Nabang Day 2

I woke up wondering how we could top yesterday’s success, but as luck would have it I needn’t have worried. The more I do this job the luckier I get….!!. We staked out a patch of bamboo this morning and were eventually rewarded with a group of cracking White-hooded Babblers and Rufous-headed Parrotbills, both species giving much closer and better views than yesterday’s sighting. 

Pale-billed Parrotbill

Rufous-headed Parrotbill

An unusual song then got my attention as it turned out to be a pair of Grey Sibias calling exactly like Drongo Cuckoo to my ears. Truly bizarre! We then walked for a short while and managed to see Stripe-breasted Woodpecker, Rufous-backed Sibia,Grey Treepie, a group of White-crested Laughingthrushes, Puff-throated Babbler, both Scarlet and Short-billed Minivets,  and best of all a Yellow-vented Flowerpecker. Back at the same stand of bamboo, and amazingly this time a group of 6 Pale-billed Parrotbills appeared and were pretty close to us for a while. Luckily for a few of the group a Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler appeared for a short while. Overhead we saw Black Eagle, displaying Crested Goshawk and Crested Honey Buzzard. Not a bad morning at all!

Coral-billed Scimitar-Babbler

After lunch at a restaurant during which time we saw Cook’s and House Swifts, Eastern Jungle Crow and Olive-backed Pipit before heading back into the forest seeing a surprising Lesser Coucal and more expected Grey-backed Shrike en-route. It was much quieter this afternoon with previously seen species showing once again, such as Jerdon’s Baza, Striated Yuhina, Maroon Oriole, White-throated Bulbul and others. David spotted a pair of cracking Blue-bearded Bee-eaters, whilst Grey-eyed Bulbul was also new. 

So we decided to return to the river as we still had an hour of daylight spare seeing Green Bee-eater and Ashy Woodswallow en-route. And it turned out be pretty productive with 2 Crested Kingfishers, Brown Dipper, Dusky Warbler, Common Tailorbird, Indian Spot-billed Duck, White-breasted Waterhen, Citrine Wagtail, Common Moorhen, Striated Grassbird and Black-faced Bunting – most of which were new for our list.