Ourindiantours

Central India


Tiger Parks offer an impressive array of birds and all are celebrated for this variety. Central India has some of the best Tiger Reserves: Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Pench, Satpuda, and Tadoba.  Ranthambhor and Sariska are in north India (Rajasthan) but can be clubbed together.


Bandhavgarh
Relatively small park, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve has incredible history. It borders the Sidhi forest where the first white Tiger had been discovered in India by Maharaja Martand Singh of Rewa during fifties. Remarkable bird watching is possible in Bandhavgarh while we take morning and afternoon open jeep safari to include: Little Grebe, Large Cormorant, Darter, Herons, Egrets, Bittern (Black and Chestnut), Storks (Open-billed, White-necked, Black and Lesser Adjutant), Ibis (White and Black), Bar-headed Goose, Lesser Whistling Duck, Ruddy Shelduck, Northern Pintail, Common Teal, Common Pochard, Cotton Teal, Comb Duck, Coot, Common Moorhen, White-breasted Waterhen, Jacanas (Pheasant-tailed and Bronze-winged), Painted Snipe, Black Winged Stilt, Lapwings, Plovers and several Waders and Terns.


Raptors: Black-winged Kite, Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Marsh Harrier, Short-toed Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle, Osprey, Shikra, Sparrow Hawk, Crested Hawk-Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Red-headed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture (breeding over the cliffs), Egyptian Vulture, Harriers, Peregrine Falcon, Eurasian Kestrel and Eurasian Hobby. The nocturnal raptors are: Common Indian Nightjar, Jungle Nightjar, and Franklin’s Nightjar, and  Owls (Collared Scops, Brown Fish, Jungle Owlet, Brown Hawk-Owl, Spotted Owlet and Mottled Wood).

Other species possible to be observed can be: Partridges, Painted Spurfowl, Red Junglefowl, Peafowl, Stone Curlew (Eurasian Thick-knee, Indian Thick-knee and Great Thick-knee),  Painted Sandgrouse, Jungle Bush Quail, Pigeons, Doves, Parakeets, Cuckoos, Kingfishers, Swifts, Bee-eaters, Hornbills (Grey and Malabar Pied), Barbets, Woodpeckers, Larks, Swallows, Shrikes, Orioles, Drongos, Mynas, Cuckoo-shrikes, Minivets, Bulbuls, Babblers, Flycatchers, Warblers, Chats, Thrushes, Creepers, Pipits, Wagtails, Flower-peckers, Sunbird, White-eye, Weaver Birds, Buntings etc. The Park offers good number of butterflies. Inside the park, we need to be in an open jeep, can walk around at certain points. Around the resort, we have interesting time as birds are all around.


Kanha
Kanha is a renowned Tiger Reserve. Sightings of Gaur, Swamp Deer, Four-horned Antelope, Sambar, Spotteed Deer, and also Wild Dog are remarkable here. Birds-diversity is impressive: Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, Spotted Owlet, Barn Owl, Racket-tailed Drongo, Grey Francolin, Red Spurfowl, Red Jungle-fowl, Indian Peafowl, Lesser Whistling Duck, Black-rumped Flameback, Brown-headed Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, Indian Grey Hornbill, Indian Roller, Common Kingfisher, White-throated Kingfisher, Green Bee-eater, Common Hawk-Cuckoo, Eurasian Cuckoo, Greater Coucal, Alexandrine Parakeet, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Plum-headed Parakeet, White-rumped Needletail, Crested Tree-swift, Barn Owl, Jungle Owlet, Oriental Turtle Dove, Spotted Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Emerald Dove, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Brown Crake, White-breasted Waterhen, Eurasian Thick-knee, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Red-wattled Lapwing, Black-shouldered Kite, Long-billed Vulture, White-backed Vulture, Red-headed Vulture, Crested Serpent Eagle, Shikra, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Oriental Honey-buzzard, White-eyed Buzzard, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Little Grebe, Darter, Little Cormorant, Indian Cormorant, Little Egret, Intermediate Egret, Cattle Egret, Indian Pond Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black Ibis, Asian Openbilled, Black Stork, Lesser Adjutant, Blue-winged Leafbird, Brown Shrike, Long-tailed Shrike, Rufous Treepie, Large-billed Crow, Black-hooded Oriole, Large Cuckooshrike, Small Minivet, Scarlet Minivet, Black Drongo, Ashy Drongo, White-bellied Drongo, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Black-naped Monarch, Asian Paradise-flycatcher, Common Iora, Common Woodshrike, Blue Rock Thrush, Orange-headed Thrush, Red-throated Flycatcher, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Oriental Magpie Robin, White-rumped Shama, Common Stonechat, Rosy Starling, Common Myna, Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, Wire-tailed Swallow, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Red-vented Bulbul, Zitting Cisticola, Common Tailorbird, Indian Scimitar Babbler, Jungle Babbler, Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, Purple Sunbird, Chestnut-shouldered Petronia, Grey Wagtail, Paddyfield Pipit, Black-headed Munia, Common Rosefinch.

Expected mammals: Tiger, Leopard, Common Langur, Sambar, Hardground Barasingha, Spotted Deer, Gaur, Wild Boar, Sloth Bear, Jackal, Wild Dog, Three-striped Palm Squirrel, Mongoose etc.

Similar birds are expected at Pench, Satpuda and Tadoba.


Ranthambore
Easy bird watching is possible through the open jeeps as walking inside the park is not allowed. Four water bodies, three being fairly large, offer plenty of aquatic birds: Egrets, Herons, Cormorants, Storks (Open-billed, Painted, Woolly-neck,ed and Black), White Ibis, Spoonbill, Graylag Goose, Bar-headed Goose, Lesser Whistling Duck, Rudy Shelduck, Northern Pintail, Common Teal, Spotbill Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Wigeon, Garganey, Northern Shoveler, Red-crested Pochard, Common Pochard, Pygmy Cotton Goose, Comb Duck, Red-wattled Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Spotted Red Shank, Marsh Sandpiper, Green Shank, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Pintail Snipe, Painted Snipe, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Black-winged Stilt, Eurasian Thick-knee etc.


Raptors can be: Black-winged Kite, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Shikra, Sparrow Hawk, Bonelli’s Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Red-headed Vulture, Long-billed Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Marsh Harrier, Short-toed Eagle, Osprey, Crested Serpent Eagle, Laggar Falcon, Peregrine Falcon, Common Kestrel. Spotted Owlet, Collared Scops Owl, Dusky Eagle Owl, Brown Fish Owl, Dusky Eagle Owl, Barn Owl etc.

Other Species include: Red-throated Flycatcher, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Verditer Flycatcher, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, White-browed Fantail Flycatcher, Paradise Flycatcher, Plain Prinia, Ashy Wren Warbler, Tailor Bird, Lesser White-throat, Chiff-chaff, Blue-throat, Magpie Robin, Brown Rock Chat, Pied Bush Chat, Indian Robin, Blue Rock Thrush, Grey Tit, Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch, Spotted Creeper, Indian Tree Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Citrine Wagtail, Purple Sunbird, Oriental White Eye, Baya, Streaked Weaver Bird, White-backed Munia, Spotted Munia, Large Cuckoo Shrike, Black-headed Cuckoo Shrike, Small Minivet, Common Iora, Yellow-eyed Babbler, Common Babbler, Large Grey Babbler, Jungle Babbler, Pied Crested Cuckoo, Common Hawk Cuckoo, Asian Koel, Sirkeer Malkoha, Greater Coucal, Pied Kingfisher, White-throated Kingfisher, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Common Kingfisher, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Indian Pitta, Larks, Martins, Swallows, Shrikes, Orioles, Drongos, Mynas, Starlings, Tree-pie, Crow, Bulbul, Pigeon, Partridges, Quails, Painted Sandgrouse, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Indian Courser (last three to be spotted outside the park) etc.