Eaglesnest wildlife sanctuary, West Kameng, is located in Western Arunachal Pradesh and is the highest in elevation. Named after the Kameng river which drains the basin of Gori Chen and Kangto peaks, this region is spread below the Himalayan watershed on the borders with Tibet in the North and Bhutan in the West. The topography is truly amazing rising from the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam through tangled ridges at elevations of around 1500 meters to 7080 meters on the watershed of the Himalayas.
The biggest advantage of Eaglesnest (expected to provide the bulk of the star species) over other montane forests of Arunachal is a jeep track which cuts right through its heart from the pass at 2800m down to the flood plains of Assam at 100m – its easy access, excellent forest and wide altitudinal range is a unique combination for Arunachal.

The contiguous forests,Eaglenest wildlife sanctuary, Nameri National Park (in Assam) and the surrounding blocks of reserve forests, encompassing over 2500 sq.km and 3400m in altitude, form one of the largest protected regions of Arunachal. This east Himalayan area is located close to the Bhutan border in western Arunachal. We will be visiting the d Eaglesnest wildlife sanctuary (mid altitude: 800-2800m) and some higher altitude (3000-4000m) localities further north below the Tsela pass. This visit to a really high altitude area and we look forward to augmenting the species list with birds of fir, rhododendron scrub and alpine meadows.

Some of the specialty birds which can be seen are: Rufous-bellied hawk-eagle, northern goshawk, pied falconet, common hill-partridge, temminck’s Tragopan, ashy wood-pigeon, tawny wood-owl, Rufous-necked hornbill, ward’s trogon, golden-throated barbet, crimson-breasted pied-woodpecker, bay woodpecker, pale-headed woodpecker, grey-chinned Minivet, Rufous-bellied bulbul, maroon-backed accentor, eye-browed thrush, fea’s thrush, Gould’s Shortwing, white-browed Shortwing, blue-fronted robin, little Forktail, golden bush-robin, Rufous-breasted bush-robin, purple Cochoa, grey-sided laughing-thrush, scaly laughing-thrush, black-faced laughing-thrush, Bugun and red-faced Liocichla, coral-billed scimitar-babbler, slender-billed scimitar-babbler, Various wren-babblers (wedge-billed, bar-winged, pygmy, spotted, Rufous-throated and scaly-breasted), cutia, Rufous-bellied shrike-babbler, green shrike-babbler, white-hooded babbler, red-tailed minla, Various tit-babblers/Fulvetta (golden-breasted, brown-throated, and yellow-throated), Three sibias ( beautiful, and Rufous-backed), Various Yuhina (black-chinned, Rufous-vented and white-naped), fire-tailed Myzornis, Six Parrotbill (greater and lesser Rufous-headed, brown, grey-headed and fulvous-fronted), mountain tailorbird, three Tesia (chestnut-headed, grey-bellied and salty-bellied), Various flycatcher-warblers (broad-billed, white-spectacled, chestnut-crowned and black-faced), four Niltava (including vivid and large), Thirteen flycatchers (including. white-gorgeted), Rufous-bellied and grey-crested tits, sultan tit, beautiful nuthatch, Wallcreeper, brown-throated Treecreeper, yellow-bellied Flowerpecker, mrs Gould’s and fire-tailed sunbird, gold-naped black-finch, Bevan’s bullfinch, brown bullfinch.