Dear all,
A Nicobar birding trip has been a long cherished dream of mine. 5 years ago, Ramki and I did get an opportunity to visit these islands but unfortunately it was cancelled due to personal reasons. This year I finally made up my mind to make a determined effort to get there. I went to Andamans 5 days in advance to finish off the local birds before the rest of the team for Nicobars.
Andaman birding is great fun because one can see a lot of specialties at a relaxed pace. During my first visit in 2011, I had cleaned up all endemics barring the Andaman Barn Owl (which we only heard on a couple of occasions). On this year's trip, it took just two and a half days to get all the endemics. My favourites in these islands have remained the 6 species of nightbirds.
My wife arrived at Port Blair 6 days after me but the others in the group had changed their minds. It seemed as though our second attempt at Nicobars was going to fail too. We had almost given up all expectations and had started making alternate plans to visit north Andamans. By sheer luck, we bumped into our MSc. Classmate, Vanju, who has recently been posted as an IFS officer in the Andamans. She rekindled our hopes and helped greatly with organizing the visit at last-moment.
The 3-hour helicopter flight brought us to Campbell bay on the Great Nicobar Island. This >500km journey presents breath-taking views of tropical islands filled with majestic rainforests, mangroves and blue seas studded with coral reefs. On deplaning, the skin instantly soaks in the hot and humid equatorial weather.
Soon, the two of us got busy birding on the only two roads found on this island. Birding in Nicobar proved quite easy. A short evening walk in the vicinity of zero-point at Campbell bay produced many of the common Pied Imperial Pigeons, some Chinese Pond Herons and Chinese Sparrowhawks. A stroll into the very first small forest patch produced a Hooded Pitta (endemic subspecies: abbotti) in just 2 minutes. We later realized that this bird was common all over the island. The loud, noisy and endemic Nicobar Parakeets soon followed this excellent start. Another walk a little later in the evening resulted in an excellent owling session with as many as 5 Nicobar Scops Owls in one hour and a bold pair of Brown Hawk Owls (endemic subspecies: isolata/rexpimenti).
Further excursions to local forested areas produced one of the most awaited birds for both of us - a Nicobar Jungle Flycatcher. The species first became known to the ornithological world in 1903 when Richmond said that, "Abbott and Kloss found it to be common". It then vanished from all knowledge till it was re-found by the late Humayun Abdulali in 1967. After this, the flycatcher made 2 other appearances – a song recording by Pratap Singh (IFS), and a photograph by AP Zabin from Little Nicobar. We were extremely thrilled after sighting such a rare bird but found them singing in many regions of Great Nicobar.
Simultaneously, we twitched all other endemics (species as well as subspecies) such as Great Nicobar Serpent Eagle, Nicobar Imperial Pigeon and possible future splits from Great Nicobars like the Crimson Sunbird (endemic subspecies: nicobarica), Olive-backed Sunbird endemic subspecies: klossi), Oriental White-eye (endemic subspecies: possible nicobaricus). All of them look quite distinct not only from mainland populations but also from other islands of Andamans and Central Nicobars. We also managed to get a couple of vagrant species for the Indian subcontinent – the Arctic Warbler as well as Purple-backed Starling.
Another interesting event occurred when we walked unexpectedly into a Malayan Night Heron (endemic subspecies: minor) hanging out with a Water Monitor Lizard at a blind U-bend in a stream. I assume we frightened the pair by walking in on them just as the latter was about to grab on to the bird.
The biggest highlight of the trip however was an excellent sighting of a medium sized juvenile Crake. Being a birder at heart I picked up my binoculars first to better observe this unfamiliar looking bird. By the time I grabbed the camera for a shot, the bird had moved into deeper thickets. The bird had a dark grey colouration with very faint barring on the lower belly, a very distinct and heavy bill and a dark iris. The individual also showed strong greenish-brown coloured legs (James Eaton feels that strong legs are suggestive of flightless nature and is therefore likely to be a resident species such as the Great Nicobar Crake). A juvenile Great Nicobar Crake has never been observed in the wild, and the individual observed by us, could be the very first description of one and second sighting ever of this species (formal description is still awaited of this species).
Although the trip had several memorable take home species, we dipped on the much-coveted Nicobar Megapode. We spent a significant part of the last 3 days of our trip walking over all the potential habitats of this bird and we did get to see 3 nests although 1 of them seemed inactive. We also heard about 3 other nests but they were in the Tribal Reserve – areas that are not accessible without a special tribal pass. All-in-all, it proved to be the only one of the 7 endemics we couldn't tick-off.
Our first visit to the Nicobars will be cherished not only for the birds but also for the tiny sea turtle hatchlings (Olive Riddley and Green), the squeaky Nicobar Tree Shrews, the dark-coated Crab-eating macaques and of course the spectacular vistas of untouched primary forest and seas so blue that the camera just couldn't capture its shades. I am sure I will be back here very soon to visit other Nicobar Islands and finish off the remaining endemics on my list.
Posting 1st of many pictures from Nicobars.
Nicobar Jungle Flycatcher
31st March 2015
Great Nicobars
Best,
Shashank and Vishnupriya
Alumnus of the Post Graduate Program
Wildlife Biology and Conservation WCS-India Program NCBS, BangaloreYou received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "delhibirdpix" group.
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