Northeast India Highlights: Eaglenest & Kaziranga Birds & Mammals

Itinerary

Day 0: Arrive Delhi and on to Guwahati

Depending on flight arrival time in Delhi, today will either include a flight on to Guwahati and overnight there, or a stay overnight in Delhi, with a late morning flight the following day.

Day 1: Guwahati, drive to Nameri National Park

For those of us who spent the night in Guwahati rather than Delhi, we will start the day with birding in the Guwahati area, e.g. at Deepor Beel or Garbhanga Reserve Forest, and the delightful Guwahati Garbage Dump: the best site in the world for the endangered Greater Adjutant! We then all drive to Nameri National Park and Tiger Reserve for some late afternoon birding. If we have time, this could include crossing the Jia Bhoreli river by boat and approaching quietly to some of the swampy pools to get a glimpse of the endangered White-winged Duck, and watching the evening flight of Wreathed Hornbills heading to roost. Nameri is the best place in India to see White-winged Duck, although they are shy forest-dwelling ducks and often fly off at the slightest noise on approach to one of the other many, inaccessible, pools deep within the forest.

Day 2: Nameri National Park

Today we have a full day birding in Nameri National Park. This lowland forest with its swampy pools, river and riverine scrub will produce a fantastic day list, including species such as White-cheeked Partridge, Pin-tailed Green Pigeon, Lesser Coucal, Great Thick-knee, Ibisbill, River Lapwing, Long-billed Plover, Small Pratincole, Pallas’s Fish Eagle, White-rumped and Slender-billed Vultures, Great and Wreathed Hornbills, Crested Kingfisher, Pied Falconet, Oriental Hobby, Maroon Oriole, Sultan Tit, Spot-winged Starling, Scaly Thrush and Siberian Rubythroat.

Day 3: Nameri to Dirang, Arunachal Pradesh

A long drive to Dirang today, our base for access to various sites further north and east in Arunachal Pradesh. Assuming we didn’t delay our departure from Nameri by being distracted by yet more good birds, we should have time for some afternoon birding, probably in the nearby Sangti Valley.

Day 4: Mandala and Sangti Valley, from Dirang

The Mandala Road leads up from Dirang through mixed forest, and we will stop at several points where we are likely to find mixed species flocks. In higher elevations much of the pine habitat has unfortunately been cleared but it can still provide good birds, and even the chance of a Red Panda. Birds here may include Large Hawk Cuckoo, Golden-throated Barbet, Green Shrike Babbler, Grey Crested Tit, Russet Bush Warbler, Yellow-vented Warbler, Ludlow’s Fulvetta, Bar-winged Wren Babbler, Spotted Laughingthrush, Himalayan (White-browed) Shortwing, Alpine and Dusky Thrushes, and Grey-headed Bullfinch. The Mandala Road is also the location to see Buff-throated Warbler, only recently discovered in India.

If we didn’t manage to do justice to Sangti Valley on our arrival in Dirang we will visit again in the afternoon today. Ibisbill and Long-billed Plover will be our main targets here, whilst we will also hope for Black-tailed Crake, Himalayan Cuckoo, Crested Kingfisher, Daurian Redstart and Crested Bunting.

Day 5: Sela Pass from Dirang

Early this morning, we will leave for the drive up to the spectacular snow bound and cold Sela Pass. (‘La’ actually means pass, so this tends to be erroneously referred to as the ‘Se Pass Pass’!) The birdlife here is completely different to anything we will encounter elsewhere on the trip, and includes several specialities. With luck we could find Blood Pheasant, Himalayan Monal, Snow Partridge, Snow Pigeon, Solitary Snipe, Himalayan Buzzard, Rufous-vented Tit, Black-faced Laughingthrush, Winter Wren, White-throated and Brown Dippers, Grandala, Rufous-breasted Bush Robin, White-throated Redstart, Alpine Accentor, Fire-tailed Sunbird, White-winged Grosbeak and Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch.

We continue to Tawang, site of the largest Buddhist monastery in the world outside of Lhasa in Tibet.

Day 6: Sela Pass from Tawang

With luck the early morning will bring us views of the amazing Satyr Tragopan, before we return over Sela Pass and look for any key species we may have missed the day before, before returning to the hotel at Dirang.

Day 7: Dirang to Mandala and Lama Camp, Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary

We have some flexible birding time this morning before heading for the prime site of Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. It is likely we will go back up the Mandala Road, as we will almost certainly have missed some good species there earlier, or are just after some better views!

Then it is time for the drive to across Eaglenest Pass to Lama Camp, our first base at Eaglenest. We will probably have time for an attempt to see Bugun Liocichla on arrival: a bird we may well have to try for several times in our stay as it is rarely easy to see. (It took Mike 17 hours of exclusively searching for it on his first visit, but thankfully hasn’t taken that long since!)

Days 8 – 11: Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary

We have four full days inside Eaglenest, birding different elevations and staying at two different serviced tented camps. Starting at the higher elevations around Lama Camp, down to Bompu, and back up to Eaglenest Pass at 2900 m, we will hope to find mouth-watering species such as Temminck’s Tragopan, Rufous-necked Hornbill, Chestnut-breasted Hill Partridge, Ward’s Trogon, Fire-tailed Myzornis, Blackish-breasted Babbler (Sikkim Wedge-billed Babbler), Bar-winged, Long-billed and Eye-browed Wren-babblers, Himalayan Cutia, Yellow-rumped Honeyguide, Collared Grosbeak, Beautiful Nuthatch, Red-headed Bullfinch and, of course, Bugun Liocichla. This is an incredibly rare species, with surveys elsewhere in Arunachal Pradesh not finding anyway, and nearly all sightings from an area of just a few square kilometres around Lama Camp.

At lower elevations around Sessni and down to Khellong the habitat is mixed and somewhat degraded, although with extensive stands of bamboo. The variety of species is very good though, and we will look for Blyth’s Tragopan, several laughingthrushes including Grey-sided and Blue-winged, Red-faced Liocichla, Coral-billed and Slender-billed Scimitar Babblers, White-hooded Babbler, Red-tailed Minla, Golden-breasted Fulvetta, Beautiful Sibia, White-breasted and Pale-billed Parrotbills, Slaty-bellied Tesia and Broad-billed Warbler. Blyth’s Kingfisher has been seen along the river here.

Day 12: Eaglenest to Kaziranga

We have time for a final morning’s birding targeting any key species we may have missed before we leave for Kaziranga. (On some itineraries we may take an extra day and have an overnight halt at Nameri once more, before reaching Kaziranga the following day for lunch, and a jeep safari inside the park for the afternoon.)

Days 13-14: Kaziranga National Park

Kaziranga National Park extends over 480 sq km with the great Brahmaputra River as its northern boundary and the Karbi Hills fringing the southern. The name Kaziranga means means ‘where the mountain goat drinks water’ in the language of the Karbi tribe. It used to be an inaccessible swampy land covered with tall elephant grass and jheels (water bodies). Now a National Park, it is famous for its 1,000-strong population of Indian Rhinoceros, Wild Water Buffalo and Asian Elephants.

Kaziranga is divided into three ranges. The central range is usually the best to see Indian Rhinoceros, Wild Water Buffalo and Asian Elephant in the water. The eastern range offers some of the most exciting and varied wildlife watching, with a possibility of seeing Otters and, with luck, a Tiger. A great variety of waterfowl should be present at Sohola Bheel, where we also hope to see Greater Adjutant Stork, Pallas’s and Grey-headed Fish Eagles and Spot-billed Pelican. Overall an impressive list of species could also include Falcated Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Swamp Francolin, Bengal Florican, Lesser Coucal, Plaintive Cuckoo, Black-necked Stork, Lesser Adjutant, Great and Oriental Pied Hornbills, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Blossom-headed Parakeet, Blue-naped Pitta, Chestnut-capped Babbler, Great Myna, Pale-chinned Blue Flycatcher, Crimson Sunbird and Finn’s Weaver.

Day 15: Kaziranga to Guwahati or Tinsukia

The final day of the tour for those who are not continuing on our extension to Mishmi Hills sees us drive to Guwahati for the flight back to Delhi or Kolkata.

The rest of us can spend some time this morning birding around Kaziranga, before the long drive to the town of Tinsukia. The night will be spent there, and the following day we can bird the grassland periphery of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and the wetland of Maguri Beel. Some difficult to see resident babblers – Marsh and Jerdon’s – and wintering bush warblers – Baikal and Spotted – are our key targets, and we will have extra time to hopefully pin them down for any tour members who may be joining us in the late afternoon!

Checklist

This checklist is the most accurate and useful checklist available for this area! Read more about our eBird-driven checklists.