The northeast Indian hill country and adjacent Himalayas is an important centre of endemism and biodiversity in general, full of charismatic wildlife species so as to excite almost any imagination.

Nameri National Park an even greater and more exciting range of birds is accessible to the birder. Kaziranga importance for biodiversity conservation can scarcely be overstated. It helps protect some 25 globally threatened birds and 24 that are near threatened, not to mention being home to the worlds largest remaining populations of Indian Rhinoceros (@2000 of them), eastern Barasingha (Swamp Deer) and wild Water Buffalo, plus holding very important populations of Indian Elephant and Tiger (@100).

The World Heritage Kaziranga National Park is a highly reputed wild life protected area, located in Assam. A fabulous mosaic of grasslands, forests, and pools backed by misty hills. The Park has more than 70% of the world’s one-horned rhino population, 70% of the world population of the Eastern Swamp Deer and 75% of the world’s wild Asiatic water buffalo. It has a significant population of the Asian Elephant. Close encounters with the Great Indian one horned Rhino, and wild Indian Elephants Swamp Deer, Asiatic Water buffalo, and a host of animals are assured. There are plenty of Tigers around – but there is only a 25 percent chance of spotting one.

The Park also has more than 450 species of birds, 18 of them are globally threatened species. Because of the varied habitat types that the Park comprises of, as also of the strict protection accorded to them, birding in Kaziranga is very special. The varied terrain provides habitat for wetland, grassland, and woodland species The Bengal Florican is the main attraction. You should also be able to see a good variety of raptors.

You are not allowed to walk inside the reserve. Birding is by jeep and Elephant. The Eastern Range of the park is good for water birds such as Falcated Teal, White-eyed Pochard and spot-billed pelican (a colony of 200 pairs is located in this range). For grassland birds the Western Range is ideal. The Bengal Florican can be seen during the elephant ride in the Central Range. The nearby Panbari Reserved Forest is good for woodland birds such as yellow-vented Warbler, great Hornbill, and redheaded Trogon.

Other interesting birds include Green-backed Heron, White bellied Heron (rare), Lesser and greater Adjutants, Black-necked Storks, Spoonbill, Grey-headed and Pallas’s Fish-eagle (common), Swamp Francolin (common), Grey-headed Lapwing, Black-bellied tern, Marsh Babbler, Jordan’s Bushchat (rare) White-throated Bushchat and many more Other birds recorded by us: Lineated Barbet, Blue-eared Barbet, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Spotted Redshank, River Lapwing, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, Pied Harrier, Spot-billed Pelican, Black-necked Stork, Rosy Minivet, Spot-winged Starling, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Ruby-cheeked Sunbird, Streaked Spider – hunter, Forest Wagtail, Blyth’s Pipit, and Yellow-breasted Bunting.

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.

Mishmi Hills :These hills includes the forests and snow covered peaks and is the source of the Dibang river and many tributaries. The area is entirely mountainous with deep gorges. The vegetation ranges from temperate Broadleaf and Temperate Coniferous to Subalphine scrub, while the peaks are barren and remain snowcapped for the greater part of the year. Lower slopes of this Hills still contain some of the finest primary forest areas. Some of the bird species found here are Chestnut-breasted Hill Partridge,Blyths Tragopan,Sclaters Monal,Wards Trogon,Mishmi Wren Babbler ,Cachar Wedge-billed Wren Babbler, Yellow -rumped Honeyguide, Rusty-bellied Shortwing and many other species.