Tungareshwar Surprise ... Rufous Bellied Eagle

Tungareshwar always gives you some special moments in each trip and when it’s from North side (not the normal route), you better be ready for the surprises.

We* parked our vehicles at the start of the trail & started walking upwards. The first surprise was a flock of around 50 Malabar Parakeets flying in small sub groups.

There are few sightings of Malabar Parakeet from Karnala, but not in flock of 50 or so. The perfect start required to gear up everyone. Just when we trying to see where the Malabar Parakeets land up, saw some another green birds flying in flock, they were Yellow Footed Green Pigeons. The pigeons settled down on a tree top (looong away from us), but we could spot them from Adesh Spotting scope.

Moving on saw Loten’s Sunbird sitting on a tree very close to us and a Black Hooded Oriole flying overhead. As we move up & sun started shining brightly the bird sighting started to reduce down. But still we saw 2 small hunting parties comprising Common Wood Shrike, Eurasian Golden Oriole, Golden Fronted Leafbird, Black Naped Monrch, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Paradise Flycatcher, Black Drongo, Ashy Drongo etc…

Among the raptors, a pair of Shikra went flying in their usual fashion, a lone Oriental Honey Buzzard looking for some breakfast, a probable Besra & as usual plenty of Black Kites.

Also flying high were Crested Tree Swifts, Dusky Craig Martins & Red Rumped Swallows.

While coming back suddenly some raptor came very close to us, all the binocs pointed in the sky & suddenly Adesh shouted (as ususal), “hey it’s a juvenile Rufous Bellied Eagle”, we all saw the dark mask, white supercilium & white underparts to confirm that it was really a Rufous Bellied Eagle. Wow!!! What a sighting, don’t remember to heard any sighting of this bird in Mumbai or nearby area. The excitement was so high & no one took the picture, which could be a great evidence… But we all enjoyed the moment & I think that’s for we all go for bird watching…

Adesh Shivkar, Ashwini Vaidya, Animish Mandrekar, Abhijit Narvekar, Pallavi Joshi, Muralishar & Mandar Khadilkar.

Birds seen & heard:

01. Large Green Barbet (LGB)– heard
02. White Breasted Kingfisher – on the way
03. Malabar Parakeet
04. Plum Headed Parakeet
05. Rose ringed Parakeet
06. Crested Tree Swift
07. Barred Jungle Owlet – heard
08. Yellow Footed Green Pigeon
09. Black Kite
10. Shikra
11. Besra?
12. Oriental Honey Buzzard
13. Rufous Bellied Eagle
14. Golden Fronted Leafbird
15. Rufous Treepie
16. House Crow
17. Large Billed Crow
18. Eurasian Golden Oriole
19. Black Hooded Oriole
20. Small Minivet
21. Scarlet Minivet
22. White Browed Fantail
23. Black Drongo
24. White Bellied Drongo
25. Black Naped Monarch
26. Asian Paradise Flycatcher
27. Common Iora
28. Common Woodshrike
29. Red Throated Flycatcher
30. Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher
31. Dusky Craig Martin
32. Red Rumped Swallow
33. Red Whiskered Bulbul
34. Red Vented Bulbul
35. White Browed Bulbul
36. Grey Breasted Prinia
37. Oriental White Eye
38. Booted Warbler
39. Common Tailor Bird
40. Greenish Leaf Warbler
41. Pale Billed Flowerpecker
42. Purple Rumped Sunbird
43. Loten’s Sunbird
44. Chestnut Shouldered Petronia