Birding in South Andaman

We did birding in four spots around Port Blair, marked by the green patches in the map here. Chidiyatapu was a mix of forest and shoreline. Since the Andaman Trunk Road passes through the forest, and disturbs the birds, our best viewing here was early in the morning. Sippighat and Ograbranj are wetlands, and yielded very good sightings. Mt. Harriet in Bambooflats is another place where a day can yield good sightings. We visited Sippighat in the afternoon of December 22, Chidiyatapu the same night and again in the morning of December 23. We did birding in Ograbranj in the afternoon of December 23, and went up to Mt. Harriet on December 25.

The Andaman group of Islands is full of endemics (marked with a star in the list below), and also has winter visitors. Even though I had done my reading, I was startled by the variety of visitors. I’d never expected to see Daurian’s starlings here. Andaman is so far from our normal birding grounds that our bird list is full of lifers (marked in bold):

1. Alexandrine parakeet: Chidiyatapu
2. * Andaman drongo: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet
3. * Andaman bulbul: Chidiyatapu
4. * Andaman collared kingfisher: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Sippighat, Ograbranj, Neil Island
5. * Andaman (brown) coucal: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet

1. * Andaman cuckoo-dove: Chidiyatapu
2. * Andaman flowerpecker: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet
3. * Andaman green pigeon: Mt. Harriet
4. * Andaman shama: Chidiyatapu
5. * Andaman treepie: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet
6. Asian brown flycatcher: Mt. Harriet
7. Asian fairy bluebird: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet
8. Barn swallow: Mt. Harriet, Sippighat, Ograbranj
9. Black bittern: Ograbranj
10. Black drongo: Ograbranj

1. Black-naped oriole: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet
2. Blue-tailed bee-eater: Mt. Harriet, Sippighat, Ograbranj
3. Brahminy kite: Chidiyatapu
4. Broad-billed sandpiper: Sippighat
5. Brown hawk owl: Chidiyatapu
6. Brown shrike: Chidiyatapu, Sippighat, Ograbranj
7. Brown shrike (Philippine): Mt. Harriet
8. Brown-backed needletail: Mt. Harriet

1. Cattle egret: Sippighat
2. Chestnut headed bittern: Ograbranj
3. Chinese pond heron: Sippighat, Ograbranj
4. Common coot: Sippighat
5. Common crow: Sippighat
6. Common kingfisher: Chidiyatapu, Sippighat, Ograbranj
7. Common moorhen: Sippighat, Ograbranj
8. Common myna: Sippighat
9. Common redshank: Sippighat
10. Common sandpiper: Chidiyatapu, Sippighat
11. Common sparrow: Port Blair
12. Cotton teal: Sippighat
13. Curlew sandpiper: Sippighat
14. Daurian starling: Sippighat
15. Eastern jungle crow: Mt. Harriet, Sippighat

1. * Edible-nest swiftlet: Ograbranj
2. Eurasian curlew: Sippighat
3. Eurasian Whimbrel: Sippighat
4. * Glossy swiftlet: Mt. Harriet, Sippighat
5. Gray heron: Ograbranj
6. Green imperial-pigeon: Chidiyatapu
7. Indian cuckoo: Chidiyatapu
8. Indian pond heron: Ograbranj
9. Intermediate egret: Sippighat, Ograbranj
10. Large egret: Sippighat, Ograbranj
11. Lesser sand plover: Sippighat
12. Lesser whistling teal: Sippighat, Ograbranj
13. Little green heron: Sippighat
14. Little-ringed plover: Sippighat
15. Long-toed stint: Sippighat
16. Oriental magpie-robin: Chidiyatapu, Sippighat

1. Pacific golden plover: Mt. Harriet, Sippighat
2. Pacific reef-egret: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Neil Island
3. Pacific swallow: Chidiyatapu, Sippighat
4. Pintailed snipe: Sippighat
5. Purple swamp hen: Sippighat, Ograbranj
6. Racquet-tailed drongo: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Neil Island
7. Red-breasted parakeet: Chidiyatapu, Ograbranj
8. Red-cheeked parakeet: Chidiyatapu
9. Red-collared dove: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Sippighat, Ograbranj
10. Red-necked stint: Sippighat
11. Red-throated pippit: Sippighat
12. Red-whiskered bulbul: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Sippighat
13. Scarlet minivet: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet
14. Small egret: Sippighat, Ograbranj
15. Small minivet: Chidiyatapu

1. * Spot-breasted woodpecker: Chidiyatapu
2. * Stork-billed kingfisher: Ograbranj
3. * Striated heron (Andaman): Mt. Harriet
4. * Sunda teal: Ograbranj
5. Vernal hanging parrot: Chidiyatapu
6. Violet cuckoo: Ograbranj
7. White-bellied sea-eagle: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Ograbranj, Neil Island
8. White-breasted waterhen: Ograbranj
9. White-headed starling: Chidiyatapu
10. White-rumped munia: Chidiyatapu, Ograbranj
11. White-throated kingfisher: Chidiyatapu, Mt. Harriet, Sippighat, Ograbranj
12. Wood sandpiper: Sippighat
13. Yellow bittern: Sippighat, Ograbranj
14. Yellow wagtail: Chidiyatapu, Sippighat

We are amateur birders, and I hardly have a spotter’s eye. The Family spends more time on it. We did our birding in Andaman with Shaktivel, Gokul and Senthil. Shakti guides tours in the Andamans, and his next project is to take a group to Great Nicobar. Gokul is a zoologist, collecting data for a checklist of birds in the Andamans. This will be the core of his Doctoral thesis. During our three days of birding, we met up with Mark Smiles, who is an excellent birder, and guides bird tours in Dubai.

Morning near Port Blair

We rose before the sun to meet Senthil already waiting for us. We picked up Gokul and Shakti and were off for a second day’s birdwatching. With the horizon about to dip towards the sun, there was enough light to finally see the road we had already taken twice the previous night. The road ran next to the sea, and a series of small bays cut into the shoreward side. The place looked misty and overcast. Birds clearly rise before cows, as you can see in the photo here. The mynahs were chirpy and active while the cows still behaved as if they were waiting for their morning cup of coffee.

At this time of the day one could see a lot of water birds near the shore. After the brief sunny spell at sunrise, clouds had started to gather. The tall trees that you see in this photo were full of birds, but in the gloomy light they were difficult to photograph. Among the common birds of the Andaman is a lovely red-collared dove. With its red sandstone coloured body, it looks exactly like the doves one sees in the forts and palaces of north India. But when it turns a profile to you, the bright red band of feathers circling its neck can be seen easily. There were flocks of them fluttering about in the landward bushes. This was our first view of these lovely birds.

Ethnic Bengalis and Tamils predominate on the islands, and everyone seems to speak Hindi as a matter of course. In the middle of a small collection of buildings we stopped to look at kingfishers. A single-roomed building seemed to serve as a school. After I took the photo above, the porch boiled over with children waving at us. Probably their teacher had not arrived in class yet and a stranger is always good entertainment. It was close to the new year, but the sign you can see is a little out of date. Later we saw much larger schools on the islands. I’m not sure whether this is a government school or private. Unfortunately we never came back along the road to see whether the sign was updated.