The Zuari River and the Quest for the 9th Kingfisher
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The main targets on the Zuari River boat trip are the kingfishers, with six species more or less
guaranteed. In a 3-hour trip, you can see them all, often at point-blank range, plus loads of
other interesting birds as well. The most sought-after species is the Collared Kingfisher, which
is not easy to find elsewhere. Mahesh can make all the arrangements for the trip.
With a skilled boatman and an alert guide, you'll soon get onto those special birds! It looks like
the early starts and all the driving are starting to catch up with Mahesh!
Also a good spot for snoozing Crocodiles....
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.... and roosting Fruit Bats.
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Oriental Darter Anhinga melanogaster and Little Cormorant Phalacrocorax niger
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Purple Heron Ardea purpurea
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Black-headed Ibis Threskiornis melanocephalus
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A treeful of Terek Sandpipers Xenus cinereus
Nowhere else to go at high tide!
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Little Cormorant Phalacrocorax niger
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Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus
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Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus
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.... but on to the stars of the show - the six Kingfishers:
Great Crested Tern Sterna bergii
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Western Reef Egret Egretta gularis
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Wire-tailed Swallow Hirundo smithii
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Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis
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Pied Kingfisher Ceryle rudis
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White-throated Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis
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Stork-billed Kingfisher Halcyon capensis
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Black-capped Kingfisher Halcyon pileata
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Collared Kingfisher Todiramphus chloris
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Black-capped Kingfisher Halcyon pileata
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Collared Kingfisher Todiramphus chloris
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A leaflet from a local nature reserve promised to show its visitors up to nine kingfishers. The six
species on this page plus the two in the Western Ghat forests (Blue-eared and Oriental Dwarf)
makes eight - the accepted quota for Goa. So what was the mysterious 9th Kingfisher?
We finally realised it was under our noses all the time, in fact locally abundant . . . .
The Quest for the 9th Kingfisher . . . .
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