Birding/ Bird watching in Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park and Ranibari Community Forest, Kathmandu, Nepal

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ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

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คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

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E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

Birding/ Bird watching in Kathmandu Valley

Sunday 8 ^th of April 2018 and the Tiger Tops Representative was in the restaurant when I came down for breakfast. Surprising as I had not expected him to come today. But he was here to introduce me for the birding guide.

We left Hotel Yak and Yeti and we were soon going up the mountain, on a very bad road. It is not pleasant to ride on the road and it took about an hour to reach the gate to the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park. And of course, we have to pay an entrance fee, as everywhere else. You might think they could hire someone to clean up the places with the money, or even better, to teach the people not to throw their garbage all over the place.

You are allowed to drive your car in the park, all the way up to the monastery. That’s how long you can drive with your car. But we parked the car at the parking lot next to the ticket office.

The road leading up to Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park

The gate to Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park

Ticket office at Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park

Parking area and ticket office at Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park

Blue Whistling Thrush , कल्चौँडे, Myophonus caeruleus eugenei

Click HERE for a full window map

We spot a Blue whistling thrush as soon as we step out of the car. My Guide goes to buy the ticket and I pass through the gate I walk around waiting for my Guide and the ticket. I spot a Female Plumbeous Water Redstart on a pile of timber. Mouth full of food and she is calling, or “twitting” She disappears in to a tree where she have a nest with babies that she is feeding.

We see the male but he is flying around collecting food so we cannot get a picture of him. But we will be back. We go behind a small hill where there is a stream. And the Spotted Fork Tail loves the streams so we go to have a look.

We walk on the walk path over the hill and on the other side there is a stream, well, two streams going down to a pond/ pool. We found 2 Spotted Forktails but the light was very bad so I had a crazy ISO speed and the pictures wasn't any good.

Female Plumbeous Water Redstart , नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Female Plumbeous Water Redstart, नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Listen to the Plumbeous Water Redstart - The background bird is a Blue-throated Barbet

Own recording from Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park - 8 April 2018

Also available at www.xeno-canto.org by clicking HERE

Remarks from the Recordist

Female, with her bill full of food. She was feeding her babies and she stopped on a pile of timber to call before she flew in to the nest.

We can hear another "TWIT" on the recording and I think this is the babies in the nest. The male was also out collecting food for the babies

We're looking for the Spotted Forktail

Spotted Forktail - थोप्ले खोलेधोबिनी

The streams behind the hill

The streams behind the hill

Male Plumbeous Water Redstart - नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

We walked back to the Plumbeous Water Redstart area and I saw the male Plumbeous Water Redstart trying to catch food. We started to walk up the mountain and we passed a military post or whatever it was. We spotted a male White-capped redstart on the road side outside the military thing. They soldier told me that it wasn't allowed to take pictures of any military installations. My Guide told him to relax.
- We're only here for the birds, he said.

The soldier didn't bother with us anymore, but the bird was now sitting too far away so the pictures was not anything to brag about. We continue our walk up the mountain and we're soon running in to a Female and a male Long-tailed Minivet. And the Minivets are scared as usual so the pictures turns in to, yeah, well, sh**.

White-capped Redstart or White-capped Water Redstart

Female and male Long-tailed Minivet

My Guide calls the driver and he come to pick us up

There is many birds to be seen in the mountains, but not so many pictures. We see the beautiful Black-throated bushtit among others.
Small Niltava
Oriental White-eye
Grey treepie
Grey-winged blackbird
Speckled Piculet

My Guide call the driver and he comes to pick us up. We continue up the mountain for 5 or 10 minutes before we stop and we get out of the car. The car stay behind and we continue our walk up the mountain. We end up at a place with a gorgeous view over the Kathmandu Valley. And it is amazing, we could heard the dogs in the village all the way up in the mountains.

View over Kathmandu Valley

Himalayan Bulbul - जुल्फे जुरेली

Himalayan Bulbul - जुल्फे जुरेली

Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park

Not the best roads

We park the car and walk

We can hear the dogs all the way from the village

Grey-hooded Warbler - तुमुलकारी फिस्टो

Grey-hooded Warbler - तुमुलकारी फिस्टो

Golden-throated Barbet - कुक्लुङ्ग

We reach the helipad

We turn around when we reach the helipad area. We have our lunch picnic style on the way back to the gate. We spotted a lot of birds but I never managed to get any good pictures. I really would have love to have pictures of the Small Niltava and the Black-throated bushtit.

We walked around after the lunch trying to get pictures of the Black-throated bushtit and the Small Niltava but they disappeared as soon as I approached. We left the mountain and we will stop at the gate and I will go to see if I can find the Spotted Forktail.

I was not very happy with the pictures from this morning. We drove down the mountain with a few stops looking for birds. When we came to the military thing I asked the Driver to stop. I will see if I can find White-capped Redstart again as I was not happy with the pictures from this morning.

So I will walk from here to the gate and the car will wait on the parking lot. So I stepped out of the car with my fingers crossedand I will hopefully get both the White-capped Redstart and the Spotted Forktail down at the stream.

Lunch in the wild

Male Plumbeous Water Redstart - नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Male Plumbeous Water Redstart - नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Male Plumbeous Water Redstart - नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Spotted Forktail, Enicurus maculatus - थोप्ले खोलेधोबिनी

Male Plumbeous Water Redstart - नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Male Plumbeous Water Redstart - नीलाम्बर जलखञ्जरी

Black-throated Sunbird - कालीकण्ठ बुङ्गेचरा

Black-throated Sunbird - कालीकण्ठ बुङ्गेचरा

Leaving the park walking out the gate and we discovered a Black-throated Sunbird in the bushes inside another gate. Full black bird but when the bird came out in the sunshine it was bronze coloured, very beautiful. A lady came to open the gate for us and when the bird was in the bushes it was red, blue and purple. Very beautiful!

We will stop at the Ranibari Community Forest to have a look for the Orange-headed Thrush, a very beautiful bird. I should have known about this place yesterday and I could have gone there to have a look. Took us 45 minutes or so to reach the Ranibari Community Forest, not far away from the Indian Embassy.

We have to pay an entrance fee, of course, no surprise. Are they removing the garbage? That will surprise me! We walk up the stairs to the gate and ticket booth and we spot a Spotted Owlet first thing. But the bird flew away.

Stairs to the Ranibari Community Forest

The gate

Inside the gate

Verditer flycatcher - नीलतुथो अर्जुनक

Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch - कटुसे मट्टा

We continued on the walk path around the park and we spotted a Verditer flycatcher but the bird flew away before I could get a picture. I got a bad picture of a Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch against the sun light. We were soon running in to two Brown Hawk-Owl. They were hiding in a tree so it was next to impossible to get any picture with the available light.

But no signs of any the Orange-headed Thrush. We came to the north part of the Ranibari Community Forest passing some police or military training just outside the forest. And there was dogs barking making it impossible to record the Blue-throated blue flycatcher we ran in to on the West side of the park.

I tried and after many tries I only got a few seconds, with a Crow interrupting. Better than nothing. Dogs, Crows and the Blue-throated Barbets in every tree disturbing.

Brown Hawk-Owl - कालपेचक

Listen to the Blue-throated blue flycatcher - The very bird you can see below

Own recording from Ranibari Community Forest - 8 April 2018

Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher - नीलकण्ठे अर्जुनक

Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher - नीलकण्ठे अर्जुनक

Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher - नीलकण्ठे अर्जुनक

Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher - नीलकण्ठे अर्जुनक

Walk path in the western part of Ranibari Community Forest

Walk through the grass to the stairs leading to top of the hill

Stairs leading to the temple on top of the hill

Stairs leading to the temple on top of the hill

We can see the temple

The Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher was very co-operative and friendly. At first we didn't get any pictures as the bird jumped ahead of us. But after a while the Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher stopped to sing, call for a breeding mate. Darn dogs! The bird was singing beautifully and not possible for any sound recordings.

We left the walk path crossing the park over a kind of grass land pasture and we reached the stairs up to the temple on top of the hill. We had seen a lot of different birds walking around the lower level, or the ground level of the park:

Large Cuckooshrike
Taiga Flycatcher
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Olive-backed pipit

Now we will explore the hill area and we get up the stairs and we find a temple.

Hindi Temple in Ranibari Community Forest

Hindi Temple in Ranibari Community Forest

Walk path on top of the hill in Ranibari Community Forest

Walk path on top of the hill in Ranibari Community Forest

Walk path on top of the hill in Ranibari Community Forest

Spotted Owlet

At a first glance I thought the bottom owlet was a part of the tree

We didn't see any birds and we walked back to the gate. We spotted the Spotted Owlets again, this time two of them in the same hole. The bottom owlet looked as a part of the tree at the first glance. We drove back to Hotel Yak and Yeti. Dinner and off to bed. Tomorrow we will leave earlier, 6 thirty and we will go up the highest mountain in the Kathmandu Valley, 2700meter something. Will we find any birds? Click HERE to find out.

Barbara4u2c's You Tube channel, click HERE

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