Just got done with a 4 day trip to Khonoma in Nagaland state, India. Khonoma is renowned for its efforts to conserve the biodiversity of its surrounding forests. In 1998, concerned about the precipitous decline of fauna in their forests, a community driven decision led to the declaration of Khonoma Nature Conservation & Tragopan Sanctuary (KNCTS – 25 sq km) - a unique long-term conservation initiative at the time for India. More importantly though, hunting was banned in the entire village. As a result, bird populations have bounced back and today it is considered to be a BirdLife Important Bird Area (IBA-IN423) and a birding hotspot where many regional specialties are reliably protected. Many range restricted species possible here. Some highlights were:
Brown-capped, Spot-breasted, Assam, Striped Laughingthrushes, Blue-naped Pitta, Naga Wren Babbler, Mountain Bamboo Partridge, Grey-sided Thrush, Grey Sibia, Long-billed Thrush, Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, Eurasian Woodcock. Total 96 species were recorded (4 heard-only including Blyth's Tragopan).
Trip report with maps, pictures, daily log & annotated trip list in the link below:
http://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport/repository/BARUAH_India_01_2015.pdf
Enjoy!
Brown-capped, Spot-breasted, Assam, Striped Laughingthrushes, Blue-naped Pitta, Naga Wren Babbler, Mountain Bamboo Partridge, Grey-sided Thrush, Grey Sibia, Long-billed Thrush, Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, Eurasian Woodcock. Total 96 species were recorded (4 heard-only including Blyth's Tragopan).
Trip report with maps, pictures, daily log & annotated trip list in the link below:
http://www.cloudbirders.com/tripreport/repository/BARUAH_India_01_2015.pdf
Enjoy!
