Red-Vented Bulbul

The red-vented bulbul is found across the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and parts of Bhutan and Nepal. It has also been named one of the world's worst invasive species as it has been introduced to many countries including the U.S., Argentina, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji and other places. 

Original range of the red-vented bulbul from Birds of the World. 

There are eight subspecies and I saw at least two of them, but I'm not sure which two. First, I saw them in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. I saw them in the Eastern Range, the Burhapahar Range and near where we stayed at Diphlu Lodge. Later we saw one in the courtyard of our hotel in Jaipur as we were leaving for Delhi to fly home. 

This one, in the Burapahar Range has a yellow under-belly, yellow tips of the tail and a brown patch about where its ear is. 

The red-vented bulbul has a crest which gives its head a squarish appearance. The body is dark with a scaly pattern and the head is darker or black. The rump is white and the vent is red. It has a long black tail tipped in white. The Himalayan subspecies have a more prominent crest and are more streaked on the underside. The Bengal subspecies has a dark hood, lacks the scale-like pattern on the underside but has dark streaks on the pale lower belly. 

These, found in the Eastern Range, have white tail tips, show the full crest, and have the brown ear patch. 

This one appears to have a white ear patch. 

Near the Diphlu Lodge.

This one, in Jaipur, has a very dark head and does not have the brown ear patch. 

It is a beautiful bird. I wish I could have gotten some better photos and seen it in more places. 

Indian Roofed Turtle

In the Central Range of Kaziringa NP in Assam, India we were following a lazy river and found several sections of logs with Indian roofed turtles draped all over them. 

It is rated as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Wikipedia has a very scientific and difficult to read description of it. I copy a small portion of it which was a little bit easier to read: "The carapace is brown, sometimes yellow or orange bordered, with a red to orange medial stripe. The plastron is long and narrow; the forelobe is much shorter than the broad bridge, and the hindlobe is slightly shorter than the bridge and contains a posterior anal notch...Plastron and bridge are yellow with at least two black elongated blotches on each scute, except the gulars and anals which have only a single blotch. The head is moderate in size with a projecting, short, pointed snout. Its upper jaw is not medially notched. Skin on the back of the head is divided into large scales. Dorsally, the head is black with a large crescent-shaped, orange to yellowish red blotch on each temple (these may unite posteriorly to form a V-shaped mark). The jaws are yellow, and the neck is black with numerous yellow stripes. Limbs are olive to gray, and spotted and bordered with yellow. They have large transverse scales...Males are brighter in color than females, and have long, thick tails with the vent beyond the carapacial rim. Females have short tails with the vent under the carapace. Females grow larger than males." They are found in the "Ganges, Brahmaputra, Indus, and Mahanadi river drainages in Pakistan, northern and peninsular India, and Bangladesh."

Assam Roofed Turtle

I got a nice little surprise on iNaturalist. I'd identified the turtles we saw in the Burhapahar Range of Kaziranga NP in Assam, India as Indian Roofed Turtles, turtles we saw in other parts of Kaziranga as well. One other identifier labled it the same, but then two others identified them as Assam roofed turtles, a critically endangered species. Cuora1, by far the top identifier of them on iNaturalist with 306 identifications, was one of the identifiers. 

Wikipedia notes that it "is also known as the Sylhet roofed turtle and is found in the the Brahmaputra-Meghna drainage" in Assam, India and "parts of eastern Bangladesh." We saw these very near the Brahmaputra River in a side canal. It may also be found in Bhutan. "The turtle is shy and never basks on river banks, but only on emergent logs or rocks. At the slightest disturbance, it will dive quickly to the middle of the river, hiding between rocks... [It] is a rare species known only from a few individuals; it is believed to have one of the narrowest distributions of any south Asian geoemydid. It is exploited for its meat and eggs for local consumption and collected for the pet trade, especially in Asia where this turtle fetches high prices as pets."

It "has a triangular and elevated carapace with a prominent spiked keel and 26 strongly serrated marginal plates. The carapace is olive brown, with a lighter (yellowish to beige) keel. The head is small and has a weakly hooked upper jaw; a narrow pink stripe runs from the back of each eye to the middle of the back of the head. Adults may attain a maximum length of 20.5 cm, although body sizes of 16 cm are more common."

Lineated Barbet

The barbets are some of the most beautiful birds I've seen, but the lineated barbet I saw in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India is the ugliest of the group I've seen so far. 

Wikipedia only has a small paragraph on it, so I picked up my information from Birds of the World. Its ugliness starts with rounded bare yellow skin around the eyes which make it look like an insomniac. It has whiskers that protrude outward over its yellowish pink bill giving it an unkempt drunkard look. Its upperparts, wings and tail are green, its head and breast have white and brown streaking and it has yellow legs and feet. It could have been created by Dr. Seuss. I think this barbet was adopted into the family, how could it have the same blood lines?

It is found in the Himalayan foothills, eastern and northeastern India,  Bangladesh and mainland Southeast Asia. 

Range from Birds of the World

I saw several of them with my guide, Boblu, near Diphlu Lodge. 

American Kestrel

American kestrels are notoriously difficult to photograph. First, they are often standing on power lines that don't provide nice photos. Second, they are very difficult to get near without them flying away. In February 2021 I did a post of a male and female with blurry photos, the best I had at that time. 

I recently got a very good photo and decided to look back and see if I've gotten any other decent photos since February 2021. 

January 16, 2023 on Walker Road near the southern end of the Salton Sea. 

November 6, 2021, a male on Young Road near the western side of the Salton Sea. 

My best photos of an American Kestrel so far. These were taken of a female on January 26, 2025 on an east-west road right before entering Niland near the Salton Sea. 

Blue-Throated Barbet

The blue-throated barbet has two subspecies: (a) one is red-crowned, the ones we saw, which are from the northeast Pakistan to the west to Northern Myanmar and southwestern Yunnan; and (b) the other is blue-crowned, found from southeastern Myanmar to southeastern Yunnan and northern Indochina. We saw a number of them in and near Kaziranga NP in Assam, (northeastern) India. 

Wikipedia notes that they frequent fruiting trees and the ones I saw were neck deep after berries with berry residue on their faces. "Sexes are similar though the female...is slightly heavier than the male... It is a stocky, green bird with a short tail. The undersides are a lighter yellow-green. The underside of the tail may have a bluish cast. 

Note underside with lighter yellow-green and blue underneath the tail. 

The head and neck are distinctive, with a bright red forehead, black stripe across the crown and red rear crown. 

Red forehead, black strip and red rear crown.

The sides of the face, chin and upper neck are pale blue. Red patches are seen on the sides of the neck at the base of the blue. The iris is reddish-brown and the eye-ring is brown, greenish-brown, orange-brown or yellow. 

Pale blue chin, neck and side of head with red patch on side of neck next to the blue and reddish-brown iris and orange-brown eye-ring. 

The feet are slate-gray to gray-green. The stout, conical bill is pale at the base with a dark upper mandible and tip. 

Gray-green feet and pale bill at base with dark tip and upper mandible. 

Juveniles are similar to the adults, with muted and dull colors. The red may be tinged with orange, the black may be blue-black or dusky."

 

Long-Beaked Hoopoe

One of my very favorite birds is the hoopoe (Upupa epops). I first saw the Eurasian hoopoe in Portugal near the Sado Estuary. There are six to nine subspecies, depending upon the source you look at. It was the nominate subspecies (U.e. epops) found in northwest Africa, Europe east to south central Russia, northwest China and northwest India. I recently saw a different subspecies in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India (U.e. longirostrus). Longirostrus means long-beaked in English. It is found in northeast India to south China, Indochina and north Malay Peninsula. It is larger (apparently including the beak) and more pale than the nominate subspecies. 

It was in the Central Range of Kaziranga on a dead tree stump which perfectly illustrated its camouflaged body. Look at this photo below. 

Hoopoe melding perfectly into the tree stump. 

I took lots of photos and the hoopoe did not move much. It is a fairly small bird and was quite far away. One of my favorite photos of the trip was the following, the hoopoe balanced between two jutting up stems of the stump. 

I believe it was a little soggy and the feathers gave the ragged look of a wet bird.