Goa – January 15th – February 15th. Stayed at Candolim. Went out on my own birding for a few hours most days, a short walk to a nearby River produced Stork-bill, black-capped, pied & common kingfisher, lots of different waders. Occasionally I would take a short taxi ride to mojim beach were you could compare Greater and Lesser Sandplovers, birds that are difficult to separate unless seen together, Bay-backed Shrike & Brahmin’s Starling (quite rare) can be seen here. However if you are a lister you must use some of the guides available, one of the best guides is Lloyd Fernandes, who runs Birds & Breakfast. He has a mini-bus & supplies breakfast, most of his trips are 2000 rupees (£25) for 6 hrs. A must is a stay at Backwoods 3 days, 2 nights 8500 rupees (£115), Loven, Pramod & Leio are joint owners and are all top guides, I had 100 species at backwoods and 203 in total.
Here are a few notes and photos.
Below we have Little Green Bee-eater, very common 30+ seen every day and Blue-tailed Bee-eater, not so common 6 seen in a month.
Brahminy Kite, very common, along with Black Kite, the sky is full of them (still think it’s one of the smartest raptors in the world). Peafowl, I saw them several times in groups of 5 or 6, always a pleasure to see.
Painted Stork and Crested Hawk Eagle, the first time I’ve seen both these species after three trips to Goa, so I was quite pleased with these photos.
Black-capped kingfisher, you see kingfishers every day in Goa, but this is a good one for me as I had only seen one before, Indian Roller is a common bird seen most days.
White-throated Kingfisher, very common seen every day, not necessarily near water. Blithe’s Starling, quite rare, only seen inland (backwoods camp) approximately 150 miles from coast. White-bellied Woodpecker and Racket-tailed Drongo, both seen at backwoods, saw only one Woodpecker, saw several Drongos.
Malabar Pied Hornbill, again another bird you will only see away from the coast, (Backwoods). Grey Jungle Fowl, (yes it really is a wild bird), you hear them all day in the jungle but rarely see them.
