Bhariya Talab – Unexplored Bird Watching Site near Udaipur

Udaipur is surrounded by many forests as well as wetlands. Almost every village near Udaipur city in Rajasthan has a lake, small or big. These lakes in in villages host lot of birds, some residents and some migratory birds.

One such interesting bird watching location, which has not really got attention from bird watchers Udaipur ( or from anywhere in the world for that matter) is Bhariya Talab, which is also approx 50KM from Udaipur city. This wetland can be called actually a twin lake as on the left side, another lake known as Jagat Talab, which also hosts many birds.

While Menar Bird Watching site is an wetland which has become IBA thanks to bird watchers from Udaipur and various places, this wetland, Bhariya Talab remains unexplored till now.

We went to these lakes for few days to explore to do a bird species check and we found it to be quite interesting from 10th Feb 2021 to 28th feb 2021! But we found that birds here were quite shy unlike other places like Menar, Udaipur. On asking around the few houses nearby the lakes, we were informed that some hunting of birds used to take place and now that is being stopped by them. We explained to them that hunting of birds is illegal and if Forest depart comes to know, they will/can arrest those hunters.

Here is a list of birds we saw during our 3 days visit :-

1. Garganey
2. Common Coot
3. Common teal
4. Northern Shoveler
5. Small Grebe
6. Common Pochard
7. Indian Roller
8. Long tailed Shrike
9. Black necked stork
10. Rudy Shelduck
11. Red Shank
12. Black tailed Godwit
13. Night Heron
14. Pond Heron
15. Cattle Egret
15. Little Egret
16. Greater Coucal
17. White Wagtail
18. Yellow Wagtail

19. Blue throat
20. Common Babler
21. Yellow Eyed Babler
22. Laughing Dove
23. Spotted Dove
24. Red Vented Bulbul
25. Black Winged Kite
26. Egyptian Vulture
27. White tailed Lapwing
28. Red Wattled Lapwing
29. Grey Heron
30. Purple Heron
31. Little Ringed Plover
32. Common Sandpiper
33. Common Snipe
34. Common Greenshank
35. Common Kingfisher
36. White Throated Kingfisher

37. Pied Kingfisher
38. Black Winged Stilt
39. River Tern
40. Northern Pintail
41. Greater Cormorant
42. Darter or Snake Birds
43. Grey Francolin
44. Little Stint
45. Paddyfield Pipit
46. Pied Starling
47. Indian Myna
48. Black Drongo
49. Red napped Ibis
50. Golden Rumped Flameback
51. Tufted Duck
52. Spot Billed Duck
53. Gadwal
54. Eurasian Wigeon
55. Lesser Whistling Duck
56. Brown Rockchat

57. Common Hoope
58. White-breasted Waterhen
59. Common Moorhen
60. Eurasian Spoonbill
61. Glossy Ibis
62. Brown-capped pygmy Woodpecker
63. Bay-backed Shrike
64. Eurasian Collared Dove
65. Wire-tailed Swallow
66. Coppersmith Barbet
67. Painted Stork
68. Asian Openbill
69. Rose Ringed Parakeet
70. Plum Headed Parakeet
71. Indian Cormorant
72. White Browed Fantail
73. Chestnut shouldered Petronia
74. Silver Bill
75. Baya Weaver
76. Purple Sunbird
78. Ashy Prinia
79. Ashy crowned Sparrow Lark
80. Lesser Whitethroat
81. Plain Prinia
82. Comb Duck
83. White-browed Wagtail
84. Rock Pigeon
85. Green Bee-eater
86. Great Tit
87. Common Tailorbird
89. Common Chiffchaff
90. Jungle Babbler
91. Oriental Magpie-Robin
91. Indian Robin
92. Common Stonechat
93. House Sparrow

We may have seen few more species, but we could not see many raptors. That was surprising for us as we expected at least marsh harriers. As we spoke to locals, one Mr. Manohar Singh, he informed that the Jagat talab dries up for 4/5 months while the Bhariya Talab always have water.

Apart from bird watching, there are three unique and very old temples near to this birding site. Once is Jagat Mata temple, which at the height and gives a good view all around. Another is Jagat Temple, which is a 10th century temple with great temple architecture.

So, most probably, this could be your half day tour while staying in Udaipur, bird watching as well as temple Visit. The drive from Udaipur to this place via Jhameswar ji is really nice!

If you want to visit these places while holidaying in Udaipur, do contact us!