Bangalore, Cauvery River, Banaghatta India June 2013 · PDF fileBangalore, Cauvery River, Banaghatta India June 2013 This is a very brief report of a few opportunities to bird watch

Copyright Colin Manville 2015

Bangalore, Cauvery River, Banaghatta India June 2013

This is a very brief report of a few opportunities to bird watch during a business trip to Bangalore.

Inevitably the timing of the trip was poor from a birding perspective being long after the migration

period. Having said that the weather was good as was the birding. On my previous visits to

Bangalore I had stayed near the old airport, now the HAL airport, which was convenient for the

office. However the quality of the Royal Orchid hotel had diminished now the airport had moved to

a new site north of the city. The faded grandeur could have been endured but for the fact that the

local birdwatching had tanked as well as most of the decent habitat. Much

of the local habitat is now built upon and the local lake (tank) polluted to

the extent that it is unsuitable for birdlife (or any sort of life). Therefore I

decided to move my custom to the new Marriott Hotel on the eastern side

of Bangalore at Whitefield. On the downside it is a much longer commute to

the office, but It turned out to be a cracking good hotel with some excellent

local habitat. What on earth did we do before Google satellite maps? In

terms of equipment, I took my Leica 8x40 Ultravids and a Cannon 7D with a

100 – 400 zoom for record shots. As a field guide I prefer “Birds of the

Indian Subcontinent” by Krys Kazmierczak and Van Perlo.

I have included a list of the species seen at Annex A and a table of GPS coordinates at Annex B but to

add colour and give a feel for what this area is like, there follows a few paragraphs of my ramblings

with some pictures.

I flew out of London on the Friday night giving me Saturday and Sunday to bird if I could stay awake.

The flight lands in the middle of the night, so after daybreak and a light breakfast I headed off out to

the local green area. There was clearly public access with footpaths criss-crossing the land which was

open with thorny brush and occasional trees. A eucalyptus tree plantation screened the site from

the Tesco campus (yes Tesco!) I did not expect any lifers in this area as I have been to India

(particulary Bangalore) on numerous

occasions. The area had a very healthy

population of birds and a family of Pale-

billed Flowerpeckers gave themselves up to

the camera without too much effort, the

fledglings having particularly yellow bills. Purple-

rumped Sunbirds were abundant and an Ashy Prinia

added its song to the mix. A flyover party of Little Bee-

Eaters flew over alerting me with their calls. The trees

held Large-billed Crow, Asian Koel and Common Hawk-

Cuckoo amongst other common species. All in all a fantastic spot and a good start to the day, but all

too soon the heat took its toll and I returned to the hotel for a rest and lunch.


The views from the hotel encompassed two local water bodies, one of which had some avian

activity. So about 3pm after studying google maps I set off for Nallurahalli Lake. It didn’t take long to

get there walking through the area I visited in the morning joining 2nd Main Road and then left on

Nallurahalli Road. Looking at the satellite image it should be possible to walk to the lake avoiding

roads. The lake can be viewed fro the road and a track around the eastern side but it was densely

vegitated arouund the edges. It held at least 60 Little Grebe, 3 types of Cormorant and Egret. But the

best by far were the Kites. Black, Black-eared and Brahminy all picking items from the surface of the

lake near my vantage point on the road. Stunning views and worth the walk. On the walk back to the

hotel I added Yellow-billed Babbler and commmon Tailorbird to the day list.

On my previous visit to Bangalore in February I hooked up with Bopanna Pattada a local birder and

guide. As it had been a good day out on that occasion I took the opportunity to organise a trip with

him to Cauvery River and surrounding district. He had provided a target list of 13 species, 9 of which

would be lifers. So it was on Sunday that Bopanna picked me up at 05:40, a bit later than scheduled

and we headed southwest to Hegganuru after a detour to pick up a photographer enroute.

At 07:00 we reached our first stop Harohalli Kere. Typical of the region the lake was a swampy affair

covered with water lilies and reed fringed. It was nice to get out of the 4x4 but nothing of note

presented itself. 30 minutes down the road at Horalagallu a weedy field produced 2 Yellow-eyed

Babbler a flock of Yellow-billed Babbler. At a nearby cultivated spot with a reedy ditch, nesting Baya

Weaver along with Scaly-breasted Munia, Grey Francolin and a pair of Great Tit. These are

sometimes referred to as Grey Tit in India, and it is easy to see why – it is like looking at a Great Tit in

an old black and white photograph! We were then treated to the spectacle of an Oriental Honey

Buzzard being mobbed by a family of White-bellied Drongo.


An hour down the road at Alahalli the cultivated fields produced a flock one of my “wanted” birds

(which was not on the list) namely a Large Grey

Babbler. Duly photographed moved on to

Heligehalli where we turned to a track passing

through weedy scrub which produced a surprise

bird in the form of Barred Buttonquail. It crossed

the track in front of the vehicle and fortunately I

managed to bang off a poor record shot through

the windscreen as we were stopping otherwise it

may have eluded identification. The Buttonquail

immediately wandered into the scrub at the side of

the road never to be seen again. Pressing on to the cultivated fields Indian Roller and Bay backed

Shrike presented themselves along with a bunch of Bushlark all of which were identified as Jerdon’s

which is cool

as that is a

lifer. The call

helps a lot

even with

truly excellent

views.

We were very

close to the

Cauvery River

now which

was signalled

by a change in

habitat to

scrub and low

forest. We

entered the forest at Bennegodlu and quickly came across a pair of Pied Cuckoo which set the pulse

racing. Moving carefully through the forest, Bopanna pointed

out the object of this particular stop, the Streak-throated

Woodpecker. We found a female which we managed to

photograph along with a Jungle Owlet (which were both on the

list) amongst the more common species including Brown-

capped Pygmy Woodpecker and Black-rumped Flamebacks. A

welcome party of Small Minivet moved noisily through the

forest. Moving back to the road and the open area we came

across a pair of Crested Treeswifts hawking low over the fields.

These proved really difficult to photograph as they flew in their

fast and erratic way. We eventually reached the river at 11:30,

it was 28c and cloudy with the occasional light shower. We

moved down river slightly to an area of lower disturbance.

Whilst we lunched there we racked up a decent list of birds including Black-headed Oriole, Common


Hawk Cuckoo, Asian Openbill, and Indian Grey hornbill were the highlights. After our sandwich lunch

we pushed on to a site further along the river where we

had flyover Short-toed and Indian Spotted Eagles along

with Marsh Harrier and a noisy Stork-billed Kingfisher

flew down and then back up river. The star bird of this

area is the Lesser Fish Eagle and we had not connected

with one. Time was moving on, so with our last throw of

the dice we headed back past the entrance point and

beyond a small village to an open area alongside a small

tributary to the river. There we found Wire-tailed

Swallow, Crested Treeswift and 3 Lesser Fish Eagle

soaring overhead. They stayed for about 10 minutes

before disappearing over to the river, probably to the

area we had just left! It was a good end to our time at

the river but I had work to do, so we started the long trip

back to Bangalore. We had a brief stop at the Baya

Weaver colony on the way back for a few pictures in a

different light. Pressing on, we came to an abrupt halt at

Harohalli Kere. It was teeming with birds, could this

really be the same place we visited this morning? With the light behind us we could pick out both

Jacana, Waterhen, Red-naped Ibis, Lesser Whistling Duck, Herons and Egrets, . However by far the

best was the Yellow Bittern which exploded out of the reeds below our vantage point and flew to

the far side of the Kere. I managed a pair of truly awful record shots – sufficient to confirm our

identification, which was handy as it was another lifer! And so ended our day out. On the return

journey I did some mental analysis. Of the list provided by Bopanna of 13 birds (9 lifers) we saw just

6 including 3 lifers, mind you I did score a further 9 lifers making 12 in all. I really enjoyed the day but

I am not sure that it lived up to the promises.

I managed to create some space in my working schedule to visit Banaghatta. I probably would have

birded the zoo but the “Hill Station” Temple seemed a much better idea. This geological feature is a

barren area of rock surrounded by a scrubby area with trails leading to Banaghatta National Park

forest. The car dropped me off at

07:00 and I made the ascent to

the temple from the parking area

below immediately spotting a

pair of Rufus-tailed Lark flitting

about on the barren rocks. I had

great views of 4 of these

delightful birds until a beggar

came across to plead his case

irretrievably flushing the birds. I

was not pleased, in fact I was

incandescent and not disposed

to handing out money to a man

who had just flushed a life tick.


There were plenty of other species on display with Grey-breasted Prinia, Plain Prinia and Pied

Bushchat amongst them. Lured into the open forest by singing Jerdon’s Bushlark I encountered a

Hoopoe, two Rufus Treepie, Spot breasted Babbler, Thick-billed Flowerpecker and Small Minivet

amongst the many species on display.

Whilst wandering about I passed many signs in local script – this sort of thing pictured. It will not

come as a surprise to know that I cannot read the

text! In my return journey to the temple I discovered

that the reverse of at least one of the signs was in

English. Essentially is said “danger – do not walk here

due to elephants”. Now, my local work colleagues

often spoke with fear of the possibility of elephant

attacks and it was my time to be concerned. My new

understanding of the signs certainly hastened my

departure from the park. [This is not a danger to be

taken lightly as a British birdwatcher lost his life in

India to an elephant attack at roughly the same as I

was there. Unfortunately the gentlemen in question

had a very similar name to myself causing some concern amongst my colleagues at home.]

It was still relatively early so I had my driver take me to the western side of the park to an area

known to be good for Fantail. I dipped but spoke to a local landowner who was a birder. He said that

this particular area was indeed very good but only early in the morning. The coordinates are

included at Annex B. It should be noted that the “road” to get to the Fantail site is very poor and my

driver needed to be encouraged to drive it.

I did note a few common species of bird in this area, but the best item noted was a Mongoose!

Colin Manville

[email protected]


Annex A - Sightings




Annex B, Lat/Longs

North West

Whitefield open space 012: 58.360 077:43.757

Nallurahalli Kere 012: 58.470 077:44.041

Harohalli Kere 012:40.807 077:28.227

Horalgallu 012:26.033 077:24.530

Alahalli 012:22.184 077:24.646

Heligehalli site 1 012:20.681 077:24.836

Heligehalli site 2 012:20.542 077:25.144

Bennegodlu 012:18.400 077:25.743

Cauvery River 012.17.453 077:25.403

CR tributary open space 012:17.766 077:26.482

Banaghatta Hill station Temple 012:48.800 077:34.503

Fantail Site, Banaghatta Road 012:48.533 077:33.845

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Bangalore, Cauvery River, Banaghatta India June 2013 · PDF fileBangalore, Cauvery River, Banaghatta India June 2013 This is a very brief report of a few opportunities to bird watch