Overview
Nepal, with nearly 10% of all the worlds bird species, is renowned for its high diversity of species, spectacular mountains and rich culture. Here you can enjoy bird watching in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
If this is your first time bird watching in Nepal, or if you’ve come before, we would suggest you choose a trek with greatest bird diversity for example in our rich low land areas like Chitwan or the famous Ramsar site, Koshi Tappu. Alternatively you could explore the Alpine habitats off beaten tracks around Machhapuchhre. Ideally you could combine high with low. We have the best bird watching guides, and will take you there, and show you those birds.
Lowland Areas
The tropical forest, mostly Sal, is the richest in bird species. Second in species richness is the braodland subtropical forest, with broad leave and riverine forest, which grows beside water courses, and often comprise Alder. These climates and vegetation offer homes to from minute Plain Flower pecker to the Spot Bellied Eagle Owl.
Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve in south eastern Nepal is a Ramsar site. It is the largest wetland area in Nepal, draining 7 major rivers from the great Himalayan belt into the Sapta Koshi (‘Seven Rivers’). You can easily see all the common wetland birds here as well as Swamp Francolin, Indian Skimmer, Black Necked Stork.
Royal Chitwan National Park is lowland valley in inner Terai. The Sapta Gandaki river drains down through diverse vegetation – grassland, riverain, Sal forest and wetland habitat. This is home to Giant Hornbill, Bengal Florican, Red Headed Trogan, Blue Eared Kingfisher, and the threatened Slinder Billed Babbler.
Royal Sukla Phanta is not so popular simply because it is far to the west – but it is famous for seeing the Behgal Florican, Singing Boose Lark, Hodgson’s Bushchat. Here, the habitat is like Chitwan, but hotter Royal Bardia National Park, in western Nepal, is another protected sanctuary, famous for Black Buck, a local endemic mamal, is home to Great Slaty Woodpecker, Jerdon’s Bushchat, Rufous-bellied Eagle.
Highland Areas
You could combine bird watching with a spectacular trek, from subtropical through temperate and coniferous to Subalpine and bamboo forests. For example to explore the Alpine habitat birds in Langtang, Annapurna, Makalu, Everest, Machhapuchhre. Here you can see birds like Lammergier, Tibetan Snow Cock, Snow Finches, Himalayan Monal and Satyr Tragopan.
Choosing your Bird Watching tour to Trek
Choosing your trek depends on what you are most interested to see. It depends on what season you’re traveling. Bird watching is good all the year round Nepal. In the winter birds migrate from the high Tibetan plateau, in the summer from the plains of south Asia, and there are always some permanent residents. For bird watching and trekking combined in highland areas it is best to come after migration from April, but for lowland bird watching the best months are December, January, February.
We’ve described dome bird watching tours and treks which can easily be taken in isolation or combined, for example lowland and highland. We hope these will combine all your interests and give you a rich flavor of our bird diversity and country. We can easily customize any tour or trek to suit your bird-needs.
