Birding in Sunderbans National Park

Mangrove swamps are mysterious forests that exist between sea and shore, on sheltered tropical coastlines in many parts of the world.

One such Mangrove swamp is located in the Ganges delta formed by the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghana called the Sunderbans National Park.  It is not only the largest that is found in India, but also is the world's largest estuarine sanctuary.

The swamp showed a clear zonation for the conditions endured by plants at the lower edge of the tide (which floods them daily) differ from those farther inland, which are only flooded by a handful of exceptional tides each year.

The tangled, stilt like roots of the mangrove trees and shrubs trap debris brought down by the rivers and retain other detritus washed in by the tide. The enriched mud produced by these ingredients provides a home and food for a characteristic and populous fauna.

Mangrove Paddy Grass /  Dhani

The main requirement of a mangrove plant is a tolerance to flooding of its root system by sea water. Individual species vary in their acceptance of salt water and some occur only in the upper reaches of estuaries where there is a high admixture of fresh water. 

The highly specialised root systems are shallow and widespread for most of the oxygen and vital mineral salts are concentrated in the upper layers of mud. Even then, oxygen supplies are inadequate and many mangroves such as Sonneratia have developed pneumatophores, 'breathing 'projections of the roots which protrude above the surface of the mud.

Stilt Roots

Sonneratia is characteristic of the wetter regions of the mangrove where the roots are flooded with the advance of each high tide.  

Tiger sightings are rare in this particular park because of its mushy terrain even though it is known to be the home to the iconic Royal Bengal Tiger. However, as always birding was on our mind especially the Buffy fish owl, which is seen in this time of the year. 

Though Sunderbans known as a great place for various varieties of kingfishers (Brown winged Kingfisher, Black capped kingfisher, White throated kingfisher, Collared kingfisher) we could only see the collared kingfisher but in large numbers in the three days we spent here. Mangroove whistler was seen flying around, however wasn't ready to pose for the lens.

Collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris)

Collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris)

We were given to understand that September to March would be a better time to visit Sundarbans for birding. Home to the Royal Bengal tigers along with a sizeable population of spotted deer, monitor lizard and crocodiles.

Spotted deer (Axis axis)

Spotted deer (Axis axis)

Estuarine crocodile

We got lucky during the trip and could sight the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. There were two of them and within moments disappeared into the blackish waters.

Irrawaddy dolphin

The Sundarbans are classified as moist tropical seral forest, comprised of a mosaic succession of four types of tidal forest communities: low mangrove forest, tree mangrove forest, salt-water Heritiera forest and freshwater Heritiera swamp forest, now largely cleared for settlement. These settlers visit certain regions for fishing along the periphery.

Settlers have been heavily dependent on the resources that are available within this rich mangroves. Even the predators (tigers) are aware of the movements of humans here and have to be careful as they have been falling prey either during low tides, or at times when they go to collect honey.

Fishermen

Mangroves are classified as plants having salt tolerance mechanisms like salt glands, aerial roots in the form of pneumatophores and viviparous germination.

Monitor lizard

Tiger Palm trees

During our visit here, we experienced bright sunny afternoons which would turn into a stormy evening. As it poured our anticipation to sight the Buffy fish owl would rise. After the rains the habitat looked even more picturesque.

Great egret (Ardea alba)

Red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) 

While we would wait for rains to stop, saw some amazing creations appear along the coasts like the mudskippers, fiddler crabs apart from red jungle fowls and waders. 

Mudskipper

Fiddler crab

The vulnerable Lesser adjutant was seen feeding along the shallow regions, which would take flight to the other side and stay busy. 

Lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus)

Lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus)

Just after the rains, saw a lovely rainbow. Took the opportunity to use the wide angle lens to capture it, knew I could use the image later to merge it with the lesser adjutant picture, that had been taken against the sky earlier in the afternoon. 

 Lesser adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) 

Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata)

The only way to do safaris in Sundarbans is by traveling on boats. We had chosen to stay in a resort by the night and return to the boat every morning until the evening.  

The trip was planned by Subhadeep, who unfortunately could not join us. Most of the above information on the region was shared to us by Jayanta, who was our naturalist for the entire three day trip (26th July 2019 ~ 28th July 2019). Mrinal Mandal was our official guide, who was a keen bird watcher. 

Pranjal Sakia, Jayanta, Myself and Samir Ovalekar

This was a short trip to specifically see the Buffy fish owl spent most time only looking for it and we could not sight it. The smiles on us stayed as we exchanged a lot of information amongst us that will stay forever.

However apart from Collared Kingfisher, we did sighted the Mangrove whistler, Red jungle fowl, Lesser Adjutant, White-bellied sea eagle, Rose-ringed parakeet, Common sandpiper and Eurasian curlew, who had arrived earlier than expected. 

The easiest way is to arrive here is via Kolkata airport and drive (about three hours) to the main gate where the local guide picks you in a boat and can ferry you to one of the many stay options available in the region. 

If one is very adventurous can also stay over night in the same boat, but it would ferry out from the core zone as the park closes at about 6pm 

Happy Birding!