Situated at the southern end of the city limit, Chintamani Kar Bird Sanctuary (CKBS) is the only declared sanctuary within a close proximity to Kolkata. Government of West Bengal took it from private owners in 2005 to make it available for public, helped it to get the ‘sanctuary’ status and thus saved from destruction. Now it is a safe heaven for more than 170 species of birds, about 12 species of mammals and at least 25 species of butterflies. Moreover, this 17 acre area has several varieties of trees, ferns and orchids. It is named after noted sculptor Chintamani Kar whose residence (now a museum) is adjacent to this place and who fought for several years, along with others, for protecting this place.

Home of several birds which is not seen in any other hotspots of the city, this is one of my favourite destinations for birding. As said, you can find some birds only in this sanctuary, such as

• Long-tailed nightjar (seen and photographed)
• Bronzed Drongo (seen and photographed)
• Ashy Drongo
• Hair-crested Drongo (seen and photographed)
• Cinereous Tit (seen and photographed)
• Indian White-eye (seen and photographed)
• White-throat fantail (seen and photographed)
• Streak-throated Woodpecker (seen and photographed)

Several species of butterflies are also found here, a list provided in the sanctuary is the following:

The sanctuary is also home of several mammals:

One of the ally of the sanctuary

My first visit at this sanctuary gave me 7 lifers (species seen for the first time in life):

1. Large-tailed Nightjar
2. Greater Flameback
3. White-throated Fantail
4. Bronzed Drongo
5. Hair-crested Drongo
6. Cinereous Tit
7. Indian White-eye

It was an amazing experience. Below is the glimpse of those lifers for me.

In my fourth visit to CKBS I was particularly looking for Streak-throated Woodpecker. It is such a beautiful bird! I saw some photographs of this species in some birding groups and most of them found it in CKBS. So, the motivation was certain but the chance was most uncertain!

I almost spent 4 and half hour in this sanctuary, clicked several good shots of Large-tailed Nightjar, Bronzed Drongo, saw White-throated Fantail’s continuous dance display of its assets, even observed a Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker cutting down a 2 feet long brunch through the middle in search of insects but couldn’t see a glimpse of my desired species! Then while returning back after helping a senior bird-enthusiast to spot the Large-tailed Nightjar, I stopped to click couple of shots of a Oriental-Magpie Robin which was just a few feet away. As I was done with that and was about to move forward I heard repeated sounds similar to any woodpecker’s activity! Slowly moving back and looking carefully through the bushes my heartbeats became faster! Yes, it was what I was looking for. A male Streak-throated Woodpecker. I felt extremely lucky as I saw this beautiful bird and a new species is added to my list. Came back home happily 🙂.