Kaziranga National Park can give you a super rich birding experience

Posted on March 13, 2017 by Ghoomophiro

Kaziranga National Park is a world heritage site, which supports two-thirds of the world’s one-horned rhinoceros population.

For the bird watchers, this may very well be the best place in the entire country. Jorhat airport is the nearest to Kaziranga National Park which is about 100 kilometers away. Bus or a taxi from there can bring you to this place. Guwahati happens to be the nearest railway station. So one can also choose to reach Guwahati and then hire a cab or take a bus from there (220 km).

An estimate says that there are more than 478 different species of birds that can be seen here throughout the year and almost half of them are migratory birds. However, what makes this place one of the UNESCO world heritage sites is the very fact that there are about 25 species of birds that are on a verge of extinction and 21 which are less endangered but still are hard to find in many parts of the globe.

A very versatile biodiversity

Made unique with a lively, well preserved and sustained ecology this park has a very versatile biodiversity which makes Kaziranga National Park a very important and admired tourist destination.

• One can see all kinds of birds in Kaziranga and the key species include Swamp Francolin, Pale-capped Pigeon, Bengal Florican, Great and Wreathed Hornbill, Jerdon’s Baza, Slender-billed Vulture,  and Pallas’s Fishing Eagle. But this is not the end!!

• One can see and observe more varieties of birds such as the Greater Spotted Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Pied Harrier, Pied Falconet, Oriental Hobby, Black-necked Stork, Greater Adjutant, Hodgson’s Bushchat, White-vented Myna, Rufous-vented Prinia, Marsh Babbler, Jerdon’s Babbler, Black-breasted Parrotbill and Finn’s Weaver. Besides this rich birding haul, there is a breeding colony of Spot-billed Pelicans near Koladuar in the Agoratoli area.

• Out of the rarest of rare birds that can be found in the park in their natural habitat are species of geese (lesser white-fronted goose), and ducks (ferruginous pochard, Baer’s pochard).
• Along with that, there are riverine birds including kingfishers (Blyth’s kingfisher), herons (white-bellied heron), pelicans (Dalmatian pelican, spot-billed pelican), shanks (spotted greenshank) and terns (black-bellied tern).

• There are also many rare migratory birds that make their annual presence felt in the park (lesser adjutant, greater adjutant, black-necked stork, Asian openbill).

• The place also has a great number of raptors, which can be seen as a sign of very healthy ecosystem as these predatory birds maintain the balance in nature. These birds include eastern imperial eagle, greater spotted eagle, white-tailed fishing eagle, Pallas’s fish eagle, grey-headed fish eagle and the lesser kestrel. And vultures, one of the rarest birds on the planet once had the Kaziranga national park as their unabashed home.

Apart from the wildlife, the park itself is enormously beautiful with water bodies and forests. Kaziranga is the place to go for a trip full of thrill. While at this place, enjoy the best and most of what Assam’s nature has to offer.

Did you know?

Kaziranga national park was once home to about seven species of vultures but the sad thing is that almost all of them got wiped out due to severe kidney failures caused by eating infected animals and birds in the park. The red-headed vulture and the Eurasian vulture are on the verge of the extinction while Indian vulture, slender-billed,  and the Indian white vulture are technically extinct as there are no sightings of them anymore anywhere in the park.