Thattekad Bird Sanctuary

For our final day in birding, our guides wanted to take us to somewhere with a really long name that was very far away. However, our itinerary said we should go to Thattekad bird sanctuary which is a bit closer.  It’s a wildlife sanctuary run by the government, and a bit of a tourist attraction with some snakes in cages, the cafeteria, etc. However, it has trails that go by a river once you get beyond the entryway attractions 

We persuaded them to come here instead of their plan.  We might not see as many birds, but we’ve been here a month, bouncing cars and waking up very early.

We got there at seven when it just opened and within 15 minutes we saw the bird that Mike has been wanting to see the entire trip or maybe about 10 years: the male Indian Paradise Flycatcher with ts stunning long tail.  We’ve seen the female African Paradise Flycatcher and the female Madagascar Paradise Flycatcher which are fine but lacking the large tail.  We got a brief glimpse and a poor photo of the Borneo Paradise Flycatcher. 

Anyway, our guides heard and then spotted the bird and we spent 45 minutes watching it fly around some bamboo but rarely landing on an external branch where we could get a good view.  Eventually, it stopped and posed.

After that we walked around and they found a mother and fledgling Sri Lankan frogmouth. At first Chris didn’t want to get off the main path and walk through the forest to see it.  After Mike took a few photos, he convinced her to come see it. Although it was just 10 feet away, they blended into the tree and are hard to find. After looking for a minute she saw them and burst out laughing. 

We are ready to leave. Maldives, here we come!!