Great Rann of Kutch, Gujarat

White-naped Tit

On the border of India and Pakistan, the Great Rann of Kutch is a fantastic birding hotspot, especially for arid-area specialists and winter migrants. Many of the birds found here are extremely rare in the rest of India, such as Marshall’s Iora, White-naped Tit, Grey Hypocolius, and more. In addition, the nearby Mandvi Beach is a very good place to look for shorebirds including Crab Plover, and a confusing array of gulls!

Target Species

  • Common Quail
  • Rock Bush Quail 
  • Knob-billed Duck
  • Mallard
  • Sykes’s Nightjar 
  • Savanna Nightjar
  • Great Indian Bustard 
  • Macqueen’s Bustard
  • Sirkeer Malkoha 
  • Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse
  • Spotted Sandgrouse
  • Painted Sandgrouse 
  • Sarus Crane
  • Demoiselle Crane
  • Common Crane
  • Black-necked Grebe
  • Greater Flamingo
  • Lesser Flamingo
  • Pied Avocet
  • Sociable Lapwing
  • White-tailed Lapwing
  • Lesser Sand Plover
  • Greater Sand Plover
  • Eurasian Whimbrel
  • Eurasian Curlew
  • Bar-tailed Godwit
  • Black-tailed Godwit
  • Ruddy Turnstone
  • Broad-billed Sandpiper
  • Curlew Sandpiper
  • Sanderling
  • Dunlin
  • Terek Sandpiper
  • Marsh Sandpiper
  • Crab-plover
  • Cream-colored Courser
  • Indian Courser 
  • Slender-billed Gull
  • Pallas’s Gull
  • Lesser Black-backed Gull
  • Great White Pelican
  • Dalmatian Pelican
  • White-rumped Vulture
  • Griffon Vulture
  • Short-toed Snake Eagle
  • Greater Spotted Eagle
  • Tawny Eagle
  • Steppe Eagle
  • Eastern Imperial Eagle
  • Pallid Harrier
  • Montagu’s Harrier
  • White-eyed Buzzard
  • Long-legged Buzzard
  • Pallid Scops Owl
  • Indian Eagle-Owl 
  • Short-eared Owl
  • European Roller
  • Blue-cheeked Bee-eater
  • Red-necked Falcon
  • Merlin
  • Eurasian Hobby
  • Laggar Falcon 
  • Marshall’s Iora 
  • White-bellied Minivet 
  • Red-backed Shrike
  • Isabelline Shrike
  • Red-tailed Shrike
  • Bay-backed Shrike
  • Grey Hypocolius
  • White-naped Tit 
  • Greater Hoopoe-Lark
  • Rufous-tailed Lark 
  • Indian Bush Lark 
  • Sykes’s Lark 
  • Greater Short-toed Lark
  • Bimaculated Lark
  • Sand Lark
  • Booted Warbler
  • Sykes’s Warbler
  • Rufous-fronted Prinia 
  • Desert Whitethroat
  • Eastern Orphean Warbler
  • Asian Desert Warbler
  • Common Whitethroat
  • Rosy Starling
  • Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin
  • Spotted Flycatcher
  • Blue Rock Thrush
  • White-browed Bush Chat 
  • Isabelline Wheatear
  • Desert Wheatear
  • Variable Wheatear
  • Red-tailed Wheatear
  • Tawny Pipit
  • Long-billed Pipit
  • Grey-necked Bunting
  • Striolated Bunting
  • Black-headed Bunting
  • Red-headed Bunting
  •   Endemic
  •   Near Endemic

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrive at Ahmedabad and drive to Bhuj

Arrive at Ahmedabad Airport and immediately leave for Bhuj, where you will stay at the fabulous CEDO (Centre for Desert and Ocean) Homestay. This camp has great in-house naturalists, and is directly involved in major social and conservation-related initiatives in the Kutch (or “Kachchh”) area.

Days 2-3: Great Rann of Kutch, Bhuj

The exact plans will be flexible over the two full days, and whatever time is available on the travel days, according to your arrival and departure times. Sites to be visited are likely to include:

  • Fot Mahadev thorn scrub forest—White-naped Tit, Marshall’s Iora, Rufous-fronted Prinia, White-bellied Minivet, Sykes’s Lark and Rock Bush Quail
  • Chhari-Dhandh Conservation Reserve and surrounding Banni Grasslands—a spectacular landscape in the Great Rann, with lots of raptors, cranes, pelicans, ducks and waders, as well as passerines including Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Asian Desert Warbler, Isabelline Shrike, White-browed (Stoliczka’s) Bushchat, and Red-tailed Wheatear
  • Naliya Grasslands and the Lala Bustard Sanctuary—sadly now with just an outside chance of seeing the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard, but Indian Courser is likely
  • Coastal areas between Jakhau Creek, Pingleshwar, and Mandvi and Modhva Beaches—many gulls including Heuglin’s and Steppe Lesser Black-backed, Pallas’s and Slender-billed, large wader flocks with Pied Avocets, Lesser and Greater Sand Plovers, Eurasian Curlew and Whimbrel, Bar- and Black-tailed Godwits, Ruddy Turnstone, Broad-billed and Curlew Sandpipers, Dunlin, and, of course, the unique Crab Plover

Day 4: Bhuj to Ahmedabad

Depart for Ahmedabad for your onward flight.

Checklist

For all our bookings we provide the most accurate and useful printable checklists available, specific to the actual areas you are likely to visit. In the meantime, use our interactive state checklists, or view the species bar chart for this area on eBird:

eBird India logo

Important information

Asian Adventures logo

As with all Bubo Birding tours, your booking is handled by Asian Adventures.

  • We may change the itinerary described due to various reasons such as latest birding information, availability of accommodation, state of the roads, and other unexpected factors that, this being India, do pop up from time to time!
  • We would be happy to make any additional travel bookings, e.g. domestic flights, car and driver, that you require.
  • The final price and itinerary will be confirmed before booking and depending on your expected arrival and departure plans.

See Asian Adventures for full tour details, including accommodation, meal plans, what's included, other exclusions, prices for different group sizes, single room supplements, cancellation policy, and booking process.

Interested in Great Rann of Kutch, Gujarat?

Please send a message below and we will reply soon to discuss further

Join the Bubo Birding Club

Receive occasional email updates about birds, birding, and wildlife tours, throughout India