Sundarban Masked Finfoot & Leopard Cat in January 2026 - Trip Report
This 04 Dat 03 Nights Sundarban Trip was booked by email, client was Mr. Charuka Abhayawickrama from Australia. He has photographed over 4400 species of Birds Worldwide and is on a mission to Photograph 10.000. The Masked Finfoot was his prime target in Sundarban and if possible the White-eared Night Heron & Leopard Cat aswell. He arrived at midnight at Dhaka and we started promptly towards Khulna where we boarded our ship at Dawn.
January 26th – The Ship cruised for about 5 hours to arrive at Finfoot Zone of Sundarban, it was almost high tide and sun was directly above us, not a good time for birding but still we went out on the smaller boat for some location checking. We got several Black-capped Kingfishers and saw fresh Finfoot Tracks from earlier that day. We went back to the Ship for Lunch and then got out again at dusk looking for the White-eared Night Heron.
We had excellent diving photos of Brown-winged Kingfisher in the Afternoon. Then in the Evening we looked for the White-eared Night Heron for quite a few hours but could not find it. We found one Excellent Brown-wood Owl that gave great views and few Buffy Fish Owls aswell.
January 27th – Next day, we started early and checked few side canals for Finfoot. After about four hours of looking, we finally found our first Masked Finfoot female. But it was foraging deep inside a very narrow canal which had almost no water, so we could not get closer, only came out with distant shots.
That afternoon we went to a nearby boardwalk looking for some Woodpeckers. We got Excellent views and photos of the Rufous Woodpecker & Grey-capped Woodpecker there and also The Velvet-fronted Nuthatch.
Later that night we tried even harder looking for The White-eared Night Heron. But Heron/Egret activity was super low and we only got soem distant Flight calls of Black-crowned Night Heron only. We managed to pick up one Leopard Cat with the Thermal which gave excellent prolonged views foraging on the bank and sitting on a tree branch. Mr. Charuka got excellent Photos with his Canon R1 & 600mm F4 Setup.
January 28th – On the Third Day we explored few more side canals and got very brief views of a Finfoot on one side of canal and while returning, another glimpse at another on the opposite bank. But neither gave any photo Opportunities and neither came out again despite waiting for several hours there. Both of the Otters were his lifers aswell.
That Evening we tried again for the Night Heron but again no luck so called it a day.
January 29th – Last Day Morning we again went into that Canal to look for that Finfoot and we found it almost immediately swimming in the Narrow Creek. It was a Lovely new female that allowed us to see her Foraging behavior in lovely mist but from a distance. Then near a bend, it came out and crossed a part of exposed Mudbank in first morning light then swam a bit more in water giving us the Best Portraits of the Trip. Mr. Charuka must’ve took over 600 shots within those few seconds. The Bird vanished inside the forest and we could not track it further due to water level receding very fast and we returned to ship and started towards Mongla in hope of visiting another Boardwalk where Pale-chinned Flycatcher can be found, another Target Bird for Charuka.
We arrived there at around Lunch and it was super crowded there, but after a bit of looking we got the Flycatcher. We ended our trip in the Afternoon at Mongla and started our return Roadtrip to Dhaka and Dropped him at the Airport 4 hours before his Flight out of the Country.
We Saw Finfoot on 03 days out of 04, The White-eared Night Heron was a dip in this Trip but hopefully the Leopard Cat made up for it. We also got Great Photos of Small-clawed Otters, Smooth-coated Otters, Saltwater Crocodiles, Lesser Adjutant etc.
Read full eBird Trip Report here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/469816
