I had seen a few bird checklists around Bangalore in which birders had reported the sighting of the Eastern Orphean Warbler. It is however considered a rarity around here, even during winter. But that it makes it more desirable to get to see, I guess 🙂

I had been hoping to get to see for several years and had tried to around Bangalore. But luck had not favoured me. So when I saw a report of sighting in Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve, I certainly did not want to not try to see it. It was also the time when the winter visitors would have arrived in the Reserve. So a visit was well worth making. And that is what Rahul and I did.

We reached with the Reserve before break of dawn. The Warbler was high on our target list. It was not going to be an easy task as it would surely be less in numbers. And the Reserve is a pretty vast area. So finding one was going to be daunting task for sure. But birders can be a persistent lot. And we were surely 🙂 . So as we moved around, we carefully kept a look out, especially when we sighted any Lesser Whitethroats. The Eastern Orphean Warblers could be easily confused with the Lesser Whitethroats, especially if in their 1st winter plumage. But we would still be able to make them out by their larger size and “bulkier” look in flight. So key was to carefully scan the birds in the flock.

We must have scanned over 5 flocks of Lesser Whitethroats before we found it. We had also to do some amount of tracking the birds as they kept mostly hidden in the shrubs and would occasionally fly to another nearby shrub. But our persistence paid off! We finally managed to find a couple of them.

Here are a couple of photos of an individual that I managed to take before it disappeared:

Ah, it had been so worth it 🙂 .

Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve has got a diverse mix of wildlife. Here is my post showing this diversity.