Western Ghats Endemic Birding Tour: Thattekad, Munnar & Periyar (8N/9D)

Description

The Western Ghats are one of the world's eight biodiversity hotspots and hold around 16 endemic bird species found nowhere else on earth. Kerala offers the most efficient access to them, and this nine-day itinerary is built specifically for birders who want the endemic list rather than a general wildlife tour. It moves from lowland evergreen forest at Thattekad to the high shola grassland of Munnar and closes in the evergreen forest of Periyar, which between them cover almost every Ghats endemic that can reasonably be targeted in a single trip.

Thattekad, formally the Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, was described by Salim Ali himself as the richest bird habitat in peninsular India, and Kerala's first bird sanctuary has never lost that reputation. Its 25 square kilometres of moist deciduous and evergreen forest beside the Periyar river hold Malabar grey hornbill, Malabar trogon, white-bellied treepie, Malabar parakeet, crimson-backed sunbird, heart-spotted woodpecker and an exceptional density of cuckoos. Its most famous resident is the Sri Lanka frogmouth, a bizarre nocturnal bird with a wide flattened bill, which local guides can often locate at its daytime roost with remarkable consistency.

Munnar takes the tour above 1,500 metres into a landscape of tea estates broken by remnant shola forest, and the species change entirely. Eravikulam National Park and the Munnar hills hold Nilgiri pipit, Nilgiri flycatcher, Nilgiri wood pigeon, black-and-orange flycatcher, white-bellied sholakili and the Kerala laughingthrush, all of them restricted to these southern hills. The park is also the stronghold of the Nilgiri tahr, a mountain ungulate that came close to extinction and is now approachable in the Rajamalai section.

Periyar closes the itinerary with evergreen forest around a large reservoir at around 900 metres. The boat trip on Periyar Lake produces darters, cormorants, ospreys and kingfishers along the drowned treeline, while the forest trails hold great hornbill, Malabar grey hornbill, Nilgiri langur, lion-tailed macaque in the right sections and the endemic broadbills and flycatchers. For travellers with an extra day, the Gavi section on the reserve's western edge is one of the finest and least crowded birding areas in South India.