In search of a mysterious Wren Babbler
Channel: Dipu Karuthedathu
Date: 2023-01-08

The search for a rare bird, Grey-bellied Wren Babbler, ends up in an even more exciting turn. The Wren Babblers in the slopes of Mugaphi/Musala area seems to be slightly different from both Grey-bellied Wren Babblers and Naga Wren Babblers. Whether this population is a new sub-species or species will depend on further studies and DNA analysis. Hopefully, further research will bring clarity on the taxonomic status of this bird population!

Grey-bellied Wren Babbler is mostly found in Myanmar with some birds occurring in adjoining areas in China and Thailand. There has been only one previous published report of Grey-bellied Wren Babbler from India. One of the two specimens collected from the mountain slopes near Gandhigram, Arunachal Pradesh, back in 1988 was identified as Grey-bellied Wren Babbler by ornithologist Pamela Rasmussen and she included this species in her book "Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide" published in 2005.

Seeing such a rarity is any birder's dream and we decided to plan a trip to those mountain slopes to search for this bird. To start the search, we had to first reach Vijoynagar – a village where the Lisu community lives - that is about 82km from Miao. From Vijoynagar, it’s a two day climb in the Himalaya to reach the altitudes where the Grey-bellied Wren Babblers were believed to occur. In the past, it used to take 6-7 days of trekking through the Namdapha National park to reach Vijoynagar. Though there was an old road from Miao to Vijoynagar (M V Road), this was not in a motorable condition. Recently the road repair work had gained pace and the hopefully, it will be ready soon. Once the work is completed, the journey from Miao to Vijoynagar can be completed in 1-2 days. During our trip, the road work was still in progress and even a four-wheel drive vehicle was struggling to make progress! The whole team had to work together along with the driver, to get through these difficult sections. There were times when there was no road at all, and, we were just driving through the river and over the rocks! 

After many days of meticulous planning and preparations, we reached Vijoynagar on 21st March, 2022, and we checked into the PWD guest house, which provides a comfortable accommodation, with an amazing view! Yolisa Yobin, Bicky Baruah & team were tirelessly working to make sure that we are happy and comfortable. First few days were spent birdwatching in the forests around Vijoynagar. Then, on 24th March, we started our trek to the Mugahphi peak. During the initial sessions, we had to overcome some difficult challenges, but the good birding that followed compensated for these difficulties. It started raining soon after we started our climb to the first base camp, which slowed down our progress. Birding opportunities also got reduced. 

We were back in high spirits on the second day of the climb, when we had our first encounter with our target bird! Though this first encounter was a frustrating experience due to the bad weather, low visibility and the skittish behaviour of the bird, we still managed to get some good views of the bird and few audio recordings. Due to the incessant rain, we could not get any more sightings during the trek.

After two days of climb, we reached the second base camp. Since the rain was not letting up, we decided not to climb further. We spent the next two days birding around the base camp and searching for the Wren Babbler whenever it was not raining. To our great joy, the Wren Babblers were calling from all around the camp, and we could count at least count 6 different individuals. Over the next two days, we managed to get few photos, videos and audio recording of the Wren Babbler. Based on what we saw and heard, we realized that the bird is not a "Grey-bellied Wren Babbler" as we had initially thought. These birds had a whitish belly (instead of grey) and their song was different from that of Grey-bellied Wren Babbler. It was also slightly different from the "next nearest relative" Naga Wren Babbler, which is found further south-west. Since the weather was not improving, we started our descent back to Vijoynagar. After a brief stop at Vijoynagar, we started back to Miao. M V Road passes through wonderful habitats with amazing bird life, and few short breaks on this path gave us some good bird sightings, ending the trip on a high note. The findings till now has been summarised in an article in IndianBIRDS. Hopefully, this will trigger further research and bring clarity on the taxonomic status of this bird population!

For more details, please read https://indianbirds.in/pdfs/IB_18_4_PraveenETAL_MugaphiPeakSpelaeornis.pdf
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Music from https://freetousemusic.com
Track: Senseless by Johny Grimes
https://youtu.be/NT0lRztK9_I
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