Exploring

Maldevta
Dehradun-Uttrakhand
April 2019

Observations and written by

Sanjiv Khanna

Edited By
Prof (Dr.) Gurpartap Singh
Report for Basic course in Ornithology under

BNHS
Bombay Natural History Society
 “Life on Wings’ by Sanjiv Khanna”

E X P L O R I N G M A L D E V T A, D E H R A D U N – UTTRAKHAND

After taking holy dip at river Ganga, I rushed to my family purohits. Their blessings
were the last moment for me at the city Haridwar in Uttrakhand. I proceeded to my
destination, Maldevta, in the Garhwal region. A short observation of location was done
in the evening and had some words with local people about probable birding spot in the
area. While it was late evening, I was received by few surprises. During my talks with
the local people, I heard loud calls of bulbuls from nearby trees. A flock of Himalayan
and Red-vented Bulbuls was making commotion. I could easily see some Red-billed
Leiothrix and Rose Finches around. In order to locate a suspected predator, I searched
on the top of trees. Finally the culprit was seen, a male Indian Paradise-flycatcher with
long white tail, on the move.
Getting some good signs of birding, I went back, had my dinner and went to bed at
my home-stay with the alarm time set for 5.30 am. However, I received calls of natural
alarms by 5 am. Clear and melodious call of Blue Whistling Thrush along with chirping
of Bulbuls and Rosefinches was heard. It took few minutes for me to get ready, then I
came to my car and rushed to my destination for search of some fantastic and never-
seen birds. After a run of one kilometer, I crossed a metallic river bridge and was
welcomed by a couple of Blue Whistling Thrushes sitting on the road side. As the sun
was rising and first rays were still to fall on top of mountains, I saw well expected bird; a
pair of Kalij Pheasant was spotted as first target bird.
 I could only click male of this attractive pheasant and female went back to the
roadside bushes. After few turns on hilly roads, I could see a pair of Scarlet Minivets
and Common Rosefinches sitting on dead branches of a long tree. Next to them were
roadside dense bushes loaded with flowers. There was huge movment of small birds
and parakeets taking feed from these flowers.
 Oriental White-eye, Black-throated and Black-lored Tits, Red-billed Leiothrix,
Purple and Crimson Sunbirds and Black-chinned Babblers were seen feeding in these
flowers. A small moment of vehicles and morning walkers also started. This was
disturbing the birds and they were changing their feeding place repeatedly. Rose-
ringed, Plum-headed and Slaty-headed Parakeets were considerable in numbers,
making loud noises.

There was adequate light in area after these

observations. I was expecting more surprises and lifers
for me. It was time for me to return at my home stay for
breakfast. As I turned I heard a typical call from a huge
tree. Call was immediately reciprocated from other side
of road. On following the call I was happy enough to
see a Rufous Woodpecker sitting on a huge tree trunk.
Soon the pair gathered and started feeding their chicks
in a nest made in hollow part of trunk facing
downwards. I watched them for a considerable time.
While coming back, I could easily identify Himalayan
griffon vultures flying high in the sky.

It was nice to see many people taking morning walk in these hilly roads. Group of
cyclists were also seen moving up hills one by one and each interacted with me as good
morning with. Cycling was being done by members of all the age groups. I kept counting
intensity of fresh air being inhaled by those lucky people. I also availed a chance to
drink fresh, cold and sweet water flowing in small water stream.
 While I reached near my stay I saw a huge nest of black kite on a huge tree.
Mother was seen with two chicks, sitting calm on nest. Chicks were excited to see the
movements around and were stretching. Soon I took my breakfast and turned back for
rest part of birding with my life partner Alka and birding partner Vani, my wife and
daughter. On the way to my destination, I saw Brown-headed Pigmy Woodpecker and
Speckled Piculet on a single tree. Raptors like oriental honey buzzard, crested serpent
eagle were also observed. Close to human colony rock pigeon. Eurasian collared dove,
spotted dove and red collared dove were also seen. Thrice I failed to capture the
Emerald Dove which was flying at very high speed.
 As soon as we reached near a small water fall, we heard loud calls of a bird flock;
the calls were getting echoed in the hills. Soon the flock and calls started coming close
to us. A much awaited gang of white crested laughing thrushes came close to us
jumping in branches of trees. Next to them was a surprise following a bee in the air. I
rushed close to this attraction and caught it sitting on a perch with a bee in the beak. It
was a pair of Blue-beard Bee-eaters, a point of attraction at this spot along with other
Green and Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters.

We relaxed for a while after observing the Blue-beard Bee-eater. However, while
sitting on boulders, I got a chance to capture very attractive and active flock of
Rosefinches. Their plumage was clearly showing reason behind their name, Rosefinch.
I got a sign to remain silent from Alka as there was close movement in the bushes. I just
jumped with joy to see movement in the bushes; they were Rufous-chinned Laughing-
thrushes. I had to wait long for them to come out in range of my camera.
 I relaxed after efforts to capture the Laughing-thrush. Suddenly I noticed very
attractive colours on a bare branch of a plant on the other side. It was a Blue-capped
Rock-thrush looking at me. It gave me few seconds to click and disappeared in the
jungle. All my efforts were being observed by a Rosefinch sitting behind flowers in a
plant.

Two colorful birds were sitting on same perch, making calls. Verditer Flycatcher
and Crested Bunting gave sufficient time to clicking photographs. Sitting on bamboo
branches, they might have been calling their partners.

Many other common and rare birds were also observed in this trip. This was an
unforgettable journey of Uttrakhand which gives some hope of survival of earth with
these living jungles and biodiversity. List of birds uploaded on ebird is also shared
herewith.
 (30.336, 78.144), Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, IN, 81 species

Indian Peafowl 4 Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher 2

Kalij Pheasant 12 Himalayan Black-lored Tit 2
Rock Pigeon (Blue Rock Pigeon) 6 Black-throated Tit (Black-throated Bushtit) 12
Oriental Turtle-Dove 4 Red-vented Bulbul 9
Eurasian Collared-Dove 6 Himalayan Bulbul (White-cheeked Bulbul) 4
Red Collared-Dove (Red Turtle-Dove) 2 Himalayan Black Bulbul 22
Spotted Dove 8 Chestnut-headed Tesia 2
Asian Emerald Dove 2 Greenish Warbler 4
Red-wattled Lapwing 2 Grey-hooded Warbler 6
Oriental Honey-buzzard 2 Common Tailorbird 4
Crested Serpent-Eagle 2 Grey-breasted Prinia 6
Shikra 2 Plain Prinia 2
Black Kite 6 Oriental White-eye 36
Indian Grey Hornbill 6 Black-chinned Babbler 8
White-throated Kingfisher 4 Streak-breasted Scimitar-Babbler 2
Blue-bearded Bee-eater 12 Jungle Babbler 22
Green Bee-eater 6 White-crested Laughingthrush 12
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater 2 Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush 6
Great Barbet 12 Red-billed Leiothrix 48
Blue-throated Barbet 2 Asian Brown Flycatcher 4
Speckled Piculet 4 Indian Robin 4
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker 5 Oriental Magpie-Robin 22
Yellow-crowned Woodpecker 4 Verditer Flycatcher 12
Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker 2 Blue Whistling-Thrush 22
Rufous Woodpecker 6 Spotted Forktail 6
Grey-headed Woodpecker 2 White-capped Redstart 4
Rose-ringed Parakeet 20 Blue-capped Rock-Thrush 6
Slaty-headed Parakeet 11 Blue Rock-Thrush 2
Plum-headed Parakeet 16 Pied Bushchat 28
Long-tailed Minivet 3 Brahminy Starling 12
Scarlet Minivet 2 Chestnut-tailed Starling 8
Bay-backed Shrike 4 Common Myna 6
Long-tailed Shrike 2 Jungle Myna 22
Black-hooded Oriole 2 Spot-winged Starling 12
Ashy Drongo 4 Purple Sunbird 0
White-throated Fantail 2 Crimson Sunbird 20
Indian Paradise-Flycatcher 10 Grey Wagtail 2
Red-billed Blue-Magpie 2 Citrine Wagtail 2
Rufous Treepie 2 Common Rosefinch 12
Grey Treepie 4 House Sparrow 20
Dusky Crag-Martin 2 Russet Sparrow 6

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S54605605,

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)