With its colorful and showy birds, excellent chance of seeing wild Tigers, and incredible mountain scenery, fascinating culture, extravagant buildings and architecture and beautiful parks, North India has so much to offer both hardcore birders and more general wildlife and natural history enthusiasts alike!

Glen Valentine just returned from leading a private tour to Northern India, where the sightings and experiences were truly mind-blowing! In Glen’s words: “We recorded an impressive 400 species during our 18 day tour, which included an array of extremely memorable and mouth-watering highlights. The spectacular Cheer Pheasant showed particularly well once again, as did many other highly desired species including the outstanding Ibisbill, bizarre Wallcreeper, Long-billed and Long-tailed Thrushes, very rarely seen Fire-fronted Serin, shy and evasive Hill Partridge, Black Bittern, Bearded, White-rumped and Indian Vultures, Eastern Imperial and Bonelli’s Eagles, Rufous-bellied Hawk-Eagle, miniscule Collared Falconet, elusive Laggar Falcon, elegant Sarus Crane, nomadic and unpredictable Indian Courser, Painted Sandgrouse, five species of parakeet, an incredible 8 owl species that included Tawny and Brown Fish Owls, Indian Eagle-Owl and the tiny Collared Owlet, gigantic Great Hornbill, Indian Skimmer and Black-bellied Tern, 16 species of woodpecker, from the stately Himalayan Flameback to the minute Speckled Piculet, very smart Black-headed Jay and Red-billed Blue Magpie, sensational Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush and Siberian Rubythroat, brilliant Orange-headed Thrush, White-tailed Stonechat and immaculate Spotted Forktail, a multitude of buntings and migratory flycatchers, the often-tricky Black-breasted Weaver and Pink-browed Rosefinch, to mention just a few! We were also thrilled to encounter some rarely seen species on this well traversed route such as Jack Snipe, White-collared Blackbird, Eurasian Bittern, Vinaceous Rosefinch, Fire-tailed Sunbird, Moustached Warbler and Nepal Wren-Babbler. Tigers also showed well at Ranthambhore and Corbett National Parks and we were treated to incredible views of Ranthanmbhore’s two largest and dominant male Tigers during our stay in the park! Other fascinating and note-worthy mammals included Yellow-throated Marten, Ruddy Mongoose, Golden Jackal, Bengal Fox, Desert Cat, Indian Elephant and Dorcas Gazelle.”

To view some of Glen’s images from the tour, click on the following link, which will take you to his album on our facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.445489975516220.93280.138625679535986&type=1