Spotted Forktail
A stream bird, and one of the most dependable good sightings on the route. Where the pheasants need luck and a pre-dawn climb, forktails work a fixed stretch of water and come back to the same boulders every morning.
When is the best time to see a Spotted Forktail near Ranikhet?
Year-round, though winter is easiest — birds drop to streams around 1,400–1,900m and concentrate on fewer stretches of water. Early morning and the last hour of light are best, when they feed along wet boulders. There is no narrow seasonal window here, which is why it is a good bird to build a trip around if your dates are fixed.
Where to look
Fast, shaded streams with exposed boulders and leaf litter along the edge. The Chaubatia stream below the orchards is the reliable site near Ranikhet; the crossings inside Binsar hold a pair or two. Walk the water slowly and stop often — they flush ahead of you along the channel and settle again fifty metres on.
How to identify one
Black and white, with a white forecrown, white-spotted black mantle, and a long deeply forked tail banded in white that it fans and pumps constantly. Slaty-backed Forktail is plain slate above with no spotting. Little Forktail is much smaller, with a short tail and a restless bobbing action.
The Chaubatia stream is on every trip, in every month
We walk it slowly on at least one morning, and in winter usually twice. If forktails matter to you, say so at enquiry and I'll build in the Binsar crossings as well.
Common questions
When is the best time to see a Spotted Forktail near Ranikhet?
Where exactly do you find them?
How do you tell it from a Slaty-backed Forktail?
Is it a good bird for photography?
Seen on the same mornings
Other birds you are likely to meet on the same walks.
Forktails are on the route in every month. Tell me your dates and I'll build the stream walks around them.
Small-group guided birding around Ranikhet, in the Kumaon hills.