Day 1: Delhi and Sultanpur National Park
Arrivals into Delhi airport this morning. We'll spend the remainder of the day birding at Sultanpur and nearby Basai, two superb birding sites just 50km from Delhi in neighbouring Haryana. Sultanpur’s ‘jheel’ and the extensive shallow wetlands and flooded fields of Basai are a haven for resident and migratory waterfowl. We can expect to encounter an incredible selection of species in large numbers, including Indian Spot-billed Duck, Bar-headed Goose, Greater Flamingo, White-tailed Lapwing and Grey-headed Swamphen. Surrounding acacia scrub and dry grasslands will provide an ideal introduction to northern India’s more widespread species, such as Grey Francolin, Eurasian Wryneck, Common Hoopoe, Bank Myna and Bluethroat, and we’ll search in particular for the regional specialities Sind Sparrow and Brooks’s Leaf-warbler. Night in Delhi.
Day 2: Delhi to Jaipur and Jhalana Leopard Reserve
We will spend the morning driving southwest into Rajasthan, with time for some roadside birding as we head to Jaipur for the night. This afternoon we'll explore Jhalana Leopard Reserve, occupying a densely wooded section of the Aravalli Hills that runs through the centre of Jaipur. Despite its unseemly setting, Jhalana is perhaps the prime site in India for a sighting of Leopard. Birding from open-topped jeeps, we can expect to come across a good selection of woodland birds, such as Indian Golden Oriole, Yellow-footed Green-Pigeon, Yellow-crowned and Brown-capped Woodpeckers, Indian Paradise-Flycatcher, Black Eagle, Spotted Owlet and Rock (Indian) Eagle Owl. We have excellent chances of a Leopard encounter here, plus the prospect of several smaller cats and civets.
Day 3: Jaipur to Ranthambhore National Park
After a morning jeep drive we will leave Jhalana, driving southeast to Ranthambhore National Park for a two-night stay. We should arrive in time to explore the arid scrub outside the park, looking for dryland species including Indian Courser, Painted Sandgrouse, Sirkeer Malkoha, Desert, Variable and Isabelline Wheatears, various larks and pipits, White-capped Bunting and Great Grey Shrike.
Day 4-5: Ranthambhore National Park
Distinctly arid, yet dotted with lakes, the former hunting preserve of Ranthambhore hosts an interesting combination of desert species and northern India’s more widespread forest birds. We will explore the scrub jungle, escarpments and atmospheric ruins through three safari drives in open-topped vehicles looking for specialities such as Painted Spurfowl and Sulphur-bellied Warbler, among Rufous Treepie, White-naped Woodpecker, Indian Peafowl, Indian and Great Thick-knees, an abundance of bulbuls and parakeets, up to six species of vulture, and of course Bengal Tiger among good numbers of Spotted Deer, Sambar and Northern Plains Grey Langur. We leave Ranthambhore in the afternoon of day 5, driving northeast to Bharatpur for a three-night stay.
Day 6-7: Bharatpur, the Chambal River and the Taj Mahal
We have two days to explore the man-made wetlands of Bharatpur, undoubtedly among India’s finest bird reserves, on foot and by the park’s unique bicycle-rickshaws. Many of the birds we will find are conspicuous, numerous and easily seen, and with in excess of 100 species in a day not uncommon here, birding is both highly enjoyable and immensely rewarding. Among Sarus Crane, Black-necked and Painted Storks, Black-headed and Red-naped Ibis, various egrets, waders, and huge congregations of waterfowl we’ll look for scarcer Knob-billed and Ferruginous Ducks, Red-crested Pochard, Black Bittern and Greater Painted-snipe. In patches of trailside woodland and acacia we’ll look for Marshall’s Iora, Eastern Orphean Warbler, Red-breasted and Taiga Flycatchers, and skulkers such as Orange-headed and Tickell’s Thrushes, and Siberian Rubythroat. We can also expect to come across Indian Scops Owl, Dusky Eagle Owl and Large-tailed Nightjar at day roosts, and a superb assortment of raptors including Eastern Imperial, Indian Spotted and Steppe Eagles. One morning we will visit a section of the serene Chambal River around an hour's drive away. The Chambal is one of north India’s least polluted waterways, and here we will go in search of flocks of the elegant Indian Skimmer, Black-bellied Tern, River Lapwing, the curious Gharial and Ganges River Dolphin as we explore the river by boat, with Sand Lark, Yellow-eyed Babbler and Crested Bunting along the sandy riverbank and flanking mud ravines. As we make our way back to Bharatpur we will find time for a brief visit to India’s most iconic monument, the Taj Mahal, in nearby Agra.
Day 8: Bharatpur to Corbett National Park
Today will be a travel day, and we will need an early start to get going on the long drive north into Uttarakhand to Corbett National Park for a four-night stay. There will however be time for birding along the way, and we will notice a change in both landscape and species as we approach the base of the Himalayas. This evening, we'll look for Collared Scops Owl in the grounds of our lodge.
Day 9-11: Corbett National Park
We have three full days to explore this superb site in the terai zone in the shadow of the Himalayas. The great diversity of habitats, and its fortunate situation where the avifauna of the hills meets that of the Indo-Gangetic plains, combine to make Corbett one of the richest birding areas in Asia. Much of the best birding is in roadside forests in the fringes of the reserve, which we will explore on foot for Long-billed Thrush, Chestnut-headed and Grey-bellied Tesias, Great Slaty Woodpecker, Himalayan Flameback, Common Green Magpie, Maroon Oriole, Red-breasted Parakeet, Great Hornbill, Green-tailed and Crimson Sunbirds, Red Junglefowl, and both Tawny and Brown Fish Owls. We will also explore the glacier-fed Kosi River looking for the small numbers of Ibisbill that overwinter along its boulder strewn banks, as well as Wallcreeper, Plumbeous and White-capped Redstarts, Brown Dipper, and Crested Kingfisher. We intend to spend one night inside the remote western ranges of the reserve at Dhikala; alternatively, we may choose to take half day safari drives into the park's Bhijrani and Jhirna ranges. Inside the park we will have unrivalled access by open-topped jeeps to untouched forests and the grasslands of the Ramganga floodplain. Among our key targets here are Collared Falconet, Pallid and rarer Pied Harriers, Lesser, Grey-headed and Pallas’s Fish-eagles, White-throated Bush Chat, Golden-headed Cisticola, and Red Avadavat. This will also give us a further chance of Tiger, plus Asian Elephant and plenty more smaller mammals.
Day 12-14: Pangot
On day 12, we make our way up through the foothills and into the mid-altitude Himalayas to the village of Pangot at 2,150m for a three-night stay. Once we leave the terai, we’ll begin driving up into the Kumaon Hills along roads clinging to the forested mountainside and will soon encounter our first Himalayan specialities, perhaps Blue Whistling Thrush, Grey-winged Blackbird, Himalayan Bluetail, Black-headed Jay, Red-billed Blue Magpie and Russet Sparrow. If conditions are clear, we’ll have stunning views towards the high Himalaya from spectacular mountain roads. Around Pangot, in dense, moss-draped temperate forests, rhododendrons, Chir Pines, terraced fields and exposed grassy slopes we will look for unequivocal Himalayan species including Yellow-breasted Greenfinch, Scarlet Finch, Dark-breasted and Pink-browed Rosefinches, Spot-winged Grosbeak, Himalayan Woodpecker, White-throated, Rufous-chinned and Variegated Laughingthrushes, Scaly-breasted Cupwing, Alpine and Altai Accentors, Collared Owlet, Himalayan Owl, Himalayan Griffon, Bearded Vulture, Hill Partridge and two of our key targets the elusive Koklass Pheasant and Cheer Pheasant, a western Himalayan endemic.
Day 15-16: Bhimtal
We will drop down through the foothills, via the erstwhile colonial hill station of Nainital, making our way to the small town of Bhimtal at 1370m for a two-night stay. From our base at Bhimtal we will visit various sites, encountering an impressive selection of birds in deciduous woodland, smallholdings, mountain streams and feeder stations amid these bird-rich mid-altitudes. Among these are highlights including Himalayan Rubythroat, Golden Bush Robin, Blue-capped and Blue-fronted Redstarts, Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, Small and Rufous-bellied Niltavas, White-bellied Erpornis, Blue-winged Minla, Rufous-breasted and Black-throated Accentors, Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-babbler, several raucous laughingthrushes including Striated, White-crested and Chestnut-crowned, White-browed Shrike-Babbler, Great Barbet, Himalayan and Mountain Bulbuls, Rufous Sibia, Grey Treepie, Slaty-headed Parakeet, Himalayan Flameback, Black Francolin, and Kalij Pheasant. We will be looking for two central Himalayan endemics: Nepal Cupwing and Black-chinned Babbler, a selection of warblers including Grey-hooded, Lemon-rumped and Black-faced, Little, Spotted and Slaty-backed Forktails in mountain streams, and a fabulous selection of colourful tits, nuthatches, sunbirds and flowerpeckers that sweep through the forest in fast-moving feeding flocks.
Day 17: Bhimtal to Delhi
Today we will make our way back to Delhi for an overnight stay. Although today is a travel day with a long distance to cover, we will have time for some birding and may choose to spend a final few hours in Bhimtal before we set out on the drive back into the plains.
Day 18: Depart Delhi
Departures from Delhi airport today.
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