Mandala-Sela Pass Short Birding Tours

Our Short Birding Tours of Mandala and Sela Passes begins in Guwahati, the biggest city of Assam in Northeast India. Upon your arrival in Guwahati, our driver or representative meets you at the airport and then drives you to Mandala in Arunachal Pradesh.

It's an 8-hour drive from the floodplains of the Brahmaputra river to the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh. The road cuts through a picturesque landscape of the lower Himalayas and our journey ends at Mandala Birding Lodge on the edge of a hill in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. This area is in the thick of the Mandala Phudung forest region, which, together with the nearby forests of Shergaon and Kalaktang, forms one of the Important Birding Areas of Arunachal Pradesh, and is an excellent place to kick off our high-elevation India Short Birding Tours.

Upon our arrival in Mandala in the evening, we check into the lodge and call it a day. Since the lodge is located in a birding hotspot you may roam around to catch sight of some avian beauties. Dinner and overnight at Mandala lodge.

We have a very early start to the day. We wake up around 0330 hours, have a cup of tea or coffee, and then hit the road to Sela Pass. The road goes northwards to a place called Dirang and then makes an easterly turn to the Sela Pass, which, at the altitude of 4160 meters, is rightly called the gateway to the town of Tawang. We carry our packed breakfast that we eat on the way. The idea behind this early start is to reach the vicinity of Sela Pass around daybreak.

Birding at Sela Pass starts about 9 km before the pass itself. In the first light of day, we begin our birding walk to look for the high-altitude birds of Arunachal Pradesh such as Snow Partridge, Himalayan Monal, Blood Pheasant, Grandala, Rare Gould's Shortwing, Solitary Snipe, Upland Buzzard, White-browed Rosefinch, Plain Mountain Finches, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Red-billed Chough, Snow Pigeon, Alpine Accentors, Little Owl, Red-fronted Rosefinch, White-browed Tit-warbler, Himalayan Buzzard, Yellow-breasted Greenfinch, Dark-breasted Rosefinch, Himalayan Beautiful Rosefinch, Dark-rumped Rosefinch and several others. Sela Pass also offers stunning views of the eastern Himalayan peaks.

In the evening we drive back all the way down to Dirang and continue our journey southwards to Mandala. Dinner and overnight at Mandala lodge.

Mandala Top is turning out to be a tourist attraction because of its recently-built cluster of 108 small Buddhist temples. Besides, the elevation of 3000 meters gives Mandala Top the vantage viewpoint of the mighty Himalayan mountain range. From a birding perspective, Mandala Top is a great place to look for more high-altitude birds of Arunachal Pradesh.

For two consecutive days, we do birding at Mandala Top. Our targets for these two days are Blanford's Rose Finch, Brown bush Warbler, Temminck's Tragopan, Gould's Shortwing, Naumann's Thrush, Red-throated Thrush, Black-throated/Plain-backed Thrush, White-bellied Redstart, Beautiful Sibias, Fire-capped Tit, Blue-fronted Robin, Spotted Nutcracker, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, Ward's Trogon, Slender-billed Scimitar-Babbler, Spotted Laughingthrush, Crimson-browed Finch, Large-billed Leaf-Warbler, Ludlow's Fulvetta, Rusty-flanked Treecreeper, Fire-tailed Myzornis, White-throated & Grey-sided Laughingthrushes, Red-tailed Minla, Yellow-browed, Black-browed and Rufous-vented Tits, Green-tailed Sunbird, Chestnut-tailed Minla, Black-faced Warbler, Stripe-throated Yuhina, Golden-breasted Fulvettas, Bar-tailed Treecreeper, Rufous-chinned and Grey-sided Laughingthrushes, Scaly-breasted Cupwing, Grey-sided Bush-warbler, Fulvous and Black-throated Parrotbills, Black-throated, White-collared and Grey-winged Blackbirds, Himalayan Bluetails, Eurasian Nutcracker, Speckled Wood-pigeon, Wood Snipe, Red Crossbill, Gould's Shortwing, Scarlet Finch, Brown Bullfinch, Red-headed Bullfinch, Grey-headed Bullfinch, Collared Grosbeak, Spot-winged Grosbeak, Gold-naped Finch, and Little Bunting.

At Mandala Top one may also see interesting wildlife such as Red Panda, Himalayan Serow, Arunachal Macaque and Flying Squirrels. We overnight at Mandala birding lodge on both days.

The final day of our Arunachal birdwatching adventure. We have an early breakfast and hit the road for a long journey from Mandala Top to Guwahati in Assam. The eight-hour drive winds through Shergaon and Phudung forests. We also make short stops to do some birdwatching along the route. We particularly target the lower forest regions and bamboo patches. We arrive in Guwahati by evening and drop you at the airport for your onward journey. The Mandala-Sela Pass birding adventure come to an end.