LanternStay is rated as one of the best bird watching spot for the serious bird watchers in Wayanad.
Approximately 350 types of birds adds a total new dimension to the environment of the forest. The twittering and chirping of these creatures forms the mysterious backdrop of the forest.
With Wayanad having some thick evergreen vegetation and hills, you can see many birds of the western ghats in this region. Here a small incomplete list of birds for a birding trip to Wayanad:
Asian Fairy Blue Bird, Scarlet Minivet, Emerald Dove, Yellow Browed Bulbul, Bar winged flycatcher shrike, Black lored tit, Chestnut tailed starlings, Forest Wagtail, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Plum headed parakeets, lorikeets, and many many more.
Description:
This species is 13 cm long, including the cocked tail. The adult has grey-brown upperparts, which become greyer as the plumage ages, and whitish underparts with brown-tinged flanks. Young birds have scaly brown upperparts, head and breast.
Description:
The Asian fairy bluebird measures 24 to 27 centimetres (9.4 to 10.6 in) in length. The iris is crimson and eyelids pinkish; the bill, legs and claws are black, and mouth a flesh – colour. Marked sexual dimorphism is evident. The male is a shining ultramarine-blue with lilac reflections on its upper plumage, lesser wing coverts, and under tail coverts, while the sides of its head and the whole lower plumage are deep black; greater wing-coverts, quills, and tail black, and some of the coverts tipped with blue, and the middle tail-feathers glossed with blue.
Description:
This small and somewhat long-tailed flycatcher is about 13 centimetres (5.1 in). It is dark steely indigo blue with some violet-blue on the forehead and darker lores. It is much darker than the verditer flycatcher and does not have as strong a contrast in the pale face and black lores. The female is duller with dark brown on the upperparts and dark grey below.
Description:
This species of barbet is found to overlap in range with several larger barbets in most of South Asia. In the Western Ghats, it partly overlaps with the Malabar barbet which is of a very similar size but having a more rapid call. The red forehead, yellow eye-ring and throat patch with streaked underside and green upper parts, it is fairly distinctive. Juveniles are duller and lack the red patches. The sexes are alike. The Sri Lankan form has more black on the face, more red on the breast and darker streaks on the underside.
Description:
This is a tiny bird, 8 cm long, and is one of the smallest birds occurring in most parts of southern India and Sri Lanka. The bird is plain brownish to olive green. The underside is buff olive and does not contrast greatly with the upper parts and not whitish as in the Nilgiri flower pecker of the Western Ghats and Nilgiri hills nor is it streaked as in the thick-billed flower pecker.
Description:
This bird is small (about 8–9 cm long) with yellowish olive upper parts, a white eye ring, yellow throat and vent. The belly is whitish grey but may have yellow in some subspecies. The sexes look similar. The population in the Western Ghats and hills of southern India is placed in nilgiriensis while salimalii of the Eastern Ghats hills is sometimes subsumed into the nominate race.
Description:
In Southern India, nesting activity begins from February and rises to a peak in May. The eggs hatch after an incubation period of 12 to 13 days and the chicks fledge after about 11 or 12 days. Nest predators include birds of prey (black-winged kite), Adults of square-tailed bulbul have been known to be preyed on by the crested goshawk. Populations make movements in response to the monsoon.
Description:
Like many other barbets of Asia, these are green, sit still and perch upright making them difficult to spot. During the breeding season which begins at the start of summer their calls become loud and constant especially in the mornings. The call, a monotonous Kot-roo … Kotroo… starting with an explosive trrr is not easily differentiated from that of the brown-headed barbet.
Description:
Across their range, populations differ in the shades of the colours and vary slightly in dimensions and several of these have been designated as subspecies. The nominate subspecies breeds in peninsular India in the hills of the Western Ghats, Nilgiris, central Indiaand the Eastern Ghats and Sri Lanka. This bird was earlier considered to be an Old World flycatcher in spite of its odd crest, colours and nature of vocalization.
Description:
This large thrush appears blackish with shiny patches of blue on the forehead and shoulders. The blue becomes visible only in oblique lighting. The bill and legs are black. The sexes are indistinguishable and juveniles are more brownish and lack the blue forehead.
Description:
The common rosefinch is larger than a sparrow. It has a stout and conical bill. The mature male has brilliant rosy-carmine head, breast and rump; heavy bill; dark brown wings with two indistinct bars, and a white belly. Females and young males are dull-colored with yellowish-brown above, brighter on the rump and greyer on head; buff below.
Description:
The adult males are intense blue on all areas of the body, except for the black eye-patch and grey vent. Adult females and sub-adults are lighter blue. They are also interesting among the flycatchers in that they forage above the canopy level and perching on electric wires or exposed tree top branches.
Description:
The red-whiskered bulbul is about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in length. It has brown upper-parts and whitish underparts with buff flanks and a dark spur running onto the breast at shoulder level. It has a tall pointed black crest, red face patch and thin black moustachial line. The tail is long and brown with white terminal feather tips, but the vent area is red.The loud and evocative call is a sharp kink-a-joo and the song is a scolding chatter. It is more often heard than seen, but will often perch conspicuously especially in the mornings when they call from the tops of trees. The life span is about 11 years.
Description:
The red-vented bulbul is easily identified by its short crest giving the head a squarish appearance. The body is dark brown with a scaly pattern while the head is darker or black. The rump is white while the vent is red. The black tail is tipped in white. The Himalayan races have a more prominent crest and are more streaked on the underside.
Description:
The black-naped oriole is medium sized and overall golden with a strong pinkish bill and a broad black mask and nape. The adult male has the central tail feathers tipped yellow and the lateral ones are more broadly yellow. The female has the mantle colour more greenish or olive. The juvenile has a streaked underside. The nestling has dull greenish with brown streaks. The head and nape are more yellowish and the undertail coverts are yellow.
Description:
This flycatcher is about 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long and has a longish beak. It forages in the undergrowth in the shade of dense forest canopy where it makes aerial forays to capture insects. The male is indigo blue with ultramarine blue supercilium and forehad. The lores and face are dark grey. The belly is white and bordered by smoky grey wash. The female is olive brown above with whitish lores. The rufous throat and breast fades to white towards the belly. The female has a chestnut tail and can be told apart from other flycatchers like by the lack of the black and white tail pattern.
Description:
This bird is glossy black with a wide fork to the tail. Adults usually have a small white spot at the base of the gape. The iris is dark brown (not crimson as in the similar ashy drongo). The sexes cannot be told apart in the field. Juveniles are brownish and may have some white barring or speckling towards the belly and vent, and can be mistaken for the white-bellied drongo. They are aggressive and fearless birds.
Description:
The grey-fronted green pigeon usually occurs singly or in small groups. Its flight is fast and direct, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings that are characteristic of pigeons in general. It eats the seeds and fruits of a wide variety of plants. It builds a stick nest in a tree and lays two white eggs.
Description:
This slim wagtail has a narrow white supercilium and a broken eye ring. The upperparts are grey and the yellow vent contrasting with whitish underparts makes it distinctive. The breeding male has a black throat that is edged by whitish moustachial stripes. They forage singly or in pairs on meadows or on shallow water marshes. They also use rocks in water and will often perch on trees. They have a clear sharp call note and the song consists of trills.
Description:
A distinctly coloured bird found mainly in the high-elevation areas of the Western Ghats, the Nilgiris, thePalnis and associated hill ranges. The male is distinctly black headed with black wings. The female has the black replaced by dark brown and has a light eye-ring. They are usually seen singly or in pairs.
Description:
The male has black upperparts and head, and orange underparts, tail edges, rump and wing patches. The shape and colour of the wing patches and the shade or orange in the male varies across populations. The female is grey above, with yellow underparts (including the face), tail edges, rump and wing patches.
Description:
This bulbul is about 20 cm (7 inches) long, lacks a crest and has the upperparts olive green with a prominent yellow brow and goggle with the underparts being all yellow. The sexes do not differ in plumage. The bill is black and the iris is reddish brown. The population in the northern Western Ghats (ssp. icterica) is paler yellow than the populations further south (ssp. indica).
Other populations, especially those across the lower Himalayas, remain in their native regions year-round and breed there. The species is also an occasional vagrant to other areas in India.
Description:
The Malabar grey hornbill is a large bird, but mid-sized for a hornbill, at 45 to 58 cm (18 to 23 in) in length. It has a 23 cm (9.1 in) tail and pale or yellowish to orange bill. Males have a reddish bill with a yellow tip, while the females have a plain yellow bill with black at the base of the lower mandible and a black stripe along the culmen. They show a broad whitish superciliary band above the eye, running down to the neck. They fly with a strong flap and glide flight and hop around heavily on the outer branches of large fruiting trees. They have brown-grey wings, a white carpal patch and black primary flight feathers tipped with white.
The orange-headed thrush is omnivorous, eating a wide range of insects, earthworms and fruit. It nests in trees but does not form flocks.The male of this small thrush has uniform grey upperparts, and an orange head and underparts. The females and young birds have browner upper parts.
Description:
Pittas are among the few Old Worldsuboscine birds. The Indian pitta is the basal member of a distinct clade that includes many of the Oriental species. The Indian pitta is a small stubby-tailed bird that is mostly seen on the floor of forests or under dense undergrowth, foraging on insects in leaf litter. It has long, strong legs, a very short tail and stout bill, with a buff coloured crown stripe, black coronal stripes, a thick black eye stripe and white throat and neck.
Description:
It is a resident breeder of all types of woods, although open evergreen forest is the optimal habitat.It has the ability, like other nuthatches, to climb down trees, unlike species such as woodpeckers which can only go upwards. It is an active feeder on insects and spiders, and may be found in mixed feeding flocks with other passerines.
Description:
This drongo is black without any glossy on the upperside and greyish on the throat and breast while the belly and vent are entirely white in the Indian form which is the nominate subspecies. The fork of the tail is less deep than in the black drongo which is often seen in the same habitats. Young black drongo’s can have a lot of white on the underside but it is usually scaly in appearance.
Description:
The adult ashy drongo is mainly dark grey, and the tail is long and deeply forked, There are a number of subspecies varying in the shade of the grey plumage. Some subspecies have white markings on the head. Young birds are dull brownish grey.
Description:
This drongo is somewhat smaller than the black drongo and has more metallic gloss with a spangled appearance on the head, neck and breast. The lores are velvety and the ear coverts are duller. The tail is slender and well forked with the outer tail feathers flaring outward slightly. Immatures have their axillaries tipped in white.
Description:
This long-winged raptor is predominantly grey or white with black shoulder patches, wing tips and eye stripe. The long falcon-like wings extend beyond the tail when the bird is perched. In flight, the short and square tail is visible and it is not forked as in the typical kites of the genus Milvus. When perched, often on roadside wires, it often adjusts its wings and jerks its tail up and down as if to balance itself. The sexes are alike in plumage. Their large forward-facing eyes and velvety plumage are characters that are shared with owls and the genus itself has been considered as a basal group within the Accipitridae.
Description:
The most distinctive feature of this 22 cm long bird is the long down-curved yellow bill which is blackish at the base of the upper mandible. It has a striking head pattern, with a long white supercilum above a broad black band through the eye. The white throat and breast contrast with the dark greyish brown on the upperside and dark grey to black on most of the underside. The tail is broad, long and graduated. They have short, round wings and being weak fliers are rarely seen flying in the open.
Description:
This bird is a medium-sized raptor (29 to 36 cm) with short broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to fast manoeuvring. The normal flight of this species is a characteristic “flap–flap–glide”, and the barred underwings are a distinction from the shikra, A. badius.This species is like a darker version of the widespread shikra, but all plumages have a dark vertical throat stripe. The adult male besra has dark blue-grey upperparts, and is white, barred reddish below. The larger female is browner above than the male.
Description:
The shikra is a small raptor (26–30 cm long) and like most other Accipiter hawks, this species has short rounded wings and a narrow and somewhat long tail. Adults are whitish on the underside with fine rufous bars while the upperparts are grey. The lower belly is less barred and the thighs are whitish. Males have a red iris while the females have a less red (yellowish orange) iris and brownish upperparts apart from heavier barring on the underparts. The females are slightly larger. The mesial stripe on the throat is dark but narrow.
Description:
In all plumages the yellow rump is distinctive. The white supercilium of the male is distinctive, separating it from the narcissus flycatcher and the Chinese flycatcher. Females and first year males are olive grey above with blackish tail. The breeding area of the species is in Eastern Asia. North Korea and China. The nesting in Xiaoxingan region is mainly in May and June. They breed mainly in low valleys at the base of hills. The home range of a pair can be about 2000-5000 sq. m. The nest is built in about three to four days by the female alone. The cluctch is about 4-7 eggs which are incubated by the female for about 11–12 days.
Description:
This chat-like bird is long-legged and appears chunky with its short tail and wing. Although sharing similar habits and shape, the two species differ in plumage and both may show slight sexual dimorphism. Females may differ from males in iris colour at least in M. albiventris. The Nilgiri blue robin (M. major) has the lores black and the upperside, the throat, breast are dark slaty blue but the lower plumage is rufous. The centre of the belly is buffy white. The brow is not as well-marked as in the other species and is diffuse bluish.
Description:
This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America. But although it has colonized a few oceanic islands, vagrant individuals are generally rare; in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.
Description:
The male has a black cape with ochre spots and the body plumage on a grey ground colour is finely patterned. The elongated neck feathers are dark and end in a small, hard, yellowish plate; this peculiar structure making them popular for making high-grade artificial flies. The female is duller and has black and white streaking on the underparts and yellow legs.
Description:
In most of its range in Asia, this is the largest of the drongo species and is readily identifiable by the distinctive tail rackets and the crest of curled feather that begin in front of the face above the beak and along the crown to varying extents according to the subspecies. The tail with twirled rackets is distinctive and in flight it can appear as if two large bees were chasing a black bird. In the eastern Himalayas the species can be confused with the lesser racket-tailed drongo, however the latter has flat rackets with the crest nearly absent.
Description:
The black eagle breeds in tropical Asia. Race perniger (Hodgson, 1836) is found in the Himalayan foothills west through Nepal into northeastern Murree in the forests of the Eastern and Western Ghats in peninsular India and Sri Lanka.The species also extends into the Aravalli range of northwestern India.
The black eagle is a large raptor at about 70–80 cm in length and 164–178 cm in wingspan, with a weight of between 1000 and 1600 grams.
Description:
The common woodshrike is dully ashy brown and like other woodshrikes has a large head with a strong hooked beak. They have a broad creamy brow above a dark cheek patch and white outer tail feathers contrasting with their dark tail.
Description:
This is a distinctive wagtail, the only one placed in the genusDendronanthus (all other wagtails are placed in Motacilla). The forest wagtail is 18 cm in length, a slender bird with a long tail. The back and crown are olive brown, and the wings are black with two yellow wing bars and white tertial edges. There is a white supercilium, above a dark stripe through the eye. The underparts are white, apart from a black double breast band. The upper breast band is bib-like while the lower band is often broken. Sexes are similar. Young birds are more yellowish on the underside.
Description:
This pigeon appears dark grey and a black and white patterned patch made of white tipped stiff feathers on the back of the neck is distinctive. The mantle is chestnut. The male has a paler grey crown while the female has a darker grey crown with a pale throat. The most confusable other species is the mountain imperial pigeon but that species has paler underwing coverts. The feet and the base of the bill are red.
Description:
Description:
It is an easy tit to recognise in most of India, large in size at 13 cm, with a broad black line (broader in the male) down its otherwise yellow front. The large crest, neck, throat and head are black with yellow cheeks and supercilia. Upperparts are olive-green. It has two white or yellowish wing bars and white outer tail feathers. Females and young birds are duller than males.
Description:
These 23-centimetre (9.1 in) long birds have grey plumage, darker on the head and wings. There are large white wing patches obvious in flight, and a white tail tip. The head has a forehead tuft. The bill and strong legs are bright yellow, and there is no bare skin around eye. The southern Indian race has a blue iris. The sexes are similar, but juveniles are browner. They are usually found close to water or rice fields. Like most starlings, the jungle myna is fairly omnivorous, eating fruit, grain and insects
Description:
This medium-large, dark brown eagle is stocky, with rounded wings and a short tail. Its short black and white fan-shaped nuchal crest gives it a thick-necked appearance. The bare facial skin and feet are yellow. The underside is spotted with white and yellowish-brown. When perched the wing tips do not reach until the tail tip. In soaring flight, the broad and paddle-shaped wings are held in a shallow V. The tail and underside of the flight feathers are black with broad white bars.
Description:
This is a stocky jet-black myna, with bright orange-yellow patches of naked skin and fleshy wattles on the side of its head and nape. At about 29 cm length, it is somewhat larger than the common myna. It is overall green-glossed black plumage, purple-tinged on the head and neck. Its large, white wing patches are obvious in flight, but mostly covered when the bird is sitting. The bill and strong legs are bright yellow, and there are yellow wattles on the nape and under the eye.
Description:
The blue-winged parakeet is bluish grey with a long yellow-tipped tail. The black neck ring is complete in both males and females. The male has a bluish-green lower edge to the black collar and the upper mandible is red with a white tip while the female has an all black bill and has only the black collar. The female looks similar to the female of the plum-headed parakeet which however can be told apart by its broad yellow collar.
Description:
The mountain imperial pigeon is the largest pigeon species in its range at 43–51 cm (17–20 in) long. It has a fairly long tail, broad, rounded wings and slow wing-beats. The head, neck and underparts are vinous-grey with a contrasting white throat and brownish-maroon upperparts and wings, though the upper part of the body can be duller. The underwing is slate-grey and the tail is blackish with a grey horizontal line. The combination the maroon back with the large size give this species a distinctive appearance. Its call consists of a deep, resonant boom that is only detectable at close range.
Description:
The greater flameback is a large woodpecker, at 33 cm in length. It is of typical woodpecker shape, has an erect crest and a long neck. Coloration is highly variable between subspecies; it always has unmarked golden-yellow to dark brown back and wings. The rump is red and the tail is black. The underparts are white with dark markings (chevrons, stripes, or bands), or light brown. The head is whitish with a black pattern, or it is yellow, brown or red. The straight pointed bill is long (longer than the head) and – like the legs and four-toed zygodactyl feet (two toes pointing forward, two backward) – lead-grey. The eyes’ irides are whitish to yellow.
Description:
The plum-headed parakeet is a mainly green parrot, 33 cm long with a tail up to 22 cm. The male has a red head which shades to purple-blue on the back of the crown, nape and cheeks while the female has blueish-gray head. There is a narrow black neck collar with verdigris below on the nape and a black chin stripe that extends from the lower mandible.
Description:
This small passerinebird is a species found in scrub or clearings, often near water, but it is not found in marshes. 4-6 eggs are laid in a nest in a bush. This is a medium-sized warbler, 12.5-14 cm in length. The adult has a plain brown back and pale underparts. It can easily be confused with reed warbler, marsh warbler and some of the Hippolais warblers. It is most like reed warbler but is greyer on the back, the forehead is less flattened and the bill is less strong and pointed. The sexes are identical, as with most warblers, but young birds are yellower below.
Description:
A small, uniquely shaped, black and buff woodpecker with a large crest making the head look large for the short body and tail. Both males and females are predominantly black with heart-shaped black spots on white shoulders with broad white scapular patches and barring of flight feathers. The female has the forehead and crown buffy white while it is black on males. The throat is whitish and the underparts are dark olive grey. A tuft of feathers on the back are specialized and are lipid rich which causes the feathers to stick together in preserved specimens.
Description:
Its habitat is forest and scrub. It builds its nest in a tree, laying 2-3 eggs. This species eats insects and berries.The adult is green-bodied with a black face and throat bordered with yellow. It has an orange forehead and blue moustachial line, but lacks the blue flight feathers and tail sides of blue-winged leafbird. Young birds have a plain green head.The southern Indian race, C. a. frontalis, has a narrower yellow border to black face. The throat is black and it has a blue sub-moustachial stripe and duller orange forehead.
Description:
This raptor has short broad wings and a long tail, both adaptations to manoeuvring through trees. It is 30–46 cm in length, with the female much larger than the male. The larger size and a short crest, clearly visible in profile, are the best distinctions from its relative, the besra (A. virgatus).
The male has a dark brown crown, grey head sides and black moustachial and throat stripes. The pale underparts are patterned with rufous streaks on the breast and bars on the belly. The larger female has a browner head and brown underpart streaks and bars. The juvenile has pale fringes to its head feathers, and the underpart background colour is buff rather than white.
Description:
It builds its nest in a tree, and lays 2–3 eggs. This species eats insects, fruit and nectar.The male is green-bodied with a yellow-tinged head, black face and throat. It has a blue moustachial line. The female differs in that it has a greener head and blue throat, and young birds are like the female but without the blue throat patch.Like other leafbirds, the call of Jerdon’sleafbird consists of a rich mixture of imitations of the calls of various other species of birds.