Birding experience in the land of Guras.
Sikkim is a rich place for bird watching and nature study. Not only that, entire Sikkim is enriched with so many beautiful spots. It is a den of beautiful and colorful Himalayan birds. It seems to be a treat to eyes to watch them in their original habitat. West Sikkim Birds are the most beautiful treat to eyes.
West Sikkim Birds – How to choose the birding spots of West Sikkim
✔ Choosing a good place from a wide range of birding hotspots in Sikkim is very important. The plan should be very concrete and precise.
✔ It is a good option to choose the destinations by checking the published bird lists in Ebird by various observers. If you want to go particularly for West Sikkim Birds, set up your location for it.
Choosing a time to visit in West Sikkim
March and April is a good time when we can find an ample number of birds, mostly in breeding plumage or making nests. It is a time when we can find birds amidst of different colorful Rhododendron, Magnolia etc.
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Choosing the accommodation
Sikkim is a place where there is a good scope of en-route birding while we travel from one place to another by car. Though it is not recommended to travel a lot while doing birding, because morning sessions are very important. If we stay closer to our birding destination then it will be easier to do birding from the very beginning of the day.
Places we covered
Our total 7 days itinerary was as follows
Day 1 : Train from Sealdah station.
Day 2 : Reached to NJP station and went to Okhrey hotel at evening.
Day 3 : Morning bird watching session at okhrey, a beautiful Himalayan hamlet where birding experience was very enriching. It is a beautiful place where we did bird watching, nature study and sightseeing at local monastery.
In the same day we were transferred to Hiley by car. From there we started our trekking through Versay rhododendron sanctuary. Night stay at Versay guraskunj.
Day 4 : Morning bird watching session at Versey and come down to Okhrey via Hiley. From there we headed towards Hee-Patal.
Versey is a true paradise of different kind of birds. The entire road was very nice and picturesque. Trekking was never tough. Versey top and Guraskunj was very beautiful which was surrounded by Rhododendron and gigantic massiveness of Himalayan peaks including Kanchenjunga, Mount Pandim etc.
Day 5 : Morning bird watching session in Hee-Patal and Sightseeing in Uttaray.
Day 6 : Morning bird watching session in Hee-Patal and checked out from hotel and come down to NJP to get the train.
Day 7 : Reached Sealdah station.
For us, it was a super successful trip in terms of bird-watching and species collection. We got at least 56 unique bird species in our West Sikkim birding trip on mid-April 2018. We covered Okhrey, Versay, Hee-Patal, Uttarey and adjoining areas.
Full list:
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1) Chestnut crowned laughingthrush
2) Striated laughingthrush
3) Spotted Laughingthrush
4) Black faced laughingthrush
5) Yellow backed tit
6) Black-throated bushtit
7) Blue whistling thrush
8 ) White collared thrush
9) Tickell’s thrush
10) Verditer Flycatcher
11) Grey-headed canary-flycatcher
12) Rufous gorgeted flycatcher
13) Little pied flycatcher
14) Dark sided flycatcher
15) Olive backed Pipit
16) Rosy Pipit
17) White throated fantail
18) Rufous bellied niltava (Male)
19) Red billed leiothrix
20) Bar throated siva
21) Blue winged siva
22) Oriental turtle dove
23) Russet sparrow (Male & Female)
24) White Browed Fulvetta
25) Common rosefinch (Male & Female)
26) Spot-winged rosefinch (Female)
27) Gold-naped finch (Female)
28) Blyth’s Leaf Warbler
29) Whistler’s warbler
30) Greenish Warbler
31) Yellow billed blue magpie
32) Himalayan bluetail female
33) Green crowned warbler
34) Rufous vented yuhina
35) Whiskered Yuhina (Male)
36) Stripe-throated Yuhina
37) Blue fronted redstart (Female)
38) Fire tailed sunbird (Male & Female)
39) Green tailed sunbird (Male & Female)
40) Mrs Gould’s Sunbird (Male & Female)
41) Plumbeous water redstart (Male)
42) Scarlet minivet (Male & Female)
43) Sprangled drongo
44) Black drongo
45) Himalayan barbet
46) Himalayan bulbul
47) Black bulbul
48) Grey wagtail
49) Grey winged blackbird (Female)
50) Rufous sibia
51) Nortern raven
52) Blue capped rockthrush (Male)
53) Grey bushchat (Male & Female)
54) White-tailed nuthatch
55) Fire breasted flowerpecker (Male)
56) Siberian Stonechat (Female)
It was time taking to publish the final bird list, because of the huge number of photos and a splendid collection of birds.
Weather was sunny and good enough but partly cloudy sometimes, so got some record shots apart from some really good one.
How to reach
Sikkim is well connected with the rest of the country. Nearest railway station is New Jalpaiguri. From Howrah it is more easier to reach Sikkim by a overnight train journey to NJP station.
Pakyong Airport is a greenfield airport near Gangtok, the state capital of Sikkim, India. The airport, spread over 400 ha (990 acres), is located at Pakyong town about 35km (22 mi) south of Gangtok. At 4500 ft, Pakyong Airport is one of the five highest airports in India. It is inaugurated in the year 2018.
Want to know more about Himalayan birds? Read this article on Pangot – Sattal Birdwatching trip
Our birding tour was arranged by NorthEastTravels
Very nicely written in lucid way..photography is very good.
I expect many more informatic writings like this…thank you
Dada, Thank you very much. Your appreciation means a lot. 🙂