Birding Islamabad

Hello readers, Islamabad has witnessed its first winter rain this weekend and the arrival of migratory birds has started. However still the summer birds share the same places and are preparing for long tiring flights to their new home. Me, RMK and ZR from Islamabad wish them safe flight, I was wondering if I will be able to catch-up with my timings with the birds this season? Yes, I think I will have some lovely times with the winter birds, as my latest visit to Trail 5 in Margalla Hills has motivated me to keep moving. On October 22, 2017, myself and ZR planned a visit to the Trail and there was a mixture up of summer and winter birds. The Asian Paradise Flycatcher was still around and enjoying the thick forest of National Park. Asian Paradise Flycatcher Oriental White-eye The warblers and Oriental White-eyes were busy bathing in the stream, while the black-chinned Babblers and Red-billed Leiothrix were not showing much. This happens every year. The winter birds take ...

Hello everyone, RMK here. After having some fabulous moments with islbirder and the wolves in Bishop’s Castle at Tony’s farm in Shropshire, UK, I am back in Pakistan with memories that will last a long time in my life. Here in Islamabad, the weather still is hot and temperature stays around 35 degrees during the day. However, the temperature at night falls to 27 degrees and that means that winter birds are no longer away from the thick vegetation of Margalla Hills. On the 10 September, I decided to visit the northern track at Makhnial village and find if any winter migrants have joined the resident birds. As always ZR, the motivation for me after islbirder, was ready for the trip and we were accompanied by Imran (the guy who has seen more birds than anyone else in Pakistan). We left Islamabad and driving over the zigzagged tracks of the national park reached Makhnial village. Along the way we found this beautiful Indian Roller. Indian Roller ...

Hot off the Press; 137 years after it was found! A juvenile male Red-footed Falcon ( Falco vespertinus ), collected on 19 October 1880 at Gilgit, Northern Areas, and deposited as a skin at the Natural History Museum, Tring, United Kingdom has just been confirmed by molecular analysis as the first record for the species in Pakistan and the Indian Subcontinent. ( per José Luis Copete on Jul 12, 2017 ) What other ornithological discoveries will advances in modern science reveal? DNA is already being used to identify “difficult” species.

Hello everyone, RMK here! After having a wonderful birding season during the early months of the year, finding summer birds in Islamabad became difficult due to the heat. So, yours truly, Swabi Birder , decided to undertake a long journey to the see the majestic mountains of the Northern Territories, with the hope of seeing new species of birds to add to my Pakistan Birding List. Rufous-naped Tit Dark-sided Flycatcher This trip to the north was unique in that I was accompanied by my family and my dog in the same jeep from which I thought I would photograph birds using it as a hide. Anyhow, I started my trip on Eid Day to avoid the rush on road to Naran, situated in the Kaghan Valley in the Mansehra District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. To my surprise even on the Eid Day I found that all the roads were full of cars. The usual species found along the roadside were hardly there. Disappointed I drove fast to Gilgit and reached Serena Hotel in the administrat...

Dear Readers of the Islamabad Birding Blog. It’s Islbirder here who knows nothing of Facebook (I leave that to Swabi Birder) but I do know RMK has attracted a lot of new birder/photographers through the Facebook Group. I spent three wonderful years in Pakistan birding with RMK and many mornings during the heat of sweltering summers we would be at Trail 5 of the Margalla Hills before daybreak listening for the plaintive whistle of a very shy and incredibly rare summer visitor to Pakistan. In all those many days of trying I never did find the beautiful Indian Pitta. The Pakistan range of this species, historically, has only ever been the Margalla Hills National Park. It is frustratingly elusive within its breeding territory and much easier to see where it winters in Sri Lanka. Indian Pitta was first recorded in Pakistan in June 1978 when a pair was found breeding at Daman-i-Koh, at the foot of the Margalla Hills. Subsequent investigation by the eminent ornithologist, the...