Birding Tour India: The West – Forest Owlet Extension

Birding Tour India: The West – Forest Owlet Extension
February 2026/2027

On this short (four-day) tour we will look for the enigmatic and highly sought Forest Owlet near Mumbai. Discovered in 1872, with six specimens collected until 1884, the species was then not seen again until 1997, a full 113 years later! Since its rediscovery the bird has since been found in three Indian states: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra (where we will be looking for it). The population of this endemic bird is considered low and globally threatened with less than 1,000 birds; the species is considered ‘Endangered’ by BirdLife International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Forest Owlet is the primary target of this special extension (photo G. Adhikari).

The lush deciduous forest in which we will be looking for Forest Owlet is at the northern tip of the Western Ghats mountain range and is therefore also home to many other interesting and localized species. During our stay in the area we also hope to find some of the following species: Malabar Trogon, Blue-winged (Malabar) Parakeet, Indian Grey Hornbill, Jerdon’s Leafbird, White-cheeked Barbet, White-spotted Fantail, Indian Paradise Flycatcher, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Mottled Wood Owl, Jungle Owlet, Indian Scops Owl, White-bellied Drongo, and Vigor’s Sunbird. However, with our limited time here and with our focus being the owlet, we should not necessarily expect to see all of the above!

This short extension has been designed to run after our exciting Birding Tour India: The Northwest – Lions and Desert Birding in Gujarat. We have several other tours in India, which all combine to give you an incredible range of birding and wildlife-watching options in this wonderful country. See the full range of our Indian tours here.

We can also arrange this trip to fit before or after any of our other India birding tours, though the costs for this may vary from the costs provided for the dates given here.

The colorful Plum-headed Parakeet is one of the few parakeet species we hope to encounter on this tour.

Itinerary (4 days/3 nights)

Day 1. Arrival in Mumbai and travel to the Tansa area

After your morning arrival at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, either as an international arrival or if coming from our Birding Tour India: The Northwest – Lions and Desert Birding in Gujarat, we will meet for lunch near the airport. After lunch we will commence our journey to the Tansa area, a couple of hours to the northeast of Mumbai. Here, time permitting, we will start our search for the main target bird of this tour, Forest Owlet (which is a diurnal species, closely related to Burrowing Owl, Little Owl and Spotted Owlet, all often placed in the same genus, Athene).

Overnight: Tansa area

Day 2. Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary

We will spend the full day birding in and around the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary, where we will continue looking for Forest Owlet. The teak forests here hold numerous other good birds, such as Malabar Trogon (difficult here) White-cheeked Barbet, Vigors’s Sunbird, and Blue-winged (Malabar) Parakeet.

The stunning Greater Racket-tailed Drongo occurs in Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary, and we will look for this stunning species while searching for Forest Owlet.

We will also likely see many more-widespread Indian species in the forest, such as Jerdon’s and Golden-fronted Leafbirds, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Indian Paradise Flycatcher, Indian Grey Hornbill, Black-rumped Flameback, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Alexandrine and Plum-headed Parakeets, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Rufous Treepie, Indian Roller, Indian Golden Oriole, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Mottled Wood Owl, Indian Scops Owl, Jungle and Spotted Owlets and Indian, Savanna and Jungle Nightjars. It is certain to be a great day.

Overnight: Tansa area

The picturesque Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary, where we’ll be searching for Forest Owlet.

Day 3. Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary to Mumbai

The morning will be spent birding within and around the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary, hopefully getting further views of Forest Owlet or some of the other species listed above. After lunch we will transfer back to Mumbai, where we will have our final group evening meal of this short trip.

Overnight: Mumbai

Day 4. Departure from Mumbai

Departure from Mumbai.

Overnight: Not included

Please note that the itinerary cannot be guaranteed as it is only a rough guide and can be changed (usually slightly) due to factors such as availability of accommodation, updated information on the state of accommodation, roads, or birding sites, the discretion of the guides, and other factors. In addition, we sometimes have to use a different guide from the one advertised due to tour scheduling or other factors.

Birding India: Forest Owlet Extension Tour Trip Report, February 2025

12 – 26 FEBRUARY 2025

By Chris Lotz

We enjoyed spending two sessions with Forest Owlet during this tour.

Overview

This year, we ran this three day extension trip to the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian state of Maharashtra, as a private tour for one person. We fitted this in between a private version of our Gujarat birding tour, and a Rajasthan custom tour. The trip was nicely successful, and we got to spend two wonderful sessions with our main target bird, the rare Forest Owlet. During this short tour, we also saw three other owl species, Savanna Nightjar, White-eyed Buzzard,three parakeet species including the gorgeously colorful Plum-headed Parakeet and the Western Ghats endemic Blue-winged (Malabar) Parakeet, Orange Minivet, Black-headed and Indian Cuckooshrikes, the Indian endemic Vigor’s Sunbird, many Cotton Pygmy Geese and other wildfowl, and lots of other star birds (there are too many to mention here but do consult the bird list below for comprehensive details).

Plum-headed Parakeet showed well.

Detailed Report

Day 1, 26^th February 2025. Mumbai to Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary for initial birding

We had just finished our northwest India birding tour, and we flew from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, arriving at lunch time. It took us a while to navigate the slums as well as some of the wealthier areas of the megacity of Mumbai, but eventually we arrived in the picturesque hills of the Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary. From an avian point of view, these hills are the northern extremity of the endemic-rich Western Ghats, and indeed we had the opportunity of finding some of the localized birds of this habitat, although the best birding tour for finding these endemics is shown here. Within about an hour, we had already found our main target, the Endangered (International Union for Conservation of Nature/IUCN) Forest Owlet. This tiny, small, diurnal owl was rediscovered in 1997; please find more information here.

There was an awesome supporting cast of species. These included Greater Coucal (the southern subspecies that has been split in the past), White-eyed Buzzard, dazzling Asian Green Bee-eater, Plum-headed Parakeet, Indian Cuckooshrike, Common Woodshrike, Common Iora, Ashy Drongo, spectacular Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, Rufous Treepie, and a number of others. After our short initial stint of birding, we went to our hotel and had a delicious meal, with the pressure off as we’d already seen our main target.

Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary scenery.

Day 2, 27^th February 2025. A full day of birding Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary

We started our day at Mahuli Fort Base, which was very productive. We enjoyed awesome views of a stunningly beautiful Jungle Owlet. We also saw Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Indian Grey Hornbill, Coppersmith Barbet, Rufous Woodpecker, Plum-headed Parakeet, Blue-winged (Malabar) Parakeet, Indian Cuckooshrike, Black-hooded Oriole, Indian Golden Oriole (briefly), Grey-breasted Prinia, Ashy Prinia, Sulphur-bellied Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Indian White-eye, Tawny-bellied Babbler, Jungle Babbler, Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, three sunbird species including the Indian endemic Vigor’s Sunbird, Jerdon’s Leafbird and others.

We then went to a wetland site where our main target was Cotton Pygmy Goose. We saw over 50 of them, along with many Lesser Whistling Ducks, Tufted Ducks, a pair of Garganeys (the male in stunningly bright summer plumage), a Knob-billed Duck, an Indian Spot-billed Duck, and a couple of Eurasian Wigeons. A number of other waterbirds were also around, including some common shorebird species (please kindly see the bird list at the end of this report for full details).

We then went back to the lodge for lunch and a break during the heat of the day. We decided to spend the late afternoon trying for Forest Owlet again and we were richly rewarded with excellent views. Another highlight was getting brilliant views in perfect light of a pair of Plum-headed Parakeets.We also briefly saw a White-naped Woodpecker and various other birds in the teak-dominated open dry forest. We ended off the day watching and listening to Savanna and Jungle Nightjars.

Today also proved a good day for reptiles. We saw a large Russell’s Viper (highly venomous), a Common Bronzeback Tree Snake (non-venomous), and a Giri’s Geckoella.

We enjoyed second views of Forest Owlet.

Day 3, 28^th February 2025. A final morning birding Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary, then back to Mumbai

This morning we headed back to the Mahuli Fort Base to try and connect with a couple of missing target birds. To our delight, one of the first birds we connected with was a sweet little Indian Scops Owl in a hole in a tree; we could just see its little head and face. Later, we admired another cute owl, Spotted Owlet, which isa close relative of Forest Owlet. We also managed to find a stunningly bright female Orange Minivet, along with Common Hawk-Cuckoo, Shikra, Coppersmith Barbet, Brown-headed Barbet, Black-naped Monarch, a truly spectacular, close-up white morph Indian Paradise Flycatcher, some Cinereous Tits, Puff-throated Babbler (close-up), Jerdon’s Leafbird, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, and many others.

At a nearby site, we then added a pair of Black-headed Cuckooshrikes to our growing list. There were also a few Alexandrine Parakeets and Small Minivets around.

We then headed back to the hotel, packed up, had lunch and drove to Mumbai where the tour ended. All in all, the trip was very successful; we chose to spend two sessions with our main target, Forest Owlet, but also enjoyed seeinga good number of other great bird species.

Indian Paradise Flycatcher showed well!

Bird List – Following IOC (version 14.2, August 2024)

Birds ‘heard only’ are marked with (H) after the common name, all other species were seen. The following notation after species names is used to show conservation status following BirdLife International: CR = Critically Endangered, EN = Endangered, VU = Vulnerable.

This is a sample trip report. Please email us ([email protected]) for more trip reports from this destination.

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