In all the states of the NE, the one that was left to bird was Tripura. Of course, we had only stepped in and out of Manipur and it was still unsafe to go to the interior. Atul Jain and I had just visited Bangladesh, Tripura’s international neighbour, for some wader watching, and it was in an inefficient and roundabout manner that we had to get back to Tripura! This time Shashank was with us; and the three of us hoped to get some good birding done since we last birded together in Murlen, Mizoram.
Tripura’s specialities were primates (mainly in the amazing Sipahijala wildlife sanctuary just outside capital Agartala) and a few birds not easy in the rest of India like Olive and Black-headed Bulbuls, Purple-throated Sunbird, etc. Overall birding was poor with just a fleeting pair of Olive Bulbuls. Primates made up though with lovely sightings of Phayre’s Leaf Monkey (Langur), Pig-tailed Macaque and Capped Langur. A couple of long night walks in Trishna didn’t reveal any Slow Lorises unfortunately.
Interestingly, we had an amazing sighting of a small flock (~12) Amur Falcons hawking insects at dusk over Trishna WLS. They were probably on return migration though the known route to go back is over Africa and not NE India. The trip birdlist is hosted here.