page_title: Birding in Chennai
section_title: Mudaliarkuppam backwaters
hierarchical_section_title: Birding in Chennai / Mudaliarkuppam backwaters
caption_attribution_description: English: ZittingCisticola-VedanthangalScrub
context_page_description: Housing more than 200 resident and wintering bird species, Chennai has long been a haven for bird watchers. It is the one of the few urban areas in India with diverse range of birds including greater flamingo, black baza, osprey, Indian eagle-owl, Coppersmith barbet, Spot billed pelican and pied avocet can be seen. The following are some known birding hotspots in and around Chennai.
context_section_description: Mudaliarkuppam backwaters is a brackish water lagoon adjacent to the Bay of Bengal on the East Coast Road. This is yet another haven for wading birds and migratory ducks.
  The habitat consists of coastal water mudflats, sand banks and salt pans.
  Highlights: Hundreds of greater flamingos can be spotted here throughout the year. Thousands of migratory ducks, terns and waders can also be spotted during winter months.
  The resident birds seen here include little cormorant, spot-billed pelican, little grebe, common kingfisher, pied kingfisher, white-breasted kingfisher, little green or striated heron, pond heron and red-wattled lapwing.
  Some of the winter migrants seen here are greater flamingo, Kentish plover, lesser sand plover, Pacific golden plover, grey plover, common sandpiper, curlew sandpiper, Eurasian curlew, osprey, little stint, Temminck's stint, black-tailed godwit, common redshank, greenshank, common tern, little tern, whiskered tern, gull-billed tern, Caspian tern, brown-headed gull, Pallas's gull, slender-billed gull, painted stork, openbill stork and grey heron. Thousands of Eurasian wigeon, northern pintail, northern shoveller also use the backwaters.
  How to reach Mudaliarkuppam backwaters: Google Maps
caption: Zitting cisticola at Vedanthangal scrub
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