Birds of Kanha, India: Raptors

One big––really big––caution applies to birding in Kanha Tiger Reserve: Tigers abound, and they find people quite as tasty as a Sambar deer. Therefore, birding is primarily pursued from the confines of a jeep. And therefore, big birds are the easiest to spot and to photograph. Let's start with the raptors seen on this Naturalist Journeys trip!

A very close cousin of the Americas' White-tailed Kite, the Black-winged Kite also hovers over open country to hunt for rodents. When rodent populations suddenly soar, these kites can intensify their breeding efforts, and produce multiple clutches of young in a year, a rare trait among raptors.

A lovely, immature Black-winged Kite

(All photos by Narca)

The very agile Crested Hawk-Eagle feeds on about anything it can catch. Crested Hawk-Eagles are a subspecies of Changeable Hawk-Eagle, an abundant and widely-distributed eagle. DNA studies haven't yet resolved the question of whether the crested and crestless birds actually belong to the same species. These tropical raptors are mostly non-migratory, although on occasion a few explore beyond their normal ranges.

Crested Hawk-Eagle

Another very widespread eagle––the Crested Serpent-Eagle––sports a shaggy crest. It hunts lizards and snakes in areas of thick vegetation.

Crested Serpent-Eagle, bathing

Another raptor with an enormous range is the Eurasian Kestrel, a falcon that ranges across Europe, Asia and Africa. A few have even straggled to North America. Populations in warmer parts of its range are sedentary; others migrate. Like kites, kestrels will hover as they hunt. This kestrel specializes in feeding on mice, voles and shrews, with an occasional grasshopper thrown in.

Eurasian Kestrel male

Quietly roosting in a tall tree at one of our few rest stops (protected by high netting from Tigers), was this pair of Brown Hawk-Owls. Members of the Old World genus Ninox, Brown Hawk-Owl females are smaller than their mates––the reverse of other birds of prey. The three largest Ninox species have this unusual pattern of size. The other singular feature of these three owl species is that they capture mammalian or avian prey at night, and drape the prey below their roosts for an entire day before consuming it. This behavior of "prey holding" happens during the breeding season, and only males do it. Biologists don't know whether this behavior is a form of food storage or territorial display.

Brown Hawk-Owls, roosting

Jungle Owlets live only on the Indian subcontinent. Like closely related pygmy-owls, this owlet is primarily crepuscular, but may also be active during the day.

Jungle Owlet, not deigning to glance our way

Indian Scops-Owls are similar to our screech-owls, and until recently were all put together in the same genus. DNA sequence work has highlighted their differences. In both groups, new species are regularly being recognized or discovered. Two other scops-owls in India can be distinguished from this one by eye color and call.

Indian Scops-Owls, enjoying the early sunshine

Indian Vultures are critically endangered, due to use of diclofenac as a dip for livestock. That product has since been banned in India, with some indications that the vulture populations are beginning to recover. Since the vultures' precipitous decline, biologists have noticed a big increase in populations of feral dogs and rats, and their associated diseases––these animals feed on the carcasses, which vultures used to remove.

Indian Vulture

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.

The Road to Prey Veng

Let's move back in time to January in Cambodia. The hour is pre-dawn. I'm writing by lantern light outside my tent, which has been provided by the local community of Prey Veng. Here at our campsite, sounds are in transition from the unearthly, resonant songs of the night to those of day. In a distant village, a rooster crows. The cook is pouring water, preparing rice for breakfast. A few soft snores continue from the tent next door.

Sunrise at Prey Veng, Cambodia (Photos by Narca)

Light grows in the sky. The dawn chorus ramps up. A distant Great Eared Nightjar calls. Colors are becoming distinct. My mind drifts to yesterday. It was our first day to become acquainted with Nara, the birding guide assigned to us by Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation. We couldn't be more pleased!

Our guide, Duong Nara, is a jewel among guides: adept at bird vocalizations, sharp-eyed, exceedingly congenial, focused. We want to show him our birds in the States!

Yesterday's drive in was along a maze of single lane roads through dry deciduous forest. These weaving trails aren't made for cars, but rather for the small "walking tractors" that pull loads of firewood and anything else. Usually people pile on top of the load. The tractors also pull plows through the fields. They are narrower than cars, so using their paths requires high clearance, 4-wheel drive, and an expert driver––which our drivers, Da and Li, certainly are.

A "walking tractor"––one of the few we saw that wasn't loaded to the gills!

The area's maze has changed since Nara, Da and Li were last here, and at one point we take a wrong turn. (I'm not too concerned, even when the hour grows late––the car seats look to be a much more comfortable place to spend the night than the airplane seats had been on the flight here!)

As can happen, that wrong turn brings one of the great finds of the trip. A family of Great Slaty Woodpeckers undulates through the dry forest, landing not far away, posturing and screeching in excitement. Great Slaties are the world's largest woodpecker, since the demise of Mexico's even larger Imperial Woodpecker. Seeing a Great Slaty is one of my fondest wishes for the trip.

An enormous Great Slaty Woodpecker has a prehistoric look.

Our missed turn also brings other gems: a family of rare Black-headed Woodpeckers, a Changeable Hawk-Eagle, Bengal Bushlarks.

Crested Serpent Eagles are fairly common.

But Nara is growing anxious at the hour, and we retrace our steps, finding the turn we need after consultation with one of the few people we see. Then ensues a race to the river. We don't reach it before dark, but that's okay. It isn't a ford, I learn, but rather a rickety bridge, precariously crossing a ravine.

By daylight, this bridge didn't look quite as alarming, but still an interesting venture in a car!

We drive a couple more hours in the dark. At the end, we are weaving slowly between huge stands of bamboo, squeezing between bamboo and trees with, at times, less than an inch of clearance on either side. The sight of our camp at Prey Veng is welcome indeed.

Our campsite at Prey Veng

The camp crew, our drivers, and our guide Nara sleep in netted hammocks. We four have two big zippered tents, complete with floor, and two beds inside draped with mosquito netting. (Now, in the dry season, very few mosquitos trouble us anywhere.) The camp has a bush shower. The bush toilet, also encased in a zippered tent, is Asian-style––a flat porcelain fixture set over a latrine at ground level in a cement base. Westerners with stiff joints find it a challenge to use. Everything is very new and clean. The community of Prey Veng is investing in ecotourism.

Judging by this sign, Asians can be as puzzled by Western toilets as we can be by theirs. In a couple of places with a true throne, I saw muddy footprints on the sides of the seat.

The following day, our drivers discover a route across the now-dry rice paddies that avoids weaving between tight clumps of bamboo.