The Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, covering an area of hardly 25 km², and located about 60 km north-east of Kochi (Kerala state, India), is one of the important bird sanctuaries of India. Salim Ali, one of the best known ornithologist has described this sanctuary as “the richest bird habitat on peninsular India”. The literal meaning of Thattekad is flat forest, the region is an evergreen low-land forest and is located between the branches of Periyar River, the longest river in Kerala.
The Thattekad Bird Sanctuary has a rich and varied birdlife. Several species of birds, both forest birds as well as the water birds, visit the sanctuaries, and the important ones include the following:
The Indian Pitta, which visits the sanctuary during winter and spends almost six months here.
The sanctuary is a habitat for different varieties of people and a region of the sanctuary popularly called Cuckoo monkey is home to them, and they include the following:
The Edamalayar forest is located about 15 km from Thattekad Bird Sanctuary. This is also an evergreen forest located above the Edamalayar River. The Mountain Hawk Eagles are found in this forest. Other birds in this forest include Dark-fronted Babbler, Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, Brown-backed and White-rumped Needletails, and Emerald Green Pigeons.
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