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Speciality Birds  :  Monal pheasant, blood pheasant, Satyr and Temminck's tragopans, black-necked crane, long-billed plover, ward's trogon, alpine accentor, eyebrowed thrush, white-throated redstart, slender-billed scimitar-babbler, brown-throated tit-babbler/fulvetta, coal tit, rufous-bellied tit, rufous-fronted tit, eurasian treecreeper, fire-tailed sunbird, beavan's bullfinch, brown bullfinch, white-winged grosbeak, red-billed chough.

 Dirang is a convenient place to base the birding groups.

To get to Dirang, you have to fly in from Delhi, Bagdogra or Kolkotta to Guwahati. You first drive 181 due West to Tezpur,(4.30 hrs) for an overnight halt. The next day drive 213 kms  to Dirang via Bomdila. (08 hrs). Onward distances from Dirang are given below:-

• Dirang-Sangti: 10 Kms

• Dirang - Mandala  :  28 km, good forest for another 20 km  towards  ChabriLa. The Mandala - ChabriLa road is still not open. Construction is going on about 20 km beyond Mandala.

• From Dirang along the Highway to Tawang  Sangey:37 km,  Baisakhi  45 km,  Sela Pass  61 km, Jang 98 km, Tawang  138 kms

• Sela -  ChabriLa  11 km,  B.J.Gompa  17 km,  Jang 59 km by the loop road

• Jang - highest point on road to Rama. :  32 km

Birding Areas

Sangti Valley  :  (1600m). Valley with cultivation and forests.. One of the rare black-necked Crane wintering area in India (late November-February only)

Mandala - Sela ridge road  :  (2200-3700m). Temperate broad-leaved forest and scrub, extensive conifer stands and summer pastures

Sela Ridge  :  3500-4500m. Tree line vegetation (conifers, birch and rhododendron, dwarf scrub) and alpine meadows.  The highway itself has decent roadside birding between Baisakhi  and Sela Pass and also further beyond on the Jang side. A road goes off from the Pass to Chabre La and then to B.J.Gompa. This passes through extensive alpine meadows and tree-line vegetation.

Jang - B.J.Gompa road :  2800-4300m. Temperate bamboo, broad-leaved and fir forests; alpine meadows. The entire road is open during summer; snow conditions determine access rest of the year, when it gets quite chancy above 3500m.

Jang - Rama Spur road : 2800-3800+m. Temperate bamboo, fir and rhododendron forests with clearings. The road begins to descend beyond the highest point at 3800m. But one can climb higher on foot.

The Bailey trail birding trek: Starting at the road head in the Dirang Valley at an elevation of 2600 meters, the trail crosses over four passes reaching an altitude of 4730 meters, to descend into the Tawang Chhu Valley. It finally terminates at Jang. This fascinating high altitude trek passes through a variety of habitats – sub tropical and warm broadleaved forests, cool broadleaved forests, coniferous, fir, Oak, bamboo, Juniper, Rhododendron, and alpine scrubland. It is arguably the ultimate birding trek – but only for the fit. Best time is May-June, or Oct-Nov.

On this route, in 2002, despite being the monsoon season, The Gurudongma Team recorded 188 species. To browse this birding report with bird list click on Trip Reports on the page menu . For more details about the birding trek click on Tours on the page menu and browse through 16 days Birding the Bailey Trail in West Kameng & Tawang.

Birding logistics

Dirang has a standard hotel – suitable for a small group. Jang can offer tolerable accommodation for 08 persons in the PWD Inspection Bungalow. We will supplement this accommodation by setting up fully serviced camps and take care of all your logistics.

On the Bailey Trail trek, all camping requirements, meals and animals/porters will be taken care of by us.

Days required for birding -

Jeep based birding requires 04-06 days. The Bailey trail trek takes 16 days ( including driving time at entry and exit).

For more information about North East India go to http://www.gurudongma.com and click on Assam & Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

Maps and other information by Anwaruddin Choudhry and Ramana Athreya, (the Eaglenest Biodiversity Project 2004, funded by the Rufford foundation, UK).

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