Maina-Raia Wetlands, Goa

Following our boat trip around the mangroves of Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, we next headed for the Maina-Raia wetlands. This was without doubt my favourite birding area of the whole trip, with the possible exception of Eravikulam near Munnar.

It is a magnificent area of wetlands, which reminded me in many ways of the rice paddies of Doñana in Spain. There were large numbers of many species, all of the egrets of course, but also hundreds of lesser whistling ducks, painted storks, black-headed ibis and grey-headed swamphens. Also at least 60 river terns, several lesser adjutants, woolly-necked stork, bronze-winged and pheasant-tailed jacanas, black-tailed godwits plus many other species.

There were also spot-billed ducks with the whistling ducks, but more about these in a separate post.

Also a few garganey.

Lesser adjutant. Imagine what greater adjutant must look like! This is a really interesting species and was a major target bird for me before the holiday. 

It's in the same family as the African species marabou stork and of course greater adjutant which both look very similar but are considerably larger, with marabou stork often reaching a height of 1.58m (5ft 3") and greater adjutant a little smaller. Having said that, even lesser adjutant reaches an impressive 1.2m (4ft) tall. 

A feature of the family is the use of urohidrosis as a cooling mechanism. This is where the birds excrete on their legs to prevent overheating. Their legs are actually black but you can see in the photo above that the top two thirds appear white.

I think that this bird is an adult.

Grey-headed swamphens.

Distant painted storks.

Pheasant-tailed jacanas.

River tern.

River terns and black-tailed godwits.

River terns and black-tailed godwits.

Woolly-necked stork.

Spotted owlet.

In drier areas we came across this Malabar lark.

Also this paddyfield pipit, plus a few western yellow wagtails and zitting cisticolas. 

Shed loads of egrets!