Mumbai CEC – Mumbai Birdwatching

Birding experience in Mumbai CEC – BNHS

Conservation Education Center of BNHS is a green limb of the very busy Mumbai city. It is situated in Goregaon. The total area of the place is 33 acre. In 1983, the Maharashtra Government, at the behest of the Government of India, offered the land in recognition of the Society’s 100 years of service in nature conservation.

When I started my ornithology course one year before, I didn’t have the clue that the total journey of this one year would be such happening with lots of birds and beautiful memories of learning.

I initially thought I may not manage my time for the wrap-up camp. I immediately changed my mind when I came to know that it would be arranged in Mumbai CEC. I have heard before that it is a very nice place to watch forest birds.

‘Good morning. How are you?’ One of my batchmates asked me with a big jovial smile. The morning was quite pleasant in and around CEC. I kept my backpack in the auditorium and decided to go for a birding session in temple trail.

Suddenly I got a message in our course whatsapp group ‘ODKF’ seen!! Those four letters were strong enough to change my direction towards CEC kitchen.

There was a small shallow waterhole just beside the kitchen where many birds usually come once or twice or throughout the hot summer days to drink water and to take bath.

We started our morning birding session around 8 am. We covered Leopard trail and Karbi trail with our respective faculty Dr. Raju Kasambe sir and education officer Priyanka Jundare. It was an enriching session while we were watching birds and gathering knowledge about their habitat. Bird activity was not so good, as it was a hot humid day.

First, we met with a couple of Puff throated babbler that were roaming on the ground in the dry leaves. I never have seen this bird before. Sir told us that they have a beautiful singing quality, though we couldn’t have the chance to hear them.

Forest calotes was a distinct looking lizard with the orange upper part and black body. It was easy to photograph them, as they were never in a hurry. We got many calotes during our whole trail.

The jungle was a dry deciduous forest. Leafless dryness prevailed all over the forest. Sir pointed to a dark hole under the pile of stones.

It was a colony of Social spiders. Generally, most of the spiders stay alone and they are aggressive towards the other members of their family. Social spiders are exceptional. They stay together. There were thousands of individuals in the same group. It was not easy to photograph the colony because of the darkness in the hole. Some spiders came out and I clicked those somehow.

Yellow-throated sparrow or Chestnut shouldered petronia is a common bird in that area. It was first identified by Salim Ali in his early days when he started Ornithology. So this bird also called ‘Salim Ali bird’

There are 6 different individual leopards move in this area. There are many camera traps around the jungle. We got droppings of leopards in different places. It has some fur, so we concluded that particular leopard had eaten wild bore or civet.

Leopards are identified with their rossetts. Rossetts in their legs are different than other individuals but sometimes siblings have 90% similarity in leg rossetts. Under belly rossetts are different for all the leopards. It is like the human fingerprint that is unique in every individual.

Some observations of trees that we come across –

Woody Liana – After the monsoon, this tree becomes fuller with lush green leaves. Presence of this tree in a forest is a sign of healthy forest.

Ghost tree – The Indian ghost tree or Sterculia urens is a tree that has whitish bark. The thin skin of the bark was called ‘Bhurjyopotro’ and used to write a letter in ancient time. The thick bark was also used for writing purpose.

Morinda plant – The tree has a distinct looking fruit. There was an old myth in tribal people that this fruit could be used to make people vomit after a snake bite.

The story of Passion flower is quite interesting. It is the host plant of Tawny coaster butterfly. The plant is a bit poisonous that only can be tolerated by this particular butterfly. They lay eggs on this plant in a high number.

The plant wants to save itself from a large number of the caterpillar of the butterfly. So it had small honey pots just beneath the leaves. Ants come to have the nectar and eat larvae sometimes.

So the number of caterpillar and butterfly gets reduced. A strange process of nature to keep everything in balance.

After breakfast, we were honored to receive a presentation by Dr.Girish Jathar sir, (Assistant Director, Climate Change and Ornithology – Bombay Natural History Society) about the process of publishing a scientific paper.

We got an excellent presentation and a field study by Dr. Raju Sir about Ornithophily. Ornithophily or bird pollination is the pollination of flowering plants by birds.
Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the genetic information to produce a new plant. Pollinating agents are animals such as insects, birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves

Flowers are the tools that plants use to make their seeds. Flowers are a kind of advertisement to the pollinating agents. We have learned about different flowers and their preferred mode of pollination. Birds are attracted by colorful flowers especially red.

Fire bush (Hamelia patens) and Firecrackers (Russelia) app. are those flowers which were structurally adopted the beak of a sunbird. The only sunbird can take out nectar from those flowers.

Insects usually go for yellow flowers like Tecoma app. and Wedelia etc. Widelia trilobata is a suffocating weed. Widelia chinensis is a medicinal plant used in traditional medicine for hepatic and pancreatic illness.

Butterflies love small colourful flowers like Pentas, Caesalpinia spp. from which they can collect nectar easily and pollens attached with their body parts and become ready to be spread.

Moths get attracted by the white colored flowers which have a vivid fragrance and bloom at night. Some flowers like Combretum indicum can only be reached by the moth’s antenna.

It is also quite interesting to know that some flowers don’t even release nectar if their preferred agents don’t come.

After the powerpoint presentations of the course participants and certificate distribution we started birding again.

Here is the list of birds we got during the morning and evening birding session in CEC.

Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)	2
Asian Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica)	1
Greater Coucal (Southern) (Centropus sinensis parroti)	1
Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus)	1
Black Kite (Milvus migrans)	2
Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca)	1
White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)	1
Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis)	1
Coppersmith Barbet (Psilopogon haemacephalus)	1
Rufous Woodpecker (Micropternus brachyurus)	1
Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia)	1
Spot-breasted Fantail (Rhipidura albogularis)	1
Black-naped Monarch (Hypothymis azurea)	1
Large-billed Crow (Indian Jungle) (Corvus macrorhynchos culminatus)	2
Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus)	1
Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius)	1
Gray-breasted Prinia (Prinia hodgsonii)	1
Tawny-bellied Babbler (Dumetia hyperythra)	4
Puff-throated Babbler (Pellorneum ruficeps)	1
Jungle Babbler (Turdoides striata)	2
Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis)	1
White-rumped Shama (Copsychus malabaricus)	1
Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis tickelliae)	2
Orange-headed Thrush (Geokichla citrina)	2
Purple-rumped Sunbird (Leptocoma zeylonica)	1
Long-billed Sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius)	1
Chestnut-shouldered Petronia (Gymnornis xanthocollis)	1

Next day I went to CEC again for birding and got almost all those species from yesterday. This day had an addition of White browed bulbul.

Anting is a self-anointing behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin. The bird may pick up the insects in their bill and rub them on the body (active anting), or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements (passive anting). The insects secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid, which can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, or bactericide. Alternatively, anting could make the insects edible by removing the distasteful acid, or, possibly supplement the bird’s own preen oil. A spotted dove was performing ‘Passive Anting Behaviour’. It was spreading its’ wings and wanted the ants to climb on the feathers and bite.

The day well spent in the mid of the secluded forest trail and warm friendliness of BNHS education officers, professors and other staffs. The knowledge sharing of this short trip was enormous. I learned that birding is not all about watching birds blindly and photograph their colorful feathers. It is about analyzing their activity and understanding their behavior as well as trying to interpret the mysteries of nature with our own intelligence.

Visiting BNHS CEC, Goregaon (East), Mumbai

Timings: 7am to 0600pm.

Entry fees: Rs.150/- on weekdays. Rs.200/- on Sundays.
No separate camera charges.

Note: No entry fees to BNHS members carrying valid membership card with them.

The fees is not for seeing any specific species. It’s regular entry fee.

If you are coming at 7am, we suggest you inform the given phone numbers in advance.

A group of 10 paid visitors can get a guide, free of cost.

Phone numbers:
Landline: +91 22 2842 9477
Mobile: +91 95 94 929107.

Location in Google Maps to locate/reach the Centre

Conservation Education Centre Of BNHS
Film City, Goregaon East, Mumbai suburban, Film City Complex, Aarey Colony, Goregaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400065
022 2282 1811

https://maps.app.goo.gl/PEzh2ynsjJ9yFdEr5