Birds in Gujarat, India

Spoonbills and painted storks

I have just returned from my second trip to Gujarat, India – this time for three weeks – and where I joined about 500 others for the Global Bird Watchers Conference (GBWC) in Jamnagar.

As someone who enjoys nature and birds, but knows very little, it was interesting to be surrounded by a flock of  people from all over the world keen to see India’s special birds – evidently Gujarat has some 40% of India’s birds.

both freshwater & salt water habitats are close to each other

It also provides a variety of habitats for them: desert, sea, rivers, lakes, rural and cites – there is somewhere special for all birds whether migratory or  resident.

Ted Floyd of the American Birding Association said in one of his blogs “Gujarat was the ideal venue for the GBWC. Yes, the birding was wonderful, but that’s not what I’m getting at. Rather, Gujarat was ideal in a socio-cultural sense. The people of the state of Gujarat are fantastically diverse. The myriad languages, religions, and ethnicities of Gujarat stretch back through the millennia. Think of somewhere like Brooklyn or Los Angeles—and then add to the mix several thousand years of cultural diversification. That’s Gujarat. That’s Jamnagar.” Well said Ted!

So, bookmark this page and come back and follow my travels, and not just birds, but also Gandhi’s birthplace, his ashram, the people of the salt-pans, the wild ass, the food and the people and many other topics.

Thanks to JN Rao Travel for my travel arrangements. For more info see their website and of course the official Gujarat Tourism site.

A local guide