A List of Birds at M.R.I.

Amber Habib

Birds Life List Home

Mehta Research Institute (recently renamed as Harish-Chandra Research Institute) occupies 68 acres near the banks of the Ganga, just downstream of the sangam at Allahabad. The campus has woods and scrubland and small pools, as well as lawns near the Institute buildings. Across the fence are meadows and farmland.

Map locating Allahabad Map locating MRI

This list comprises birds seen either on campus or in the fields nearby or along the Ganga to a distance of about 3km downstream of the sangam. It was started on Sept 10, 1997, and last updated on May 8, 2000.

The numbers in parenthesis are from Salim Ali and S. D. Ripley's Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Birds seen just once are marked with a *. Some of the photos are downloaded from www.corbis.com. Most were taken by me.

The list has suffered from not enough time spent in the fields outside campus, and also from my inability to confidently identify small birds like leaf-warblers.

  1. Blacknecked Grebe (4) *
  2. Little Grebe (5) *
  3. Large Cormorant (26)
  4. Indian Shag (27)
  5. Little Cormorant (28)
  6. Grey Heron (35)
  7. Pond Heron (42)
  8. Cattle Egret (44)
  9. Median Egret (47)
  10. Large Egret (48)
  11. Little Egret (49)
  12. Night Heron (52)
  13. Painted Stork (60) *
  14. Openbill Stork (61)
  15. Lesser Whistling Teal (88) *
  16. Ruddy Shelduck or Brahminy Duck (90)
  17. Spotbill Duck (97)
  18. Garganey (104) *
  19. Cotton Teal (114) *
  20. Comb Duck or Nakta (115)
  21. Blackwinged Kite (124)
  22. Pariah Kite (133)
  23. Shikra (139)
  24. Long-legged Buzzard (153)
  25. White-eyed Buzzard (157)
  26. Longbilled Vulture (182)
  27. Whitebacked or Bengal Vulture (185)
  28. Egyptian Vulture (187)
  29. Grey Partridge (246)
  30. Common Peafowl (311)
  31. Whitebreasted Waterhen (345)
  32. Red-wattled Lapwing (366)
  33. Spurwinged Lapwing (369)
  34. Yellow-wattled Lapwing (370) *
  35. Little Ringed Plover (380)
  36. Kentish Plover (381)
  37. Redshank (393)
  38. Marsh Sandpiper (395)
  39. Greenshank (396)
  40. Common Sandpiper (401)
  41. Little Stint (416)
  42. Temminck's Stint (417)
  43. Ruff/Reeve (426) *
  44. Blackwinged Stilt (430)
  45. Avocet (432)
  46. Stone Curlew (436)
  47. Great Stone Plover (437)
  48. Small Pratincole (444)
  49. Great Blackheaded Gull (453)
  50. Brownheaded Gull (454)
  51. Blackheaded Gull (455)
  52. Whiskered Tern (458)
  53. Gullbilled Tern (460)
  54. River Tern (463)
  55. Little Tern (475) *
  56. Indian Skimmer (484)
  57. Common Green Pigeon (504)
  58. Blue Rock Pigeon (516)
  59. Ring Dove (534)
  60. Red Turtle Dove (535)
  61. Spotted Dove (537)
  62. Little Brown Dove (541)
  63. Roseringed Parakeet (550)
  64. Blossomheaded Parakeet (552)
  65. Pied Crested Cuckoo (571)
  66. Common Hawk-Cuckoo or Brainfever Bird (573)
  67. Koel (590)
  68. Sirkeer Cuckoo (597)
  69. Crow-Pheasant or Greater Coucal (600)
  70. Barn Owl (606) *
  71. Collared Scops Owl (621)
  72. Jungle Owlet (636)
  73. Spotted Owlet (652)
  74. House Swift (703)
  75. Palm Swift (707)
  1. Pied Kingfisher (719)
  2. Small Blue Kingfisher (722) *
  3. Whitebreasted Kingfisher (735)
  4. Small Green Bee-eater (750)
  5. Indian Roller (755)
  6. Hoopoe (763)
  7. Grey Hornbill (767)
  8. Large Green Barbet (780)
  9. Crimsonbreasted Barbet or Coppersmith (792)
  10. Lesser Goldenbacked Woodpecker (819)
  11. Ashycrowned Finch Lark (878)
  12. Short-toed Lark (886)
  13. Sand Lark (891)
  14. Crested Lark (899)
  15. Skylark (903)
  16. Collared Sand Martin (910)
  17. Plain Sand Martin (912)
  18. Swallow (916)
  19. Cliff Swallow (922)
  20. Redrumped Swallow (923)
  21. Grey Shrike (933)
  22. Baybacked Shrike (940)
  23. Rufousbacked Shrike (946)
  24. Golden Oriole (952)
  25. Black Drongo (963)
  26. Racket-tailed Drongo (977) *
  27. Brahminy Myna (994)
  28. Pied Myna (1002)
  29. Common Myna (1006)
  30. Bank Myna (1008)
  31. Indian Tree Pie (1032)
  32. House Crow (1049)
  33. Jungle Crow (1054)
  34. Scarlet Minivet (1081) *
  35. Small Minivet (1093) *
  36. Redwhiskered Bulbul (1120)
  37. Redvented Bulbul (1128)
  38. Large Grey Babbler (1258)
  39. Jungle Babbler (1265)
  40. Redbreasted Flycatcher (1412)
  41. Verditer Flycatcher (1445) *
  42. Paradise Flycatcher (1461)
  43. Franklin's Wren-Warbler (1503) *
  44. Rufousfronted Wren-Warbler (1506)
  45. Plain Wren-Warbler (1511)
  46. Ashy Wren-Warbler (1517)
  47. Tailor Bird (1538)
  48. Orphean Warbler (1565)
  49. Lesser Whitethroat (1567)
  50. Bluethroat (1644)
  51. Magpie Robin (1661)
  52. Black Redstart (1671)
  53. Brown Rock Chat (1692)
  54. Stonechat or Collared Bush Chat (1697)
  55. Pied Bush Chat (1700)
  56. Indian Robin (1720)
  57. Blue Rock Thrush (1725)
  58. Indian Tree Pipit (1852)
  59. Tawny Pipit (1861)
  60. Water Pipit (1871)
  61. Yellow Wagtail (1875)
  62. Yellowheaded Wagtail (1883) *
  63. Grey Wagtail (1884) *
  64. White Wagtail (1886)
  65. Large Pied Wagtail (1891)
  66. Purple Sunbird (1917)
  67. White-Eye (1933)
  68. House Sparrow (1938)
  69. Yellowthroated Sparrow (1949)
  70. Blackbreasted Weaver-Bird (1961)
  71. Whitethroated Munia (1966)
  72. Redheaded Bunting (2044) *
  73. Crested Bunting (2060) *

Radhika Vathsan has a list of birds seen around MRI which has a fair number of species not on my list. Here are some of them: 

1. Crested Hawk-Eagle 
2. Blyth's Reed-Warbler
3. Greenish Warbler
4. Yellow-browed Leaf-Warbler
5. Brown Rock Pipit
6. Baya Weaver
7. Spotted Munia
8. Red Avadavat
9.Common Rosefinch

Amber Habib