for birding in an open jeep. The expeditions are more challenging on the jeep safaris since getting down is not allowed.  For a bird watching apart from Khatia Zone moving in the buffers is a good experience hence all zones and buffer zone areas should be explored. 

Keeping in mind the degree of difficulty winter tours should be of longer duration especially if the mega fauna is on the  menu. Summer birding could be shorter due to increased visibility of birds and mammals. 

Overseas visitors arriving from cold climes should acclimatise themselves with warm weather mid March onward. 

Summer Birding at Kanha

In the summers migrants leave but thinning canopy offers wonderful opportunity to watch the resident birds like the painted francolin, Indian Pitta, Orange headed ground thrush, Malabar Pied Horn Bill, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Black Naped Flycatcher to name a few. 

The tiger reserve is home of forest birds and those expecting wetland species will be disappointed due to the absence of large water bodies.  Under most circumstances good quality binoculars are more than enough with little use of spotting scope.   

Birding can spring few surprises like my discovery of blue capped rock thrush earlier, rufus bellied eagle, pale footed bush warbler and spot bellied eagle owl. Sighting vagrants, passage migrants  and some undiscovered species will make your trip exciting. Hire a good birding guide from among the naturalists in Kanha during the trip.      

           

New Bird Observations at Kanha

It was the glimpse of forest wagtail that made me stop and observe while on tiger safari at Kanha. This avian has recently been observed at Jabalpur City Nearby. Earlier we saw orange breasted green pigeon in this tiger reserve which I have mentioned before. 

The sight of Besra was thrilling event. The bird was perched on a tree at height of about ten feet off the Kanha Ghat main road. Some of the birds like Osprey are late visitors here and arrive post February. 

Another interesting find which I mentioned earlier was Oriental Scops Owl in the garden of Courtyard House Resort at Kanha. I am still waiting for Rufus Bellied Eagle to appear again here like it did last year.

Observing a gathering of lesser adjutant stork was interesting. They are usually solitary. Another encouraging sight was that of large number of juveniles of White Back Vulture in the tiger reserve. 

I am excited that during my future tours I would be able to make new observations.    

Changeable Hawk Eagle

Indian Pitta

Lesser Adjutant Stork

Wooly Necked Stork

Photo Credits John Matthai

Kanha Birding

There is a Silk Cotton Tree near the Hotel Krishan at Mocha in Kanha National Park Buffer. Last time I visited Kanha around this time of the year and found the Gold Mantled Chloropsis a regular visitor. Other birds that I found were Coppersmith Barbet, Spangled Drongo, Chestnut Tailed Starling and Black Drongo.

Down by the riverside we came across temminck's stint, green sandpiper, white browed wagtail, little green bee-eater, black headed oriole, white, eye, black naped monarch, common tailorbird, black redstart, shikra, honey buzzard, common myna, Hume's warbler, greenish warbler, common chiff chaff, racket tailed dromgo, white bellied drongo, greater coucal, common grey hornbill, black rumped flameback, Tickell's Blue flycatcher, ashy prinia, plain prinia, barred jungle owlet and large billed crow.

This was a short trip as my guests from UK were more involved in tiger safari and wildlife photography.

Birding at Kanha is underplayed due to the magnificent beast that enthralls one all all here - The Tiger. The pure Sal forest may not harbor many species but the mixed forest zones and bamboo belts offer exciting birding opportunity and these are in plenty. The altitude variation also provides excellent bird habitat. Most exciting feature is confirmation of fire capped tit and Siberian Ruby Throat at Kanha (Nakti Ghati). Other Northern India visitors include grey bushchat, ultramarine flycatcher, grey headed fish eagle, Pallas's Fish Eagle seen by me. There may other such catch with birders frequented this park.  

All the tiger reserves are good for bird watching tours in MP but less known. There are many birding destination in the State of Madhya Pradesh which are less known.    

Core Zone at Kanha is excellent for forest birds and grassland birds. For birding at open fields, and scrub one needs to score the area outside the park. See earlier Kanha Birding Trip Report.