Great Rann Of Kutch Short Birding Tours

The Short Birding Tours of Great Rann of Kutch begins in Ahmedabad, a lively and vibrant city in Gujarat. Our representative receives you at the airport or other chosen place and drives you to the Great Rann of Kutch.

It's a long westward drive through small towns of Gujarat and takes up to 6-7 hours before we reach our destination in the Great Rann Of Kutch. Since we hope to start our journey early in the morning, we should reach the Great Rann by lunch time. We check into a resort and, after a brief break for rest and lunch, we go out to watch birds around the resort.

Dinner and overnight at the resort.

The Great Rann Of Kutch is a thriving bird habitat, and a very unusual one at that. Spanning an area of 7500 square km, it is one of the largest salt deserts in the world. Every year, summer monsoon creates lakes in the muddy flatland. On the southern edge of the desert is Banni Grassland, a biodiversity hotspot with a good variety of avifauna. The mainland has arid plains, dry riverbeds and a few hillocks. Every winter season, these areas teem with thousands of birds, so much so that we need three full days of birding here to fully tap into its potential.

The bird checklist of Great Rann of Kutch is long, so we divide our target birds over three days. The birds to go after are Grey Hypocolius, Greater Coucal, Indian Nightjar, Baillon's Crake, Common Crane, Green Sandpiper, River Tern, Greater Spotted Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Eurasian Marsh-Harrier, Montagu's Harrier, Shikra, Long-legged Buzzard, Eurasian Hoopoe, Isabelline Shrike, Rufous-tailed Lark, Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Greater Short-toed Lark, Crested Lark, Gray-breasted Prinia, White-eared Bulbul, Asian Desert Warbler, Rosy Starling, Indian Robin, Bluethroat, Black Redstart, White-browed Bushchat, Desert Wheatear, Variable Wheatear, Persian Wheatear, Tawny Pipit, Gray-necked Bunting, Eurasian Kestrel, Isabelline Wheatear, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Black-winged Stilt, Eurasian Curlew, Temminck's Stint, Common Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Western Reef-Heron, and Marsh Sandpiper, among many others.

After a busy day of birding at Great Rann Of Kutch, we return to our resort for dinner and overnight.

On each day of birdwatching at Great Rann Of Kutch, we explore newer birding trails in the grasslands, coastline or mangrove creeks.

There's an interesting cast of waders and raptors to see. The targets include Painted Stork, Greater Hoopoe-Lark, Bimaculated Lark, Demoiselle Crane, Intermediate Egret, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Gull-billed Tern, Short-toed Snake-Eagle, Pallid Harrier, Lesser Whitethroat, Eastern Orphean Warbler, Siberian Stonechat, Brown Rock Chat, Paddyfield Pipit, Lesser Flamingo, Bonelli's Eagle, Asian Koel, Bay-backed Shrike, Yellow-throated Sparrow, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Great White Pelican, Yellow Bittern, Tawny Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Painted Sandgrouse, Macqueen's Bustard, Cream-colored Courser, Red-headed Vulture, Eurasian Griffon, Sirkeer Malkoha, Little Stint, Black Francolin, Oriental Honey-buzzard, Graceful Prinia, Sykes's Warbler, Wire-tailed Swallow, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Black-bellied Plover, Sanderling, Black-headed Gull, White-naped Tit, Tawny Lark, Black-headed Bunting, Striolated Bunting, Gadwall, Eurasian Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Indian Thick-knee, Pied Avocet, Black-tailed Godwit, and Indian Courser.

In the evening, we return to our resort for dinner and overnight.

We keep the itinerary flexible to let you decide the birding hotspots of Great Rann of Kutch you want to explore on this day. The idea is to mark off the missing birds in the checklist.

We again step out for birdwatching right after breakfast and spend the whole day in the field. There might be re-sightings of certain birds, but our targets include Slender-billed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Caspian Tern, White-rumped Vulture, Indian Vulture, Eurasian Wryneck, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Red-necked Falcon, White-tailed Iora, Indian Bushlark, Oriental Skylark, Rufous-fronted Prinia, Yellow-eyed Babbler, Lesser Whistling-Duck, Knob-billed Duck, Garganey, Sykes's Nightjar, Eurasian Coot, Sarus Crane, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, White-tailed Lapwing, Kentish Plover, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Whiskered Tern, Dalmatian Pelican, Booted Eagle, Indian Scops-Owl, Spotted Owlet, Common Iora, Cinereous Tit, Plain Prinia, Zitting Cisticola, Clamorous Reed Warbler, Common Chiffchaff, and Brahminy Starling.

Of course, we look for nocturnal birds after the dusk and return to our resort in the evening for dinner and overnight.

We squeeze in a few hours of morning birdwatching around our resort at Great Rann of Kutch, following which we pack up and drive to Ahmedabad. The journey takes about 6-7 hours and we should arrive in the afternoon. Thereafter, we drop you at the airport or any other location of your choice. The birdwatching tour of Great Rann of Kutch comes to an end.