After our two nights up at Satchari NP in the NE of the country, we then re-positioned, via a very long drive, down to Khulna (Bangladesh's third largest city) and launched in our vessel southwards into the heart of the Sundarbans.
Over the next five days, we had ample opportunity to seek out the region's most desired species, the key ones being Masked Finfoot and White-eared Night Heron. We thankfully struck gold on both very efficiently on our first diurnal and nocturnal outings, but over the course of the next few days we obtained some grand views of both. Overall, we saw two male Masked Finfoot, but no females.
The Masked Finfoot is sadly fairly soon going to be pushed into the extinction category. Its habitat, freshwater mangrove channels, are reverting to saline, due to sea-level rise and increased frequency in monsoons, therefore pushing the salt water further inland. The habitat of the finfoot is therefore decreasing as the further north you go, the closer to human interaction there will be. Over fishing and general disturbance are other key attributes to the specie's demise. The local leader suggested there may be as few as 33 individuals remaining in Bangladesh... a tragic total.
Other decent birds encountered during the outings were Brown-winged Kingfisher, Malayan Night Heron, Ruddy Kingfisher, while on the boardwalk close to the park headquarters, I was finally able to add Mangrove Whistler having missed it several times in SE Asia; Mangrove Pitta eventually showed well and a single corner of this area was like being on Fair Isle, as it held both Brown and Taiga Flycatchers, Dusky and Blyth's Reed Warblers, and a Brown Shrike!
One of the highlights though was a near-miss, as we encountered a very fresh set of Tiger pugmarks, predicted to have passed only half-hour before we arrived. We did however see two Mainland Leopard Cats, both Smooth-coated and Short-clawed Otters and Saltwater Crocodiles. Both Irrawaddy and Ganges River Dolphins were seen well, the former a new cetacean for me.
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| Masked Finfoot |
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| White-eared Night Heron |
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| Brown-winged Kingfisher |
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| Mangrove Pitta |
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| Our home on the Sundarbans, the Biwali, owned by Pugmark |
