Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary is located in the West Kameng District, which lies in the Western part of Arunachal Pradesh. The Park is part of a huge pristine area on the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, which is called the Kameng Protected Area Complex, which is an Elephant Reserve. South of Eaglenest, lies Nameri and more to the East, Sessa Orchid Wildlife Sanctuary and Pakhui Tiger Reserve conjoin the park. It is one of the most biodiverse regions of South Asia, where species of the Brahamputra plains meet the foothills and where vast pristine forest tracts are found from altitudes of a few hundred metres above sealevel till about 3500 metres above sealevel. Further North high alpine scrub, meadows and rocky areas are found at altitudes above 4000 metres. The Eastern Himalays are characterised by very steep slopes and a very high annual rainfall, which explains the very lush vegetation in Eaglenest. We visited the park at the end of the dry season, when the rains starts to be more frequent. This is the best time of the year for song and territorial activity of the birds. As the vegetation is very dense and many skulking bird specialities occur within the part, it is advisable to visit Eaglenest during march - april. Later on, the rains start to get more frequent and heavier, and it becomes risky to visit the park, because of frequent road damage. The Park holds an amazing number of large mammals: Elephants are very common, and Gaur, Sambar, Black Bear, Leopard and Tiger are also found within the Park. A lot of much sought after and rare bird species are found within Eaglenest, such as the Rufous-Necked Hornbill, Ward's Trogon, Beautifull Nuthtach, Greater and Lesser Rufous-headed Parrotbills, and Fire-tailed Myzornis. No less then 8 species of Wren-babblers are found in the park, of which the Sikkim Wedge-billed Wren-babler has the most restricted range. The Park became internationally famous, when a spectatcular new bird species to science was described in 2006 by Ramana Athreya: the Bugun Liocichla. The bird, a laughing trush species, was named after the local tribe of the Bugun People, who live in the park.
We spent a total of 15 days in the park. Here we are on our way from Bompu Camp to Lama Camp, and close to Eeaglenest Pass. This pictures was taken at an elevation of about 2700 metres above sealevel, just below the Pass (highest point of the road, 2800 meters above sea-level).
The area around the pass holds large bamboo stands, which are in the middle of the summer frequently visited by large herds of foraging elephants. Bird specialities for the pass are higher elevation Bamboo specialists such Brown Parrotbill and Slender-billed Scimitar Babbler. It is also a good spot to see Fire-tailed Myzornis, another of the hard sought after species by birders.We had a brief view of two Myzornis, but unfortunately we were not able to get photographs of them. Other birding highlihts included a Temminck's Tragopan, and a female Ward's Trogon (probably one of the highest records for this species). Just below the pass we had brief views of Bar-winged Wren-babbler, our seventh Wren-Babbler in six days! A little bit lower we saw a Rufous-throated Wren-babbler, the eight's species on this trip. We also had nice views of several of the commoner high altitude species, such as Black-throated Laughing Thrush and Blue-fronted Restart.