Birds life in Chitwan National Park

The Chitwan National Park is a Paradise for birds and bird-watchers a like, is one of the most rewarding places in the world for spotting and study. The avifauna of the Park is a very diverse more than half of the bird listed for Nepal is found here. Due to the wide range of habits dense forests, grasslands, Rivers, streams, lakes and swamps, provides a mass of ecological niche for birds to use. More than 500 species of birds have been recorded within the park, including the migratory and residents. This is the larg est recorded number of bird species for any other part of the country. 16 globally threatened birds species are found i n the park among 29 species recorded for Nepal, classified by birdlife international such as Bengal Florican, Lesser Flori can, Lesser Adjutant, Sarus Crane, Jorden Babbler, Bristled Grass bird, Grey-Crowned Prinia, Slender billed Babbler, White rumped Vulture, Greater spotted Eagle, Lesser Kestrel just to name a few. The reason for Nepal's bird species richness due to the huge variation in altitude and climates and also Nepal lies in the region where two biogeographically realms of Asia overlap the Pale arctic to the North and the Oriental to the South. Overlap of these two world's biotic regions has gifted Nepal with over 862 bird species which is almost ten percent of the world's known birds. Other rare birds found in the Park are Black capped Kingfisher, Blue eared Kingfisher, Sultan Tit, Ruddy Kingfisher, Eurasian eagle Owl, Spot-bellied eagle Owl, Rufous rumped Grassbird, Barn Owl, Black Baza, Red necked Falcon, Great Hornbill, Black winged Stilt, Eurasian Woodcock and Water Cock. There are also a diverse species of Woodpeckers, Laughing Thrushes, Flycatchers, Warblers, Bitterns, Drongos, Nuthatches, Green Pigeons, Parakeets, Bulbuls, Bee-eaters, Prinias and Owls and many species of waders and waterfowls. The best bird watching periods are September-November and February April, when migrants turn up and head off or pass by various species of wintering birds. And the most of the wintering water fowls and waders, arriving in Chitwan are Trans Himalayan migrants coming from as far as north Siberia such as Ruddy shel-ducks and so on. There are numerous summer migrants such as Paradise flycatcher, Black-naped monarch. Indian, and Hooded pitta. There are a variety of altitudinal migrant species, especially wintering warbles and fly catchers such as Slaty blue, little pied, orange-gorgetted flycatchers, Greenish warbler, Grey sided Bush warbler and so on.