Bhutan Birding 2019: 20th-22nd March

Day 11 – 20^th March - Trashigang to Samdrup Jongkhar

This was one of our more intensive travelling days. The journey involved quite a bit of travelling on roads that were under construction which made it interesting at times! However before the journey there was a bit of birding and need we needed a good breakfast!

Lesser Yellownape - A very distant photo of a smart bird.

Capped Langur - One of several seen before breakfast.

An impressive site for breakfast!

A bit of pre-breakfast birding

Once on the road one of our stopping points was at a lay-by on a mountain road. There was a large Bees nest on a cliff a bit above the road and on the other side of the road, where the land dropped away was a perched Yellow-rumped Honeyguide. We started to watch the Honeyguide and get some photos but had to abandon the attempt in a hurry as these rather large Bees started to attack us!! So we all leapt back into the vehicle at great speed. One Bee came in an open window and caused a bit of mad panic as it was clearly out to get someone. Fortunately, we managed to deal with it and the sting was left harmlessly in Neil’s jacket!

Yellow-rumped Honeyguide - A rather hurried photo taken when a few Bees were headed our way!
This Himalayan species is found between 1400 and 3500 metres altitude and is usually associated with the Giant Rock Bee. They certainly looked rather large!

Birds only seen on this day were Barred Cuckoo-dove, Brownish-flanked Bush-warbler, a single White-breasted Parrotbill, a Spotted Forktail in a river close to Samdrup Jongkhar. Other birds of note were a Mountain Hawk-eagle, Grey-capped Woodpecker, Rufous-fronted Babbler, Long-tailed Sibia and Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher.

Coral-billed Scimitar-babbler - A couple of small flocks seen.

White-breasted Parrotbill - Our only sighting of this species.
Another Himalayan species only found in Bhutan and adjacent countries.

Great Barbet - A more widespread species found from the Himalayas to the East China Sea.

Grey Bushchat

We stayed at the Dungsam Trashiling Resort overnight. A Birdfinders group were also staying at this hotel and by some strange coincidence Jim happened to know Martin, one of the members of the group (a twitching friend)! So a quick exchange of sightings took place.

Despite a long days travelling we still managed 89 species of birds, either seen or heard.

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Day 12 - 21st March - Samdrup Jongkhar area

The birding here was very different. We were now at low altitude and the temperature was considerably higher (around 35 DegC). This turned out to be the biggest day of the trip in terms of species seen and heard with 106!

Blue-throated Barbet - A pre-breakfast sighting.

Maroon Oriole - Taken early morning at distance in poor light.
Found from the Himalayas SE to Vietnam.

Scarlet Finch - Same excuse as above!

Grey-winged Blackbird - Ditto!!

Verditer Flycatcher

Grey-throated Babbler - A widespread species in SE Asia.

Grey-backed Shrike - A widespread species from Northern India to Vietnam

We started the day with a walk down the road from the hotel which produced good numbers of birds and eventually met up with the Breakfast Boys. We continued birding along roads and revisited the riverside site we had been to the previous afternoon.

Some of the more interesting new species were Oriental Honey Buzzard, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Besra, Red Junglefowl, Banded Bay Cuckoo, Plaintive Cuckoo, Dark-rumped Swift, Dollarbird, Great Hornbill, Ashy Woodswallow, Large Woodshrike, Brown Shrike, Maroon Oriole, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo , Black-naped Monarch, Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush, Taiga Flycatcher, Slaty-backed Flycatcher, Blue-throated Flycatcher, Black-backed Forktail, Slaty-backed Forktail, Grey-winged Blackbird, Siberian Rubythroat and Bank Myna.

Siberian Rubythroat - Unfortunately this skulking bird was not seen by all of the group members.
A passage migrant/wintering visitor to Bhutan.

Changeable Hawk Eagle - a juvenile bird.

Widespread in much of India and S E Asia.

Besra - Our only sighting.
A widespread species in much of SE Asia.

Long-tailed Shrike

Spotted Dove - A widespread Asian species.

Black-crested Bulbul

Great Hornbill - Some of seven seen during the day.

Also during the morning walk we managed more views of Rufous-necked Hornbill although rather distant.

In the afternoon we had a couple of hours around the hotel, but even here we managed some new species. These included Lineated Barbet, White-spectacled Warbler, plus Little Cormorant and Striated Heron on the river that was flowing well below us.

Himalayan Banded Treebrown - Lethe confusa confusa

Butterfly sp

Lizard Sp

We spent the night at the TD Guest House in Samdrup Jongkhar which was a short drive from the border into India.

Tashi Gatshel Guest House

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Day 13 - 22nd March - Samdrup Jongkhar to Delhi Airport

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel and watched a few birds from the balcony including Tickell’s Leaf Warbler and Golden-fronted Leafbird. Then we drove to the border where we were met by an Indian taxi driver whose job it was to get us to the airport at Guwahati. We said our goodbyes to Sonam and the rest of the excellent team, driver Phuntsho Tashi, Cook Dorji and his assistant/driver Jamtsho. They had looked after us extremely well. During the period we were waiting for the formalities to be done we managed to tick off Yellow-footed Pigeon and Wedge-tailed Pigeon (no photos though).

After a few formalities at the border we were on our way. The terrain, the buildings and people looked completely different. The land was flat, the road were very busy and the houses were largely very untidy and ramshackle. Plus there was lots of rubbish. Along the two hour journey the driver stopped at some areas of water where we managed to clock up a few waterside and other birds. These included Fulvous Whistling Duck, Tufted Duck, Asian Openbill, Great Cormorant, Cattle Egret, Indian Pond-heron, Black Kite, Little Grebe, Purple Swamphen, Eurasian Moorhen, Bronze-winged Jacana, Red-wattled Lapwing, Rose-ringed Parakeet and White-throated Kingfisher.

Then to our final birding stop before we reached the airport and this was the unlikely setting of Guwahati rubbish tip! This was a huge open area where marsh land had been used to dump rubbish. It was a depressing sight as we drove past huge mounds of rubbish, much of it plastic waste and in places hordes of local people were sorting through the rubbish. Every few minutes another truck would deliver even more waste. However the visit was worth it as there were dozens of Lesser Adjutants, Greater Adjutants, and Black Kites. We all picked out a single Citrine Wagtail, some Green Bee-eaters and a few White Wagtails of the races ocularis and balcalensis.