Though I lived in Jaipur for couple of years and visit the place almost every month, I hardly know places for birding in and around Jaipur town. I have visited Nahar Garh, but never for the sole purpose of birding. But this time, I read in a news paper that some migratory birds were there at Mansagar, popularly famous as Jalmahal, so I went on 21st February 2013 with Shailendra Singh Chouhan.
We could not locate Pelicans or Flamingos, except Greater Cormorants which were around 15 in number. Apart from them, we also saw couple of other birds :-
1. Cattle Egret
2. Black Winged Stilt
3. Intermediate Egret
4. Common MoorHen
5. Little Cormorant
6. Pond Heron
7. Eurasian Collared Dove
8. Pied Starling
9. House Sparrow
10. Black Kite
11. Black Shouldered Kite
12. House crow
13. Common Coot
So, In my opinion, Mansagar is not yet a serious birding site. Because there was good rain in Jaipur for last few years, this lake has good amount of water. So, most probably, fish population has not grown much which is a major food for many migratory waders.
Birding Fair is conducted in this lake every year in winters. Lot of conservation work has been undertaken due to which migratory birds have come back here after many years, as per birders. This is a 400 years old lake and if conserved well, it is an important water body with large marshy areas which will be suitable for many waders.
