Kaziranga's Birds of Forest and Field

Kaziranga National Park, a World Heritage Site in northeastern India, is not only home to two-thirds of the world's Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros, wild Asian Elephants, and Tigers––it is also a designated Important Bird Area. Its exceptional biodiversity stems from its location at the margins of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot.

It's a privilege to witness such a thriving, complete ecosystem.

The region is especially rich in raptors, and we saw many, including Pallas's Fish Eagle (a relative of our Bald Eagle), Booted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, and the rare Greater Spotted Eagle. Only a few cooperated for photos:

Crested Serpent Eagle (above and below)

Crested Serpent Eagles hunt for snakes and lizards in forested regions, often with wet grassland nearby. This striking raptor does most of its foraging in the morning, using a sit-and-wait strategy.

Gray-headed Fish Eagle

Yes, Gray-headed Fish Eagles are partial to fish! This nonmigratory eagle ranges across India and Southeast Asia, living in lowland forest with virtually any type of water body that supports fish. It even takes fish from the midst of rapids.

Some birds we encountered belong to families, even genera, which are familiar to North American birders––like shrikes and woodpeckers.

Long-tailed Shrike

A distinctive subspecies of Long-tailed Shrike, tricolor, occurs in this region and elsewhere in the Himalaya.

Gray-backed Shrike

Streak-throated Woodpecker

 Pigeons are also a familiar group, but in India they include the lovely green pigeons, which often feed on forest fruits like small figs.

Yellow-footed Green Pigeon

And then we find the really exotic groups, which only live in the Old World––the bulbuls, bee-eaters, laughingthushes, rollers, parrotbills, and many more! What fun!

Black-crested Bulbul

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Highly migratory, the elegant Blue-tailed Bee-eater ranges across India and Southeast Asia. Like other bee-eaters, it specializes in foraging on bees and wasps, processing the prey by hammering it to dislodge the stinger. These bee-eaters will forage and nest colonially.

Indochinese Roller

Rollers are famous for their breath-taking aerial acrobatics, performed during courtship. Then the turquoise bands in the wings are startling to see. Even though it wasn't yet breeding season, a couple of the rollers were warming up for the big event, and treated us to a striking display. Rollers in the modern era are entirely Old World species, and probably originated in Africa, yet fossils of rollers from the Eocene have been found in North America's Green River Formation.