Projects

1. The East to West Migration of Steppe Eagles Aquila nipalensis and other Raptors in     Nepal: Abundance, Timing, and Age Class Determination.

Steppe Eagle: This is the common migrant here

For more information please follow the link 
http://himalayannature.org/birds.htm

2. Studies of Red-headed and Egyptian Vulture in Western Nepal.  

Egyptian vulture roosting  over pine tree in Arghatos village, Arghakhanchi 

Red-headed Vulture- it is a rare resident vulture found in mid-hill of Nepal

More update will be posted later.................3. Explore and document the hunting and trade on raptor and other birdsI am pleased to share this information about my currently funded project to study Hunting and Trade on Birds of Prey in and around Pokhara valley, south of Annapurna Mountain Range, Nepal. Northern part of the valley (Khare) is bird migratory corridor, which is used by at least 26 species (shown in our study 2011) of migratory raptors of around 10,000 to 40,000 individual birds (mostly Steppe Eagle Aquila nipalensis to reach their wintering ground probably in Southern Africa. During the migration, many species of raptors including Peregrine falconFalco peregrinus, Lesser kestrel Falco naumanni and Amur falcon Falco amurensis use Pokhara valley as a feeding and stopover site. This project is jointly funded by Friends of Nature (FON) and Himalayan Raptor Rescue.

The overall aims of this project are; 

1.      Document the species wise hunting intensity, major trade routes and spots
2.      Document the stakeholder’s characteristics involve in bird trafficking
3.      Explored and report the species/number of sized birds and their status
4.      Recommend the conservation measures to combat with bird trafficking

I hope to post the periodic updates on this project after the field visit, which will be started from the second week of March 2012.

This black kite was collected from the nest in Gulmi District and sold in a market in NRS 3000 . The people who is keeping this bird is thinking this is a kind of Hawk, and he has a hobby to keep such kind of powerful birds. According to him this is second year bird. Size of this bird looks small because of impaired growth. The tail feathers are heavenly damaged and broken. 

 Pictures: Brown Fish Owl Ketupa zeylonensis which was taken before 2 years in Lumbini area. A local farmer was keeping this owl to sell in the market; this owl was suffering from very unnatural diet (beans and other vegetables).