Ashy Woodswallow

The ashy woodswallow is also known as the ashy swallow-shrike. It has ashy gray upperparts with a darker head and pale band on the rump. The underside is pinkish-gray and it has a short slaty-black tail which is tipped in white. It has a short curved silvery bill. Males and females look similar. 

Illustration of ashy woodswallow from Birds of the World.

Ashy woodswallows I saw in Assam, India.

They often stand side-by-side on high vantage points like powerlines or bare branches of a tall tree. From their perches they fly out to catch insects. 

Range of ashy woodswallow from Birds of the World.

They are widely distributed in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, China, Lao and Malaysia. I saw them on a powerline near the Diphlu Lodge near Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. 

Common Pochard

Pochard is a name used used for several species of diving ducks. While in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India I got a photo of one common pochard, among a group of other ducks, just off the perimeter road while driving to the far western Burapahar Range. 

My one poor photo of a common pochard among some tufted ducks. 

The common pochard looks a lot like the canvasback. The male has a chestnut colored head and neck, a black breast and tail and a pale gray back marked with fine vermiculations (resembling the track of a worm). The bill is dark gray with a blue-gray band across the middle. The iris is yellow-orange to red. 

Illustrations of a male common pochard (and a female below) from Birds of the World. 

This range map from Birds of the World shows that the common pochard is widely found through Europe, Asia and Africa and is migratory. 

Oriental Honey Buzzard

The Oriental honey buzzard is also known as the crested honey buzzard, and the Asian and Eastern honey buzzard. There are six subspecies and we saw Pernis ptilorhynchus ruficollis which is found in India and Sri Lanka to Myanmar, Vietnam and southwest China. They primarily eat the larvae of bees and wasps extracted from honey combs. Special adaptations that help them in this endeavor are an elongated head for foraging on underground nests and a groove in the tongue which helps them extract wasp grubs from their comb cells. 

The male has a blue-gray head with a brown iris and the female's head is brown with a yellow iris. 

Male P. p. ruficollis illustration from Birds of the World. 

It winters in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia and spends the summer in Siberia, Korea and Japan. We saw a female in December 2024 in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. 

Range from Birds of the World.

Dusky Warbler

The dusky warbler is small with buff underparts, a whitish supercilium and a brown back. It has an orangish-yellow bill. 

Illustration of dusky warbler from Birds of the World. 

It winters in South and Southeast Asia and breeds in Siberia, Mongolia and China.

Range of dusky warbler from Birds of the World.

Oddly enough, the only place I saw it was at our hotel in Guwahati, Assam, India, in a fountain. 

Swamp Francolin

The swamp francolin is a game bird related to the pheasant found in the floodplains of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers from north-central India and southern Nepal east to northeastern India in Assam. 

Swamp francolin range from Birds of the World. Kaziranga NP is located about three-quarters of the way to the right in the range. 

We saw it twice in Kaziranga NP in Asssam, India, both times in the Central Range. In the article in Wikipedia, four of the five photos were taken in Kaziranga NP. It is found in wet grasslands prone to flooding, in tall dense grassland near marshy and swampy areas and in sugarcane plantations around standing water and paddyfields. It is also known as the swamp partridge and when hunted is usually shot from elephants. It is rated as Near Threatened by the IUCN and there may only be 10,000 to 20,000 remaining. Birds of the World notes that it remains common in Kaziranga NP. 

Illustration from Birds of the World.

It has a rusty throat and foreneck and contrasting white stripes on the underparts with a rufous vent. The upperparts are overall brown and finely barred rufous and buff. The bill is black, the legs are orange/yellow to red and it has a whitish-buff supercilium. 

This is the first swamp francolin we saw, tucked away among some very tall grass. Our guide had to take quite a while describing it before we could see it. 

Ferruginous Duck

The breeding ferruginous duck has a chestnut head, breast and flanks with white undertail coverts and belly. Females are more brown and dull. Males have a yellow eye and females have a dark eye. 

A male with the lighter eye.

A male ferruginous duck illustration from Birds of the World. It helps to have a good picture to see what my poor photos are trying to portray. 

A female.

Illustration of a female from Birds of the World.

I saw some at quite a distance in the Central Range of Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. It is also known as the common white eye, white-eyed pochard and ferruginous pochard. 

A range map from Birds of the World. Light blue is winter and orange is breeding. At the top east side of India, in Assam, where I was, it was wintering. 

I hope to get some better photos of this duck some day. 

Gray-Backed Shrike

I saw a gray-backed shrike in the Central Range of Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. We have loggerhead shrikes in the U.S. which I've seen quite a few of and what struck me as different is the beautiful chest of light orange and yellow and a little longer tail. 

There are two subspecies. I saw Lanius tephronotus tephronotus which breeds from Nepal to northeast India and central and south China. It migrates to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina. 

Illustration of L. t. tephronotus from Birds of the World. 

Range of gray-backed shrike from Birds of the World.