Guests: Mehdi Sadak from Morocco, Anton Cnuddy from Belgium, Luke Downey, Bec Cainey & Daniel Terrington from Australia & Nick Ramsay from the US.
This trip was booked by Mehdi Sadak from Morocco and He requested BirdingBD Tours to arrange a trip that will cover the Range Restricted Cachar Bulbul, Endangered White-cheeked Partridge, Elusive Blue-naped Pitta, Endangered Pallas’s Fish Eagle, Critically Endangered Baer’s Pochard & The Yellow-breasted Bunting. Also as many birds as possible to be covered in the areas we’d visit including a day in Dhaka looking for the West Himalayan Bush Warbler, White-tailed Stonechat, Delicate Prinia etc. Other Targets were as many species of Mammals as possible as they were into Mammals aswell. 04 of the group returned home after 04 days as planned and other 2 members continued the remaining 8 days.
Weather was particularly cloudy and foggy most of the trip. We got some sunlight during the last four days of the trip.
Day 1, January 31st: I Picked up the guests from their hotel at Dawn and started towards Satchari National Park. We stopped briefly at Purbachal Turag River Grassland to pick up Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon etc. We continued towards Satchari national Park at around 1PM. Before the park, we spotted few Black Bazas, 6 Oriental Honey Buzzards etc. At the Park, we birded about 3 hours that day walking in the forest and sitting at the small pond deep inside. Highlight birds were White-tailed Robin, Blue-throated Flycatcher, Rufous-bellied Niltava, Swinhoe’s Minivet etc. That evening, we spotlighted and saw Collared Scops Owl, Brown Boobook & Asian Barred Owlet.
Day 02, January 01st:
We started early from Hotel and arrived at the park just after sunrise. Few of the members were suffering from Cold caught from the Sundarban and the weather was as gloomy as it got. Visibility was very poor and bird activity was not very good. After few hours of trying we managed to spot one Cachar Bulbul in a distant flowering tree with other species of Bulbuls. It wouldn’t come close to the Tower though. We got off the tower and started to walk the trails looking for Blue-naped Pitta & White-cheeked Partridge but sadly there were zero calls or replies. But while waiting for White-cheeked Partridge, one Cachar Bulbul came close and gave us very close views and photos, light was not ideal though.
During Lunch break, we saw Black Bazas again in tree garden along with a pure Indochinese Roller sitting on wires.
In the Afternoon, at the Waterhole birds were more of the same as yesterday. New was a Siberian Blue Robin which gave excellent views. Spotlighting session was much better that evening. We scored an Oriental Scops Owl, a Pair of Brown Fish Owls, a pair of Indian Muntjacks, One Paricolored Flying Squirrel, Capped Langurs etc.
We drove an hour to Sreemangal and checked in new Hotel there for the night.
Day 03. January 02nd:
Early Dawn, we started towards Baikka Beel Wetland Sanctuary. Weather was also super cloudy and foggy that day. But started to get a bit better but not ideal. We scored Paddyfield Warbler, Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler and Baikal Bush Warbler early. Saw a flock of Glossy Ibis & Black-tailed Godwits flying around. Several species of Ducks were present as well as many passerines in the forest over the trail. Our species count for the day quickly climbed north of 80 species and we were eager to hit 100 if possible. At the end of of the Trail there is a watchtower and from that we spotted our main Target for here, the Pallas’s Fish Eagle. It was a juvenile bird sitting at a distance and sat there for hours. We could only see it through Scopes and no photo could be made. One Greater Spotted Eagle, Peregrine Falcon and Large-tailed Nightjar also showed up. 100th bird was one Ferruginous Pochard while going out of the park. Total for the morning ended up at 101 species including a Chestnut-capped Bee-eater outside of the Park gate. Ineteresting mammal here was one Greater Bandicoot Rat that all of us saw and photographed. And we saw abundant Fishing Cat poo at the watch tower.
We briefly visited a Zoo nearby to look at Fishing Cat and a Marbled Cat, two species we wanted to see in the wild but was fairly impossible in that trip.
Later that Afternoon we checked out a part of Lawachara National Park & saw Capped Langurs, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Dark-necked Tailorbird, Tickell’s Thrush, Rufous Woodpecker etc. No Spotlighting was done that day.
Day 04, January 03rd :
The Following morning, we only had few hours of birding time at Lawachara National Park as 04 people of the group had to return to Dhaka for their flight out of Bangladesh. We entered the park well before sunrise. Thermal’ed Hoolock Gibbon and Capped Langurs as well as seen Pallas’s Squirrel. Notable birds were Black-breasted Thrush, Grey-bellied Tesia, Large Woodshrike etc.
We bid farewell to Luke, Bec, Daniel & Nick and checked out of the hotel, came back at the Park and saw few more birds. This time we got excellent views at few singing Hoolock Gibbons from up-close. Also a Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, more Black-breasted Thrush and several species of butterflies. We then had lunch and continued towards Kurma Grasslands but found out it was heavily degraded and almost no resident birds were there, Buntings neither. We managed to see at least 03 Barred Buttonquails, a pair of Pied Bushchats and few Bengal Bushlark.
In the Evening we found Spotted Owlets, Asiatic Golden Jackals and started towards Kulaura and checked in new Hotel there.
Day 05, January 04th :
We started early from the Hotel and started towards Sagarnal Forest inside Muraichara Eco Park. Weather was rather gloomy but sunlight started to break through. We quickly picked up several lifers for the guests including Blyth’s Paradise Flycatcher, Rufous-fronted Babbler, Grey-bellied Tesia, Yellow-bellied Warbler, White-bellied Erpornis etc. Ventured into a dark trail following call of White-cheeked Partridge and a small bird flock and scored White-browed Piculet. After waiting around in a dark area, we finally got a glimpse at one White-cheeked Partridge but did not allow for photo. Up to 5 birds were singing.
Other small birds seen there were Pale-chinned Flycatcher, Whistler’s Warbler, Nepal & Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, both Lesser and Greater Necklaced Laughingthrushes etc. We climbed uphill through a bamboo thicket and scored Ashy Bulbul and Red-headed Trogon.
Walking around the forest in mid-noon we found a group of Phayre’s Leaf Monkeys which provided fantastic views, photos and videos. We returned to the first area again in the afternoon for better photos of White-browed Piculet and Dark-necked Tailorbird. We returned to town before sunset, had lunch, some rest at the Hotel and started for Madhabkunda Waterfalls for some spotlighting.
We jumped fence and entered the Park. Easily found few Asian Barred Owlets and HO Oriental Scops Owls. Near the Waterfall, we saw Pig-tailed Macaque up high in the canopy, one foraging Asian Palm Civet between the rocks and finally one Bengal Slow Loris up in the trees. The Loris allowed for excellent views of it’s foraging nature for quite sometime and then we returned to Hotel, had dinner and slept happily for the day.
Day 06, January 05th :
Early morning we started towards the Waterfall Park again looking for some Redstarts. But sadly the Plumbeus Redstart was gone, we got great views of one White-capped Redstart. Other birds were Grey Wagtail, Blue-whistling Thrush, Yellow-vented Warbler etc.
We had breakfast and headed towards one part of Hakaluki Haor. After a bit of extreme muddy road driving we arrived there and got a large flock of Aytha sp. with a lot of Ferruginous Pochards so hopes of finding one Baer’s Pochard was high. To Approach the flock we got barefoot and walked on cold and quite soft-slippery mud in shivering cold. The Scopes were set up and Anton & Mehdi was scanning for the Baer’s Pochard. After few hours of careful checking, they spotted two promising birds that looked larger than other pochards, had the buff flanks and dark head. One bird may had been a hybrid but one definite Baer’s Pochard female was there. Main target for the day was done. We managed to see another gorgeous male Falcated Duck among the flock. Other highlights were 4 Greylag goose, several Red-rumped Swallows, Pin-tailed Snipe etc.
No spotlighting that night, we rested well at the Hotel.
Day 07, January 06th :
Early morning, we checked out from Hotel and started towards another side of the Hakaluki Haor looking for more Baer’s Pochard. This part was a lot drier and roads were abundant so we could move around with the car easily. Duck flocks were smaller so we had to change locations frequently. There were fewer Ferruginous Pochards here and more tufted. We carefully scanned all of them and did not find any Baer’s Pochard this day. Instead we found 40+ Fulvous Whistling Ducks, a pair of Steppe Eagles, several Asian House Martins in mixed flocks and one Streak-throated Swallow.
Sun was finally out and was shining brightly as we started towards Sylhet. We stopped for lunch and arrived at Hotel in Sylhet at night, had dinner and went to sleep.
Day 08, January 07th :
We started a bit late on this day, had breakfast first and then started towards Kanaighat, another area where I saw Baer’s Pochard last year. That area is also good for many types of grassland birds and also hosts few species of buntings. We arrived at the location and first checked out a bit of a grassland patch. Several Chestnut-eared Buntings flushed and gave great views. We also saw Red Avadavat, Great Myna, Pied Harrier and loads more Asian House Martins. On the Way we saw few Eurasian Tree Sparrows aswell.
We moved on to a more wetland area and found a flock of European starlings roosting. Then a family of 03 Common Cranes in the vast fields. These cranes came here last year as well and it was lovely to see them returning. We continued towards the Marshlands and found that a lot of teals and others huddled in few patches of wetlands. There were very few pochards sadly, we kept looking in hope for a Baikal Teal though but that wasn’t there either. There were loads of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, Swamphens, few Mallards and another beautiful male Falcated Duck. We found more Greater Spotted Eagles soaring here aswell as many Bluethroat. We decided to go check the Bunting Spot again hoping to see more species but sadly again we only found chestnut-eared Buntings. We did some spotlighting after dark and found a pair of Watercocks foraging and few Golden Jackals moving through the fields. We returned to City, had scrumptious dinner and then went back to Hotel for a well deserved Rest.
(Sadly the Yellow-breasted Bunting was not sighted in this trip and somehow sighted 0 times in the whole winter in all of Bangladesh, possibly declining very fast)
Day 09, January 08th :
Early morning, we went to checkout a nearby park but weather was super foggy so did not actually see any notable birds there. Mostly calls and one good view of a Grey-headed Woodpecker. We started return roadtrip towards Satchari NP, checked in the Guest House and sat near the Waterhole in the evening. We got call of Blue-naped Pitta this time and saw Cachar Bulbul coming to drink at the pond.
Day 10, January 09th :
We explored Satchari NP a bit more in the morning, weather was nice this day and bird activity was good. We saw Banded Bay Cuckoo and a male bright Violet Cuckoo near the Tower and more Cachar Bulbuls. Also Blue-naped Pitta was heard again but remained heard only. Van Hasselt’s Sunbird gave beautiful views aswell.
We checked out from the Guest House and started towards Dhaka, arrived at Hotel in Dhaka at around 9PM, had dinner and went home.
Day 11, January 10th :
Early morning we started towards Munshiganj and got on a boat towards a Riverine island. Got stuck at one point due to shallow water but then continued towards the island. We quickly bagged few targets like Indian Silverbill, Oriental Skylark, Sand Lark, Striated Babbler & Loads of White-tailed Stonechat. We hiked for some time but found no Buntings. The Yellow-breasted Bunting remained unseen in this trip.
We found a large flock of Bengal Weavers which was nice, while returning to shore we saw Small Pratincoles, thousands of roosting wagtails etc.
Dropped the guests at the Hotel again. Anton’s flight was next morning so he bid farewell and I went home.
Day 12, January 11th :
I picked up Mehdi early and we went to a nearby Marshland where we saw a good number of birds not anything new. Notable was a Streak-throated Woodpecker. We saw Lesser Bandicoot Rat & more Golden Jackals aswell.
Then we continued towards National Botanical Gardens and spent some time there. Saw a colony of Indian Flying Foxes, Grey-headed Fish Eagles, Whistler’s Warbler, Yellow-vented Warbler, Northern Palm Squirrel etc.
We then had lunch and continued towards the Airport and dropped him off for his evening flight.
We recorded almost 290+ species of Birds in 12 days. Please see the Full eBird Trip Report at https://ebird.org/tripreport/455196
