Bhutan

Day 1: The tour begins this evening in Delhi. Upon arrival at Indira Ghandi International Airport you will be transferred to a nearby hotel. Night in Delhi.

Paul is not only an amazing birder but he is well organized, extremely knowledgeable and fun to be with. We chose the Bhutan tour in order to be in the field with him again. We want as well to mention our stellar ground crew who were excellent! They looked after us in every way they could, providing hot drinks, meals and other comforts every day and taking care of us astoundingly well when we were camping. They deserve the highest kudos for all they did, everyday.Erin in the WINGS office was marvelous! She graciously and ably helped us with our many pre-tour personal trip extras which were complicated and required multiple communications, reservations and follow-ups. Everything turned out perfectly. - Randy and Sid B.

Day 2: We’ll catch a very early morning flight to Paro, Bhutan’s only international airport. Our route parallels the mighty Himalayan mountain chain, and if the weather is good we should see Mount Everest. After clearing immigration we’ll drive east through an enchanting valley with gaily decorated shingle-roofed houses and a willow-fringed river. Red-billed Choughs are quite common in this valley, and as we head east we’ll stop to search for regional specialties such as Black-tailed Crake, Ibisbill, Wallcreeper, Brown Dipper and Rufous-fronted Bushtit. We’ll spend the night in Thimpu, Bhutan’s delightful capital.

Day 3: We’ll head east out of Thimpu and up onto the western slopes of the Dochu La, the first of a series of high-altitude road passes that we’ll explore. Entering the pristine mixed forests of hemlock, fir, oak, magnolias, and rhododendrons, we should see a wealth of birds, including some species-rich feeding flocks. Quarrelsome Nutcrackers are common, and past highlights have included skulking Hill Partridge, Satyr Tragopan, Golden Bush Robin, the immaculate Himalayan Cutia, Brown Parrotbill, and even the gorgeous Fire-tailed Myzornis. Most of our birding on this tour is from the roads, which are well paved and almost lacking in traffic. Today, however, we’ll venture offroad onto a trail that enables us to explore the forest more thoroughly. On several recent tours we’ve even managed to have excellent views of Ward’s Trogon, one of Bhutan’s premier avian prizes. We’ll spend the following two nights near Punakha.

Day 4: From our base at a splendid, traditionally decorated hotel near Punakha, the former capital of Bhutan, we’ll explore the braided channels of the Mo Chhu River and its bird-rich subtropical forests. Our route will take us past the spectacular Punakha Dzong. We should see an impressive array of species here, and on several occasions in the past these have included a White-bellied Heron, one of Bhutan’s rarest birds. We’re sure to encounter several parties of brightly colored minivets and noisy Striated Laughingthrushes, and we may also see more Ibisbills. A whole host of forest species, such as Bay Woodpecker, Red-headed Trogon, and Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, waits to be discovered. Fire-capped Tit breeds here, as do White-gorgeted Flycatcher and the rare Yellow-vented Warbler. We’ll also search for a variety of skulkers, including Lesser Shortwing, Spotted Elachura and Pygmy Cupwing, and two of Bhutan’s three species of tesia. In the afternoon we hope to be able to go inside Punakha Dzong, a fabulous fortified monastery that’s still home to many hundred monks. Night again near Punakha.

Day 5: Continuing east, past the smaller Wangdi Dzong, we’ll make a series of brief stops to scan the braided river channel. In the past we’ve seen Pallas’s Gull and Pallas’s Fish Eagle here and have added a number of other species to the Bhutanese list. We’ll also check forest edges and explore some of the small patches of cultivation. We’ll enter productive forest near the end of our journey, where we’ll stop to look for species such as Spotted Laughingthrush, Hume’s Bush-Warbler, Rusty-flanked Treecreeper, White-browed Bush Robin, and White-winged Grosbeak. Night in Gangtey, in the heart of the Phobjika Valley.

Day 6: Leaving Gangtey we’ll follow the twisting road up over the Pele La pass and into Central Bhutan. We’ll spend much of the morning on the Pele La Pass searching for species such as Blood Pheasant, Satyr Tragopan, and the majestic Himalayan Monal. We’ll search a stand of ringal bamboo on the eastern side of the pass for specialties such as Great and Brown Parrotbills and Golden-breasted Fulvetta, surely one of the world’s most attractive passerines. Night in Trongsa.

Day 7: From Trongsa we’ll head south down the Zhemgang road to a small guest house in Tingtibi where we’ll spend the following two nights. Our main focus at the start of our journey will be the rare and little-known Yellow-rumped Honeyguide, but we should also see a number of other birds, perhaps including Little Forktail, Large Niltava, or Russet Bush Warbler. The entire length of the spectacularly forested valley is also good for the endangered Golden Langur monkey. Night in Tingtibi.

Day 8: We’ve seen Beautiful Nuthatch at several sites on the lower Zhemgang road, and we’ll spend time searching for this magnificent creature. Our guest house right in the heart of superb forest, is at one of the lowest altitudes that we visit; species encountered here on recent tours include Chestnut-breasted Partridge, Violet Cuckoo, Pin-tailed Green Pigeon, Rufous-necked Hornbill, Pale-headed Woodpecker, Pale-billed Parrotbill and Himalayan Cutia. Rufous-faced Warbler is also quite common, and we stand a reasonable chance of encountering the rare White-bellied Heron and possibly even a Collared Treepie. Night again in Tingtibi.

Day 9: This will be our longest driving day of the tour, taking us from Tingtibi north back through Trongsa before continuing east up and over the bamboo-thronged Yotong La into the first of the four Bumthang valleys. There, the scenery changes to broad grassy valleys and rolling hillsides covered in spruce and fir, and the avifauna changes equally abruptly. Night in Jakar.

Day 10: We’ll start early today, continuing our circuit east and searching for pheasants, which could include Himalayan Monal, Satyr Tragopan, and Blood Pheasant. Eventually we’ll cross the Thrumsing La, at 12,465 feet Bhutan’s highest road pass. The road then plunges dramatically down into rich semi-tropical rainforest, taking us onto the Lingmethang road, perhaps Asia’s premier birding road. Many of the region’s real specialties and most sought-after species: Slender-billed Scimitar Babbler, White-browed and Rufous-breasted Bush Robins, Dark-rumped Rosefinch, and Fulvous, Brown, and Great Parrotbills can be found here, as can Chestnut-breasted Partridge, Ward’s Trogon, the majestic Rufous-necked Hornbill, Blue-naped Pitta, Blue-fronted Robin, and Sikkim Wedge-billed, Long-billed, and Bar-winged Wren-Babblers. We’ll spend parts of five days on the magical Lingmethang road – our first night will be at higher elevation near Sengor, the other three significantly lower down. Accommodation at Sengor is still rather spartan, so we’ve opted to camp in modern, spacious walk-in tents equipped with comfortable camp beds; the tents will be set up for us by our Bhutanese crew.

Days 11-13: We’ll spend these days exploring the fabulously lush primary forests near Lingmethang in search of the area’s specialties. We’re sure to see many new birds, and while not all of them are rare, many, such as Slender-billed and Coral-billed Scimitar-Babblers, Scaly and Blue-winged Laughingthrushes, White-breasted Parrotbill, Broad-billed Warbler, White-naped Yuhina, and Rufous-throated Wren-babbler are poorly known and unfamiliar to most birders. Nights near Yongkola.

Day 14: We’ll leave Yongkola and continue east, by-passing Trashigang, and on to our second camp site of the tour – one close to lush, bird-rich forests near the Karung Pass.

Day 15: Leaving our final camp site we’ll continue south to our next base in southeastern Bhutan. Our journey takes us through numerous small villages, across several forest-covered passes, and down spectacular river valleys. Only recently re-opened to foreigners, this area of eastern Bhutan remains ornithologically poorly known. As so often on this tour we’ll take breakfast and lunch in the field, and make several exploratory birding stops amid superb forest before reaching Samdrup Jongkhar, a bustling border town lying at the junction of the Himalayas and the Brahmaputra flood plain. We’ll spend two nights here.

Day 16: Spending the entire day at low elevation never very far from the Indian border Today’s key species will include Grey Peacock Pheasant, Wreathed Hornbill, Whistling Hawk-Cuckoo, Mountain Imperial and Pin-tailed Green and Mountain Imperial Pigeons, Violet Cuckoo, Dark-rumped Swift, Long-tailed Broadbill, Rufous-necked Laughingthrush, Sultan Tit, and we stand another chance of encountering the enigmatic Beautiful Nuthatch. Night again in Samdrup Jongkhar.

Day 17: We’ll spend the early morning exploring another site near Samdrup Jongkhar,. We’ll reluctantly leave Bhutan for the drive south to Assam, India, and on to Guwahati, the logistical hub of northeastern India. We’ll make several brief stops along the way; we’re sure to see many Lesser Adjutants and hopefully also quite a few Greater Adjutants. Night in Guwahati.

Day 18: We’ll have an hour or two birding around Guwahati this morning. Highlights could include Small Pratincole, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Citrine Wagtail, Rusty-rumped Warbler, and Striated Grassbird. Next we’ll catch our flight back to Delhi and transfer to an airport hotel to freshen up. After a leisurely dinner we’ll transfer to the international airport where the tour ends in time for late evening departures home.

2024 Narrative

This year there was absolutely no doubt which of our Blood Pheasant encounters contributed to that species romping home as the winner of the end of tour Bird of the Trip poll. It was our second - the covey of four (three males and one female) which came ludicrously close and made lots of noise as they ran around and around and around us eager to perform. We were on the lower western slopes of the Thrumsing La and already more than half-way through the tour. Piping Satyr Tragopan, an equally resplendent species that we saw on three separate days, by a hefty eight points and even the ever popular, aptly named, Beautiful Nuthatch by a remarkable 25, the size of the win was almost as staggering as the encounter itself!

We’d encountered a huge number of other fabulously memorable species with other highlights in the Top 10  including some of the eastern Himalayas’ most sought after species: Himalayan Monal, White-bellied Heron, Ibisbill, Rufous-necked Hornbill, Fire-tailed Myzornis and Pallas’s Fish Eagle.

But there’s far, far more to any bird tour than the star birds and, as always, our Bhutan tour is simply brimming over with memorable moments and stupendous encounters. The tour got off to a superb start with a fabulous, panoramic flight along the southern edge of the Himalayan Mountain chain with spectacular mountain views blessing much of the journey. Once in Paro we met Kipchu, our superbly knowledgeable guide, Sangay, our equally skilled driver, and another Sangay our second guide and then we were off to explore this fabulously bird-rich Kingdom. Moments later we were watching our first, quality Bhutanese birds – the first of our four separate Ibisbills. That was promptly followed by a male Wallcreeper while a small roadside marsh right on the edge of Paro held a pair of inquisitive Black-tailed Crakes. Lunch back in Paro was a tasty introduction to Bhutanese cuisine. What a day – and what a welcome to The Land of the Thunder Dragon!

After a night that never seemed quite long enough, we were up and at ’em again early the following morning, with the Dochhu La, our first Bhutanese pass, beckoning. True to form it yielded a few, but far from all, of its ornithological jewels – the best of which, amidst the myriad yuhinas, fulvettas and minlas included a couple of Hoary-throated Barwings, our first Rusty-flanked and Sikkim Treecreepers, a brilliant Green Shrike Babbler, memorable looks at a pair of the fascinatingly-named Fire-tailed Myzornis, our first Red-headed Bullfinches, and a single co-operative a Himalayan Cuckoo and Scarlet Finch in the very same tree. Best of all though were the prolonged ‘scope view of a fantastic male Satyr Tragopan!

Spending the following two nights in a new hotel overlooking the river south of Punakha dzong gave us the opportunity to relax a little and look at a few of the region’s more common species. A covey of four Kalij Pheasants; our first Mountain Hawk, Rufous-bellied, Black and Steppe Eagles and our first Grey-sided Bush Warbler and Chestnut-headed Tesia. That afternoon, Kipchu took us on an insightful and thoroughly enjoyable guided tour inside the magnificent Punakha dzong. Even the most fanatical birders among us felt that our time had been well spent…

With spring migration in full flow, the rivers immediately around Punakha, once Bhutan’s winter capital, harboured decent numbers of waterfowl and we spent time looking at and searching through those the following day. The pair of Garganey, four Red-crested Pochard, and female Ferruginous Duck had to compete with one, and later two, Pallas’s Fish Eagles and a pair of Crested Kingfishers for our attention. We climbed higher, up and into the cloud later in the day and, after a spectacular performance from a Yellow-rumped Honeyguide and later a pair of Spotted Laughingthrushes, descended into the flat-bottomed Phobjika Valley. Unfortunately, no late-staying Black-necked Cranes lingered there this year.

Our second major pass, the Pele La, welcomed us the following morning. The day’s primary target, the always resplendent Himalayan Monal, gave itself up spectacularly well and, like an oversized, fluorescent Turkey, he had us transfixed. We were equally enthralled by a reluctant pair of Blood Pheasants while another gamebird, the ever-effervescent Satyr Tragopan, that eventually lolloped leisurely around our parked vehicle, took a bit more effort. We thought then that those might well be our last encounters with each of these species but how wrong we were! Although we’d only glimpse Himalayan Monal subsequently, we’d eventually finish the tour having had another, and truly spectacular Blood Pheasant encounter, and having encountered ten separate tragopans – three of which we actually saw! What’s more, everyone present saw Blood Pheasant, Himalayan Monal and Satyr Tragopan; everyone saw Beautiful Nuthatch, Rufous-necked Hornbill and White-bellied Heron. Virtually everyone saw ALL the best birds on the entire tour.

Heading from the Pele La, to Trongsa (where we revelled a pair of Bhutan Laughingthrushes) we overnighted there before continuing our journey south down the Zhemgang road. Here we revelled in views of a roadside Grey Nightjar, multiple Golden Langurs, and several Sultan Tits before making it to Tingtibi in the evening. Basing ourselves here for two nights we tried…and tried…and tried to find the area’s Beautiful Nuthatches but failed. That species would have to wait.

Our search for the extremely rare, White-bellied Heron was superbly successful, and we soon found one fishing in a nearby river. Even with our focus on the heron and nuthatch we still found time to add Red Junglefowl, Banded Bay Cuckoo, Pin-tailed Green Pigeon, four Great and even more Rufous-necked Hornbills, at least two pairs of Blue-bearded Bee-eaters and our first of many Himalayan Cutias.

Heading back north and then traversing east up and over the Yotong La our next destination was a comfortable guest house in Bumthang, replete with Red-billed Choughs in the garden and buck wheat pancakes in the restaurant!

Over the years we’ve found that the drive over Bhutan’s highest road pass, the mighty Thrumsing La between central and eastern Bhutan provides some excellent birding and 2024, with the stunning Blood Pheasant encounter mentioned earlier, was no exception. The following night’s introduction to Bhutanese camping went smoothly – everyone slept, the tents were sufficiently comfortable and spacious and, as if we ever doubted it, the camp crew hardworking and capable. It hardly mattered as, because of the itinerary change forced on us because of the closure of the land border to India that was our only night under canvas!

The Limithang road yielded another tragopan the following morning, but that one performed only for a lucky few. More cooperative however were the pair of Slender-billed Scimitar babblers, the Black-headed Shrike Babbler, Broad-billed Warbler and a fine male Sapphire Flycatcher. Two more full days based at Yongkola on the lower Lingmethang road yielded many more, but certainly not all, of our target species: a pair of Asian Emerald Cuckoos, both Rufous-throated and Long-billed Wren Babblers, White-gorgeted Flycatcher, Spot-winged Grosbeak, a flock of stunning Grey-sided Laughingthrushes, White-naped Yuhinas galore and for a lucky few, close range looks at a Black-crowned Scimitar Babbler. Best of all though were a confiding pair of Ward’s Trogon and a pair of Beautiful Nuthatches. We caught up with a good number of our remaining target species over the following few days. Highlights here included a hugely cooperative Slender-billed Scimitar-babbler; two Hill Partridges; all three species of tesia; Pygmy, Bar-winged, Rufous-throated and a fairly obliging pair of Long-billed Wren-babblers; a superb White-gorgeted Flycatcher; three brilliantly vociferous Sikkim Wedge-billed Babblers; several encounters with Himalayan Cutias, an and a Black-headed Shrike Babbler that came from over the horizon to sing in our faces…

But it wasn’t all straightforward – for the first time in over a decade we never even heard a Sikkim Wedge-billed Babbler and the ever-enchanting Black-throated Parrotbills and Golden-breasted Fulvettas kept their distance. Nevertheless, we’d had a great time on the Limithang road and, while we certainly hadn’t ‘cleaned up’, we headed back over the Thrumsing La more than satisfied by what we had experienced. Another morning on the edge of Trongsa produced the hoped-for Russet Bush Warbler, and fine looks at a Spotted Elachura, ‘no longer a wren babbler but still spotted’ that performed brilliantly for us all, and from the road, the following morning. All too soon we were back in Paro and shortly after that notching up almost 100 species at Sultanpur National Park on the outskirts of Delhi. Species that included a displaying pair of Sarus Cranes, two equally gargantuan Black-necked Storks, several Common Hawk Cuckoos, Sind Sparrows and umpteen shorebirds.

Our memories of Bhutan are sure to fade, but hopefully not too quickly and I’d hope that we’ll long remember our encounters with Blood Pheasant, Satyr Tragopan, Himalayan Monal, White-bellied Heron, Rufous-necked Hornbill and Beautiful Nuthatch to mention but a few. I wrote the following at the end of a previous Bhutan tour report ‘or perhaps the memories that will linger longest won’t be avian at all – perhaps our most savoured memories will be of the Bhutanese scenery, of hillsides cloaked in dense forest with magnificent snow-capped peaks as a backdrop, or of our crew’s magnificent efforts to keep us happy and entertained’.

The birding in Bhutan is awesome (really awesome!) and Paul’s in little doubt that this tiny kingdom hosts what’s some of the best birding on the planet, and after a tour like we’d just had, who could argue?

- Paul Holt

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