Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary and the Backwoods Camp
Bird photography in the forests is hard work, with a lot of small and active birds high in
the treetops, but at least the Black-faced Langurs are always good value!
Bronzed Drongo
Dicrurus aeneus
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
Dicrurus paradiseus
Crimson-backed Sunbird Nectarinia minima
Malabar Grey Hornbill Ocyceros griseus
White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus
Indian Blackbird
Turdus merula
Orange-headed Thrush Zoothera citrina
Oriental Magpie Robin Copsychus saularis
Grey Junglefowl Gallus sonneratii
Genuine wild chicken! So why did it cross the road?
Chasing some female, by the looks of it!
Greater Flameback
Chrysocolaptes lucidus
Rufous Woodpecker
Celeus brachyurus
Searching for elusive Kingfishers....
Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis, not too difficult to catch up with...
Blue-eared Kingfisher Alcedo meninting, much harder to track down.
Spotted Dove Streptopelia chinensis
Meanwhile, up in the skies...
Crested Treeswift Hemiprocne coronata
Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhyncus
A two-night stay in the comfortable tented camp at Backwoods in the Western Ghats will
make sure that you can add a number of endemic forest species to your trip list, and bring
you closer to the wildlife, including the frogs in the bogs!


The woods at Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary are also nearby, giving you another chance to
explore the forest habitats of the Western Ghats.
Finally, the most bizarre-looking bird of the forest ....
Striated (Little Green) Heron Butorides striatus
Sri Lanka Frogmouth Batrachostomus moniliger
Very well hidden in the bamboo thicket:
the browner-coloured female is just visible to the right of the male
Three more prime mates, Mahesh, Kit and Chris, take a tea break in the
forest. The chosen spot by the lake near the approach road to Bondla
has Crested Treeswifts in the sky - and crocodiles in the water!