Birding in Yelagiri

While my previous post covered details about accomodation, sight-seeing and food in Yelagiri, this post is dedicated to Birding.

As I already mentioned in the previous post, Yelagiri is not fully commercialised. There's minimal pollution, not much human interference. Hence, birds can be spotted everywhere. Birds like Red-vented bulbuls, Red-whiskered bulbuls, drongos, munias are found almost everywhere - you don't have to specially go and look for them!

Here's a map showing birding places in Yelagiri. I've prepared this based on my 3 day birding trip. There may be several other places which I'd have missed. Also, I didn't go for the trek to Swamimalai, which is surely bound to be great for birding.

Here's a list of Birds that I spotted. I've also mentioned the place where I spotted them.

(YN = Yatri Nivas - the place where we stayed
NP = Nature Park)

Birds that I spotted commonly in Yelagiri:

1. Red vented bulbuls - Guauva trees in YN Garden. Eucalyptus forest area behind YN. Several in NP.

2. Red whiskered bulbuls - YN garden, NP

3. Rose Ringed Parakeets - Several of them on a tree near the bus-stop. Could spot them there at any time of the day.

4. Ashy Prinia - YN. Also in many scrub bushes along the road.

5. White Throated Kingfisher - Behind YN, On the way to Jalagamparai.


6. Common Tailorbirds - YN garden.

7. House Sparrow - behind YN.

8. Purple-rumped Sunbird (The pic below) - YN, NP and near the lake.

9. Pied Bushchats - YN. Several pied bushchat's spotted inside YN compound, behind the building, in the place where the kitchen wastes are dumped. I clicked several pics from the balcony itself as they weren't afraid to come close to the balcony.

10. Brahminy Starling - Road behind YN.


11. Green Bee Eater - behind YN and in the vacant land next to YN.

12. White-bellied Drongo - YN. Also, in several other places on the way to the lake.

13. Spotted Munia (Scaly Breasted Munia) - Near YN, NP, the main road, the road leading to the lake, Nilavoor park. They were everywhere. I could find ALWAYS a couple of Spotted munias in the creepers in the Nature Park's archway entrance.

Green Bee-eater, Spotted Munia and White-bellied Drongo.

14. Oriental Magpie Robin - YN and a few in bushes along the roads.

15. Indian Robin - YN and the road behind YN, Lake, Murugan Temple.

16. White Browed Wagtail - YN, Lake and NP.

White Browed Wagtail

17. Yellow Billed Babbler - Near the Murugan Temple

18. Laughing Dove - Near the Murugan Temple.

19. Common Iora - a few seen behind YN.

20. Black Drongo - YN and NP. Also, at several places along the road.

21. Baya Weaver Bird - Nilavoor

Apart from these, the calls of Common Hawk Cuckoo (Brain-fever bird) could be heard very often in YN and NP, though the bird was elusive as always!

(I've not mentioned the palm-swifts, common rock doves and pigeons that were commonly spotted.
One interesting thing is that there are hardly any crows in Yelagiri. I saw hardly one or two during my 3 days there)


Birds that were not common

1. Tickell's Flower Pecker (or Pale billed Flower Pecker) - In a kitchen-garden near YN.

2. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Several people have clicked pics of this bird at YMCA. I just caught a glimpse of it, before it flew away before I could click.

3. Rufous Treepie - in the Forest behind YN and Banyan Tree.

4. Coppersmith Barbet (or Crimson Throated Barbet) - Banyan Tree.

5. Lesser Golden Back woodpecker (Black-rumped Flameback) - Banyan Tree.

6. Yellow-crowned Woodpecker - This is special. I've not come across any listing of Yelagiri Birds which mentions Yellow Crowned woodpecker. I didn't expect to see one. But, couldn't get a clear photo. But, this collage of cropped images that I clicked is enough to identify the bird. The scaly back, the yellow crown and the red patch in the belly are prominent. Clicked at the Banyan Tree.

7. Jungle Myna - Forest behind YN.


8. Yellow Eyed Babbler (The pic on the left) - YN

9. Jungle Babbler - YMCA

10. Spotted Owlet - Don Bosco compound wall.

11. Indian Roller - On the way to Jalagamparai.


12. Greater Coucal - On the way to Jalagamparai.

13. Grey Wagtail - Spotted at Jalagamparai.

While I've talked about several places for birding, the banyan tree behind Yatri Nivas (refer map) was the one I loved for the surprises it was throwing. Every time I went there, I spotted some different species, which I didn't see anywhere else in Yelagiri. There could be a few other places which are good, but these were the places that I frequented.

To see more photos of Yelagiri birds, hop on to my Flickr photoset.