Thattekad.
Thattekad is located on the northern banks of the Periyar river in Kerala, a couple of hours drive from Kochi. Thattekad is an ever green low-land forest on the foothills of western mountain ranges in India. The rich biodiversity of this location has attracted many bird species, and also the famous ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali, after whom the bird sanctuary is also named. Utulathany and Charupara are the two main forest areas where a host of birds and animals can be found. Some of them that I found were Jerdon's Nightjar, Oriental Scops Owl, Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike, Flame-throated Bulbul, Rusty-tailed Flycatcher, Malabar Trogon (male and female), Little Spiderhunter, Red Spurfowl, Black Baza, White-bellied Blue Flycatcher, Great-eared Nightjar, Blue-throated Flycatcher, Malabar Whistling-thrush, Indian Blackbird, Brown Wood Owl, Ashy Woodswallow, and Sri Lanka Frogmouth.
Thattekad.
My second visit to Thattekad was as exciting as the first one! The White-bellied Treepie, The Blue-eared Kingfisher and the Nilgiri Wood pigeon were high on my priority list and got great photos of them. Also the Malabar Hornbill, Grey and Pied both. The Heart-spotted Woodpecker, the Malabar Parakeet, Srilankan Frogmouth, Crested Goshawk, Malabar Woodshrike, and the Asian Fairybird were added bonus. The Slender Loris in day time and the superbly camouflaged Indian Flying Lizard were super lucky finds too!