A Decade of Raptors: Annual Birding at Mumbra Hills

Date: 15 February 2026 Location: Mumbra Hills, MMR Region

For over a decade, Jungle Buddies Tours has been hosting an annual raptor-watching trail at one of the most famous birding hotspots in the MMR region: the Mumbra Hills. Located right next to the Mumbra railway station, these hills offer an incredible vantage point for observing majestic birds of prey. Keeping up with our long-standing ritual, we headed out to the hills on the 15th of February, and as always, Mumbra did not disappoint!

Aerial Acrobatics: The Shaheen Falcon – The resident falcons of Mumbra Hills are always the stars of the show. Last year, around January, we had the incredible privilege of observing the resident Shaheen Falcons mating. This year, they treated us to a different kind of spectacle, performing breathtaking aerial acrobatics right above us! Alongside the falcons, the skies were highly active. Our group was treated to fantastic sightings of: Oriental Honey Buzzard, Common Buzzard and Shikra

Site Fidelity: The Loyal Blue Rock Thrush – One of the most fascinating aspects of birding at Mumbra Hills is witnessing the incredible resilience and habits of individual birds. Another speciality of this walk was a sighting of the beautiful Blue Rock Thrush. Incredibly, this is likely the exact same individual who has been showing “site fidelity” for the past decade! It consistently prefers the same area, returning to perch on the very same branches year after year.

Coexisting with Urbanisation – A major takeaway from this trail was observing how wildlife adapts to our changing world. It is both surprising and inspiring to see these remarkable birds—from apex raptors to wintering thrushes—coexisting with the continuous human development and foot traffic happening along the Mumbra Devi temple trek.

The walk was led by Jungle Buddies founder Prathamesh Desai, who turned the exciting sightings into a deep-dive learning experience. Participants got hands-on field insights into complex raptor identification, specific falcon species behaviours, and raptor migration patterns.

Overall, it was a massively successful morning of observing, learning, and celebrating a decade of birding at Mumbra Hills!