Goa 2022 - Spiderhunter and Frogmouth

Thursday 10 November 2022

Little Spiderhunter (after a bath) - Nature's Nest

The remainder of Day 5 was to bring encounters with two memorable birds that are high on the list of any birding trip to south-western India - Little Spiderhunter and Sri Lanka Frogmouth.

Our base for the next couple of nights was Nature's Nest, an eco-resort located just outside the Bhagwan Mahavir National Park (the resort's website is here). It suited us nicely - rustic and rural, but with good food (no western stuff in sight) and spacious cabins. Best of all, there were plenty of birds around. This Little Spiderhunter was attracted to a water pot that had been strategically sited near the outdoor (covered) dining area. Spiderhunters are in the same family as the sunbirds, but have a proportionally longer bill. They do actually hunt (and eat) spiders - it's not a given: Eurasian Oystercatchers don't catch oysters, for example - but have a much more varied diet of invertebrates and nectar. The HBW/Birdlife Checklist identifies 13 species of spiderhunter (genus Arachnothera), only one other of which occurs in India - Streaked Spiderhunter. Little Spiderhunter is found from north east India through to south east Asia, so its presence here in the Western Ghats is a bit of an outlier. This one looked positively punky as it emerged from its bath. Here it is before it went in:

Little Spiderhunter - Nature's Nest

The same pot then attracted a Large-billed Crow (below). Not the first of the trip, but it was good to get a decent view at last. The common Indian crow is the House Crow, the two-tone appearance of which is similar to the hoodies of Scotland. Large-billed Crows proved to be more elusive: they remind me of a smaller Carrion Crow, but with an obviously curved culmen (top of bill) and more massive bill. The HBW/Birdlife Checklist lumps Large-billed Crow into one species with 13 subspecies, but notes that a “break up seems almost inevitable”.  In most of India, this is called the Jungle Crow; Grimmett and Inskipp separate it in two species - Indian Jungle Crow (our one here) and Eastern Jungle Crow.

Large-billed (Jungle) Crow - Nature's Nest

I was enjoying some peaceful downtime in the restaurant area when there was a sudden commotion. Somebody had spotted this Common Hawk Cuckoo (below) which was sitting low in a tree by the path to our cabin.  It seemed improbable that a cuckoo would just fly in and perch like this – but there it was.  Maybe it had been attracted by the availability of water, too. The species is widespread across most of the Indian sub-continent, to which it is almost endemic, although it is also found in Myanmar. 

Common Hawk-cuckoo - Nature's Nest

Come 3pm we set out again. A short drive took us to woodland on the edge of the Bhagwan Mahavir (or Mahaveer) National Park. There were no entrance formalities at the gate on this road, a cul-de-sac leading to a few villages and the historic Tambdi Surla temple - a major local visitor attraction.

There were five new birds for me here - and I have decent photographs of none of them! It was very much a case of peering through thick, evergreen undergrowth, with intervening leaves and branches. For the record the 'lifers' were: Orange-headed Thrush, Malabar Trogon, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Bronzed Drongo and Greater Racquet-tailed Drongo. Further up the road, we stopped at another fig tree - and were in luck: two Malabar Pied Hornbills had arrived for dinner. They flew when we got out of the car, but I was able to get a record photo (below) when one landed on another tree nearby. Despite its name, the species is not restricted to the Western Ghats, and is found in north east India and Sri Lanka. It is similar to the widely-distributed Oriental Pied Hornbill (which also appears in north east India, where the ranges overlap), but with a darker casque that has a pronounced forward point.

Malabar Pied Hornbill (record photo) - near Talde

The light was starting to fade, and photography was getting even harder. We made several stops on the road up to the temple car park, adding Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters, Red-throated (Taiga) Flycatcher, Nilgiri Imperial Pigeon, Malabar Parakeet and Malabar Barbet to the trip list.

We were now killing time, waiting for things to get really dark.  Omkar drove us around the streets of the nearby village, looking for – and eventually finding – a roost of over 100 Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters, which were occupying trees near a small temple. Our first Black-footed Grey Langur then appeared, walking nonchalantly along an electricity wire. 

Once the sun had finally set, we parked in a lay-by, donned head torches and set off up a forest trail. After a hundred metres or so, Omkar stopped and played the call of a Sri Lanka Frogmouth, which   provoked responses from three birds.  Omkar followed one call, and we followed Omkar, off the path and into the forest.  And we found it (below).  These are brilliant birds; small and chunky, but exuding personality.  Obviously, they aren't restricted to Sri Lanka, but the Western Ghats are the only part of its range on the mainland, so it was great to see.  According to the HBW/Birdlife Checklist there are 14 species of frogmouths, ranging from India to Australia.  It is hard not see them as Old World equivalents to the potoos, which look similar and have similar habits - including doing very little at all during the day. My favourite bird of the whole trip, I think.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth - near Surla

It was difficult to top that, but Omkar had a go, taking us to the small hamlet Talde, where his expedition company has a base. A Brown Hawk Owl (Brown Boobook in the HBW/Birdlife Checklist) was perched on a stump over the road from the building, one of a pair that come there regularly.  The other was sitting across the field.  There was more to come.  Omkar darted up a small track and shone his flashlight into the adjoining trees, before beckoning us urgently to follow. High in the branches, a large grey squirrel was moving slowly through the leaves – an Indian Giant Flying Squirrel.  Sadly, it didn't fly.  Despite its name, the species has only a patchy distribution across India, having a more cohesive range within south east Asia, southern China and Taiwan.  They eat fruit, flowers and bark.  

We then headed back to Nature’s Nest, to find that England had beaten India in the T20 Cricket World Cup semi-final. Everybody was very nice about it, though. There was time for a (cold) shower before the evening meal and (in our cases) a well-earned beer. It had been a great wildlife day, made more special by the fact that we were now staying in an extremely wildlife-friendly location. 

To be continued ...