On the trail of the Western Hooded Pitta

  On the trail of WesternHooded Pitta

     A month ago in June , I had gone on  the trail of the Western Hooded Pitta and I wanted to share my experience in finding this elusive and beautiful bird. There are 47 species of Pittas in the world, mostly found in Asia & Africa. India has five species, Indian Pitta, Mangrove Pitta, Blue-naped Pitta, Western Hooded Pitta and Nicobar Hooded Pitta. 

Western Hooded Pitta 

    I was very keen last year to see the Western Hooded Pitta but could not get the right information on its probable places for sighting. This year, I was absolutely set to see the Western Hooded Pitta. I wanted to go to Manas National Park at Assam but could not finalize the dates due to work commitments before the Park gets closed for the onset of monsoons. Then, a senior birder Dr Sanjit Peter had suggested I should visit Kaladhungi for the WHPitta as it will be nesting there during the breeding season. I got on to making plans to go to a place I did not know existed two weeks ago , a town located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand. This place is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas and is actually a known birding spot.The town is approximately 35 kms from Nainital and about 350-380 kms from Chandigarh. Kaladhungi is also famous for being the home of the legendary hunter-turned-conservationist Jim Corbett, and the Jim Corbett Museum, located in his former residence, is a popular tourist attraction in the area. The town’s proximity to the Corbett National Park makes it a favored destination for nature enthusiasts and wildlife lovers.

   The beginning of hot summers is the time for breeding and the arrival of Pittas to the North of India. Western Hooded Pitta ( WH Pitta )has very less range for breeding and one of the places it comes for nesting is at Kaladhungi. I was looking for company and fortunately a very senior birder from Chandigarh Mrs Sarbjeet Kaur had agreed to accompany me on the 3 1/2 days birding trip to Kaladungi. My friend got me in touch with Rajesh Panwar of Avian trails who arranged for a bird guide and stay at his Homestay ‘Milieu’ at Kaladhungi.

Day 1- 7 th June. We started early at 5.30 am from Chandigarh by road to Kaladhungi which was a seven hour drive. We stopped at Haridwar for 45 mins for a quick breakfast and proceeded to our destination. It was a hot summer day with temperature nearly 40+ C,  despite the AC of our vehicle, I could feel the blazing heat outside. My companion ,Mrs Sarbjeet Kaur is 75 years old and has been pursuing her passion for birding for nearly 20 years and has been regular at Great Himalayan census for many years. She is an inspiration to me and to many others to live life with a passion and enthusiasm. 

   We reached the Homestay at 2 pm, a nice three storey house with a neat small garden in the front and open area on all four sides. We immediately moved into our cool clean comfortable AC room. After having home cooked lunch, we rested for a while absorbing the lovely ambience of the place with framed bird photographs of Rajesh Panwar and beautiful miniature paintings of birds, before getting ready for our evening birding at 4.30 pm. The view from the balcony of our room of lush green field was a soothing sight to our eyes.

    Despite the heat , we were buzzing with excitement as I was looking forward to 8 lifers ( first sighting of a bird species) here. We reached the location on SH 61 at Chotta Haldwani where the calls of WHooded pitta was recorded two days ago. Nobody has seen the Pitta after its arrival to this area . On one side of the road there were tall Sal trees and another side was forest with medium sized trees and an undergrowth of bushes. 

 

Sal Tree Forest

   We waited for 30 minutes hoping to hear the call of WHooded Pitta , however could only hear the loud calls of Indian Pitta.There was vibrant activity of birds at this location and could hear the calls of Indian Cuckoo ,Indian Golden Oriole and Blue -throated Barbet.

   Our bird guide, Deep , a young guy in 20s decided to go to our next location to see  Grey- crowned Prinia another lifer, before the sun sets. It was 30 min drive on Nainital Road, still warm outside and we barely had an hour for the sunset. As we reached the location, we could hear the calls of Grey- breasted Prinia from the bushes on the road side and for a moment thought it was Grey- crowned Prinia. For 20 mins, there was no sight of the Prinia, however saw  Spot - winged Starling , Fulvous - breasted woodpecker , Greater Yellownape. I walked few steps ahead looking at the bushes when I noticed a rufous colored bird foraging quietly in the undergrowth .I signalled Deep ,to check the bird as it had a grey crown. And, it was the  bird of the day and we quickly took some good shots before the day light faded into sunset. 

Spot-winged Starling

Grey-crowned Prinia

   I was happy to have got one lifer from the target list. We got back to our room by 7.30 pm and had a tasty home cooked dinner of rice/roti, local black beans and vegetables. Morning birding was to start by 5 am. We were very tired and exhausted from the long drive so slept early , hoping tomorrow would be a good day for birding.

Day 2 -8th June.  We were ready by 5.00 am to a full day of birding . As we stepped out at 5.30 am , the freshness of morning air along with the sweet calls of the Indian Cuckoo gave a feeling of exhilaration and hope. We could see a pair of Indian Cuckoos in courtship behaviour on the huge tree outside the Homestay. The area facing the Home stay falls under forest area.

Indian Cuckoo

   We started to the same location of last evening hoping to see the Hooded Pitta .We waited patiently, straining our ears to pick any call of it. While waiting on the road , the beautiful Indian Pitta flew on to an open branch facing the road at an eye level carrying nesting material in its beak. It is always a lovely sight to see this beautiful bird called ‘Navrang’. 

    

Indian Pitta   

   At this location we could see 18 bird species, including Asian Emerald Dove, Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike, Grey Treepie. After waiting for an hour , we moved to another location on the Nainital road in search of Great Slaty Woodpecker. Another lifer found in a very small range in India.

A pic with the Sal trees in the background

White-rumped Shama

   This location had Sal tree forest on both the sides of the road .It gave a fantastic feeling to be in the midst of such tall trees .We heard no bird calls for some time except for some warblers. It was 7.30 am, so we decided to have our packed breakfast with our ears tuned to pick any call of Great Slaty Woodpecker. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the company of White-rumped Shama foraging on a bush on the road side. 

Breakfast time

    The habitat of Great Slaty Woodpecker is the Sal tree forests. After breakfast , we moved further on the same road to another location and waited for 15 mins. Our guide Deep heard a faint call of the woodpecker from far way trees. We excitedly peered through the canopies of the trees to spot it . Finally , could see it from a small opening of few branches, pecking on insects on the trunk of a Sal tree. I quickly took few record shots of the woodpecker as it flew back into the canopy of the Sal forest.

Great Slaty Woodpecker

  After waiting for some more time, our guide decided to drive us to another location to see the WHooded Pitta. It was in the Corbett forest in Keasi Range on SH 6  Nainital -Ramnagar Road. 

Oriental Dollar bird

    The sun was blazing hot at 11 am. As we were approaching the spot, the driver stopped the vehicle seeing an Oriental Dollarbird perched on a low branch. It flew across and we quickly got off to click some pictures. All my earlier pictures of the Dollar birds were taken perched on the top of tall trees,  at Nameri Nat. Park and Dehing Patkai Nat. park in Assam  or at Thattekad in Kerala . We could see six Oriental Dollarbirds flying from the branches of a big green tree.There was a pond surrounded by tall broadleaf trees.I got some shots of the Dollar bird thrilled to find it at an eye level ,which is a rare sight. I had difficulty focusing on the subject as my camera lens had a haze caused due to the intense heat outside. But, still managed to get few decent shots. Something flying low caught my eye and it was the uncommon Crested Treeswift. Lucky for me, I quickly took some good flying shots of this bird. 

Crested Treeswift

  At the same time , we could feel two eyes gazing at us from our right side and to our surprise found a Brown Fish Owl on a shady lower branch of a tree and watching us. We quickly took some shots of the Owl before it decided to fly away into the forest. 

Brown Fish Owl

    On the right side of the road , there was a short rocky path leading down to a small stream. The bright rays of sun were perfectly stopped by the canopy of trees. This location was buzzing with bird activity. We spent 15-20 mins enjoying the coolness of place and watching the behaviour of the birds. We did get some good shots of the birds too. There were four Chestnut- bellied Nuthatches flying around , feeding its partners , a ritual before nesting , two Orange -headed thrush foraging near the stream at leisure , picking on leaves , White throated Fantail , Lineated Barbet, Chestnut -tailed Starling, two Grey -headed Pygmy woodpeckers, Indian paradise flycatcher. We logged around 24 bird species at this location. 

                                  Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch

                                                                                                          Indian Paradise Flycatcher  

 
                           Lineated Barbet 

    Our next destination was Manila located in the Almora district of Uttarakhand, India. It was a two hour drive to Manila from the place we were at that moment. Nestled in the Kumaon region, Manila is a notable birding hotspot due to its rich biodiversity and varied habitats. Our night stay was planned there as we had three important lifers ( 2 lifers for Mrs Sarbjeet) to be seen. Manila is also one of the places for seeing  'Cheer Pheasant'. 

    We were expecting to reach the place by 2 pm. Manila is at an altitude of approximately 1,820 meters (5,970 feet) above sea level. As we drove towards Manila, the outside vegetation has changed from Sal forest to Chir pine trees. The elevation also brought relief from the severe heat to pleasant surroundings. I could not keep my eyes open and dozed off to the rhythmic movement of vehicle. Close to Manila, our guide Deep suddenly stopped the vehicle and jumped out. I was in deep sleep and suddenly opened my eyes and was alert hoping not to miss anything. After 5 mins, he signalled us to come over to his location. We walked carefully on the slopes on the fallen Chir pines not to slip on them. He pointed to us to the direction where a pair of Cheer Pheasant were foraging on the slopes hideen in the green-brown grass going up the hill.  We were still at a lower elevation and it was uncommon to find a Cheer Pheasant at this level. We took few pics of the Cheer pheasant while foraging in the open but it was from a distance of 20-30 mts.

Cheer Pheasant

 We quickly trekked  down and drove further up the winding road to the top which would give us a better view. At this point, we could see the pair of Cheer Pheasants, male and female completely covered in the fallen Chir pine leaves. The red skin around the eye and the beak were only parts visible.

Cheer in the fallen Chir pine leaves

Upland Pipit

 

  We watched them through our binoculars and took some shots and decided to leave without disturbing them. All this while , we could hear loud calls of a bird. It was the Upland Pipit , another lifer was calling loudly from Chir pine tree . It came closer and gave us beautiful shots. It was 3 pm ,we were famished and moved towards our home stay ,which was another 30 mins drive uphill. The beautiful Hydrangeas were an indication to a cooler climate here. Before moving into the room, we had a lunch of dal, rice and vegetables.Though not very appetizing but hunger pangs made the home cooked food tasty. 

Hydrangeas at the Home Stay

  The room was fairy big and had a clean toilet. It was distressing to see the carpeted floor and no fan,as the temperature was still warm outside. We rested for an hour and started for the evening birding at 5.30 pm to a location called 'Cheer Point' . We reached the place in 15 mins and could see 4-5 birders with cameras waiting for the Cheer to come closer. The Cheer Pheasant crosses the road at this location to go to its roosting place on the other side. I was told by the Deep that it roosts under big rocks. The pheasant had noticed the movement on the road and had hidden itself in the grass for an hour and continued foraging. Waiting there, we saw the Scaly-bellied Woodpecker on the Chir pine and Wedge-tailed Green Pigeons foraging on the bushes.Two more birders joined the group on the road. As the sun dipped ,the Cheer Pheasant moved up the slope slowly in the fading light towards the road.

Scaly-bellied Woodpecker

Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon

   There was no point in waiting , so we moved towards the Home stay. It was 6.45 pm, late for the evening tea but quickly took a cup to refresh our mood before going to the location of Mountain Scops-Owl , another lifer. We reached the spot on Almora Road, its was 8.30 pm and pitch dark. Suddenly, there was activity on the road, the guide spotted four Indian Fox juveniles chasing a dog .We stopped to get some shots of the Fox. My Cannon EOS R5 camera with RF lens gives very bad pics in the dark. I tried to get some shots in the light of torch but could see a pair stop and look at us for few seconds before disappearing into the dark.

  We moved further 3-4 minutes on the same road and reached the spot . In the dark silence of the night we could hear the feeble calls of the Owl. In few mins, we could hear it close to the tree by the road. Our guide directed the torch on to a branch and it was an amazing sight to see the owl sitting there .We were ready with our cameras and quickly took few shots in couple of seconds.  We left the place after 3-4 mins. With 3 lifers , I was very happy and elated to the end the day after a quick hot dinner.

                          Indian Fox

                                 

Mountain Scops- Owl

 We got back to our room and went to sleep by 10.30-11 pm. The temp outside was 15 C, comfortable to sleep in the room without a fan. Next day, we were intending to start by 6 am and drive back to Kaladhungi

Day 3- 9th June. We were all packed and ready by 6am to start our morning birding and drive back to Kaladhungi. The sunrise was by 5.15 am and I could hear the incessant calls of Black Francolin, and other bird calls. I stepped into the back balcony with my camera to get some shots of birds. There were some fruiting trees behind and green meadows. I could see  Russet sparrows , Black- headed Jay and Black-chinned Babbler on the trees. 

Black-headed Jay

Russet Sparrow

           

                          Black-chinned Babbler

    We started  by 6.30 am and reached the location of Cheer point in 15 mins. We wanted to get some good shots of the Cheer while it crossed the road to go down the slopes for foraging. We reached the spot by 6.45 am and the Cheer had already crossed and was foraging on the slopes in the grass , around 30-40 Mts from the road. We waited for more than an hour for it come closer . It slowly moved towards the cliff to our left side which was around 20 Mtrs and sat still for nearly 15 mins. We took some shots of the bird with its beautiful long tail.  It was already 8.30 am , so decided to drive back to Kaladungi and planned to find some breakfast on way. 

Habitat of Cheer Pheasant

Cheer Pheasant 

 

     It was a 2 hour drive back to Kaladhungi . At around 12 noon ,we reached Jhoola Pul , Gariya, the location of Lesser Fish Eagle which is a resident bird roosting on the rocks on the edge of the river. Though not a lifer, we wanted to see it. LF Eagle was there when guide reached the spot but it flew away seeing some people walking on the river bed. We waited for 15 minutes, it came back to the same spot. The sun was extremely hot ,probably not a wise move to walk on the river bed, but we walked nearly 1/2 km on the rocky river bed to get some shot of the LF Eagle. It was nearly 1.30 pm when we started back to Kaladhungi. We reached around 2.15pm,  completely famished and exhausted , with no energy left , we quickly had some home cooked lunch and dozed off in the AC coolness of our room. We rested for an hour before we gained senses to be ready for the evening birding.  I had high hopes on the evening session of birding , as I could get only 5 lifers and still hoped for a glimpse of the WHooded Pitta . 

  We started by 5 pm and reached the location of WHooded pitta at Chotta Haldwani. Our guide could pick up its calls and in 5 mins WHooded Pitta flew over and sat on a branch behind the trunk of huge tree , close to the road. We could see the pitta but it was not possible to get a good shot with disturbance of leaves and tiny branches in front. It sat there for 5 mins before going down on to the forest floor covered with bushes. It was moment of elation to have got the first sighting of the W Hooded Pitta for the season. 

After the sucessful sighting of WHooded Pitta with Arjun ,our driver and Deep

   We could see another 13 bird species here, including the Black naped Monarch , Lineated  Barbet ,Wedge -tailed Green Pigeon .We then moved to another location on the State Highway- 61 with Sal forest on both sides of the road to look for Great Slaty woodpecker and Himalayan Flameback, another lifer and a look alike of Black-rumped Flameback. As we were approaching the location , our guide Deep could hear the loud calls of the Himalayan Flameback and stopped the vehicle. A significant behavior of the woodpeckers is that they move in flocks and are boisterous in behaviour. Our guide was mentioning that both Great Slaty and Himalayan Flameback move in flocks of 5-10 till the pairing for breeding does not take place. Once they choose their partners , they move  quietly in pairs till the completion of nesting period. We were lucky to have got good shots of the Himalayan Flameback foraging on the trees looking for insects. 

Himalayan Flameback

     As the light receded , we started back  to the homestay. Close to the homestay, we heard the calls of Large-tailed Nightjar , on the roadside . We stopped for few minutes to look for the Nightjar but it seemed to be perched on a far away branch . We got back to the homestay , hoping to get a sighting of Brown Hawk Owl which is a resident bird in that area. There was absolute silence around with no sign of the Owl. We decided to call it a day and go for dinner. 

   We were joined by Rajesh Panwar and his lovely wife Sheila, both returned from Kinnaur after completing three back to back birding tours at Kinnaur. We chatted over dinner on the forthcoming bird tours in india and abroad. Finns weaver, another high on my wishlist  has not been sighted yet at the location near the reservoir this time. The unusual high temperatures during this summer seem to have altered the movement of birds for breeding.  We had one more session of birding in the morning and planned to leave after having breakfast. After the lovely conversation on birds ,we left the dinning table with the hope the morning birding session will get us some clear and good pictures of W Hooded Pitta . 

Day 4- 10th June. We started our morning session at 5.30 am at the last seen spot of WHooded Pitta. We were lucky that within 5 mins , WHooded Pitta flew on a branch close to the road . The light was poor and focusing was difficult. However, managed to get few clear shots. It stepped down on to floor of the forest. After 5 mins it again flew on to a branch , with a clear view,  close to road. This time, we got some fantastic shots of the Pitta. It stayed on for few minutes before flying back into the forest area. I felt euphoric, like 'Mission accomplished'. I have seen three Pittas found in India.

Western Hooded Pitta

Bright smiles after seeing WHPitta

   There was so much more bird activity at this location. I saw the Ashy Bulbul at eye level, which I barely got to see at Dehing Patkai. We could see 13 species including Crested Black Bulbul, Himalayan Flameback, Grey -capped Pygmy wood pecker and  Indian paradise flycatcher.  

Ashy Bulbul

    After the success of sighting the WHooded Pitta , Deep wanted to try our luck with Great Slaty Wp. As we moved from this location , close to the road ,we saw an Elephant pulling down some branches in the forest. We spent an hour at 2-3 locations where the habitat was conducive for the sighting of Great Slaty Wp. There was no call from Great Slaty wp  at any of these locations. At 9.30 am , we got back to Homestay to have our breakfast and wind up our things and start on our trip back home to Chandigarh. I got seven lifers in this trip, a good number. 

At the loc of Slaty Woodpecker

  

Home Stay

Forest fire

  On our way back, we could see a forest fire and smoke billowing in the air , far away in the hills and was distressed to imagine the destruction it would cause to the habitat of the birds of animals.  I hoped the fire was stopped from spreading to other areas. I hope to come back next year for the Finns weaver.