Sultanpur National Park, Haryana

Date of Visit – 27 March 2022, 28 March 2025, 17 May 2026, 23 May 2026

Blog Entry – 7 December 2023 – completed on 13 July 2026

– Atish

Visit – 1 (Grandparents)

When I was around 9 and 10 years old I had a huge obsession over raptors and prioritized them over any bird. Due to this when I was researching the only thing I typed into the search bar was “Best places to see raptors in India” and constantly viewed many lists and ranking of the top hotspots. However looking at the current circumstances there were sadly no upcoming holidays and I was forced to search for places nearby Delhi. At first I took this in with quite a stubborn mindset and decided that there were no places in Delhi to see any raptors not knowing that I would prove myself wrong only moments later. In an annoyed mood I continued searching and came across this place called Sultanpur National Park in Haryana which was known for its amazing raptor sightings. I was extremely excited and ran to my father and showed him what I found.

For the next few days I constantly annoyed my parents about it and they finally considered giving it a shot. At the time my grandparents had come over from the US so we decided to take them along too as whilst researching I saw that the park had a 3 to 4 kilometer path encircling a waterbody which our Nana and Nani would enjoy. After feeling that the day couldn’t be getting any better I decided to check the recently posted sighting lists of the park. I was shocked beyond belief. The lists consisted of birds like the Eastern Imperial Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Red Necked Falcon, Western Ospreys and much more. Now I couldn’t wait and wanted to go immediately.

Just as the weekend approached my impatience grew yet I decided to take my mind of it by preparing our equipment, clothes and other requirements trying to make sure that it would be an amazing trip. After setting out all our equipment, making sure our father’s (we didn’t have a camera of our own at this time) camera was charged and scope and phone lenses were cleaned I went to sleep awaiting the trip.

Just as the sun rose above the horizon I was woken up by my mother and a “get your clothes on, you can sleep in the car.” Tired yet also pumped I slowly rolled out of bed, put on my clothes, filled my water bottle, shouldered my bag and got into the car. As we drove we could see, out of our foggy windows, murmurations of the Rosy Starlings against the morning light like a cluster of moving dots in the sky. Post the amazing views (not of the city landscape) I fell asleep till we reached our destination.

We got out of the car and immediately made our way through the gate as we wanted to make the most of the morning light for shooting. We touched upon the muddy path and continued walking stopping for breaks and scanning the treetops. As we were walking my nana and nani continued to gon on further with everyone else and I stayed behind and was watching an area under a log as I just saw some movement in the area. I waited and waited and finally the bird showed itself. The Indian Thick Knee. It was a first time for me and since then I still havent seen it again. I signalled over to my father telling him to come but he said that the light was getting brighter and I was wasting time. Yet again I was stubborn and after many long minutes of drama and frantic hand waves he finally decided to give it a look. I breathed a sigh and waited for him to come to me. Finally I could hear his boots in the mud come nearer as my eyes were fixed on the bird.

As he approached I pointed out the bird and he was amazed and excited as it was a first time for all of us. He immediately took off the lens cap of his camera and snapped what felt like a hundred photos! After the excitement of the Thick Knee me and my father ran to everyone else and showed them what we had taken. Everyone was amazed even though the bird wasn’t rare, because the picture was amazing. For a while it was even on the cover page of our blog where now the Grey Crowned Crane is.

We walked slowly through the whole park seeing birds like the Marsh Harrier, Oriental Honey Buzzard and a Shikra flying overhead. After an amazing first trip we decided that the park was the best we had visited near Delhi and went on to recommended it to others. Just as I finish I must say that the landscapes were amazing and consisted of: Reservoir with mounds and floating weeds encircled by a path. To one side there’s a waterbody and to the other grasslands giving it a diversity of birds and habitats.

Visit – 2 (Friend from Germany)

I woke up in the morning and got my clothes on immediately and walked into my parents room as my brother wasn’t in his bed. I opened the door only to see my father signal to my to be quiet and so I left the room and he followed. He told me that my brother had a fever and only me and him would be going and my mom would be staying back with him.

I got into the car and me and father set off to pick up a German family friend who would be going with us. We approached his house and he walked out the front gate and got into the car. After a long series of “Hello s” and “Hi s” we finally set off. As always I drifted off to sleep until we reached the destination.

Finally! We reached after a series of navigation struggles and confusing roads. I got out of the car and set up the scope and tripod while our friend ,Philipp, got out his binoculars and my dad with his camera. All set, we walked through the gates after buying our tickets and walked straight down the path passing a Yellow Wagtail, Flameback and Purple Heron. As we moved further down the path the light didn’t seem to change much as it was an overcast day making shooting easy.

It seemed like an under par day of sightings as we kept moving on down the path passing a turn and watchtower. Till now we hadn’t seen any raptor other than the normal Black Kite and went down another path we hadn’t explored yet to try our luck. We moved down the path and my shoulders were aching with weight of the scope and tripod and I wanted to take a break. “Look, there, there’s a raptor in the tree!” said my father. I immediately turned around and saw an enormously large Eagle sitting far in a tree. “Click,” I positioned the scope at the bird and zoomed in.

I was flabbergasted! It was an exceptionally large Eagle with a golden head and a large white spot on its back. Since I didn’t have the Inskipp (Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Tom and Carrol Inskipp) book with me I decided that we would do IDs later at home and solely focused on taking photos. “Look there another raptor” said my father again. This time the bird looked like a Shikra or a small Accipiter. I moved my focus to it and looked through the scope.

I gasped. I was looking at a Peregrine Falcon, the bird I was obsessed with seeing when I was 8. But this was the best spot I had yet and immediately asked Philipp for his phone and positioned it on the scope lense. I snapped what felt like a million photos (sorry about using so much phone memory).

The excitement was uncontrollable in me that I had to literally take deep breaths. I wanted to stay there watching the Imperial Eagle (the falcon had flown) yet we had to go somewhere and made our way till the end of the path at a swift pace until we saw something. I saw, out far on a pole a whitish brown bird. I asked my dad for the binoculars and saw that I was looking at an Osprey!

We had about five minutes so he quickly took some pictures and we headed to the car. Overall this was an amazing visit and now I could see why its called a raptor hotspot.

Visit – 3 (Friend from Germany)

This time again we visited with our friend from Germany and the trip again consisted of an amazing raptor sighting. We saw the Grey Headed Fish Eagle upon entry and later went on to see a Black Redstart, Citrine Wagtail and a Greater Spotted Eagle.

As we were heading to the car a White Throated Kingfisher zipped by us followed by a Shikra and Bee Eater giving our day the perfect end

Visit – 4 (Aunt, Maya Khosla and Grandfather)

Finally, our latest trip to Sultanpur we were accompanied by our grandfather and Aunt Maya Khosla who works with birds in the US. At entry we saw a pair of Flamebacks, a Spotted Owlet and Parakeets fight over a tree or area as one constantly mobbed the other repeatedly.

Halfway through the path we came across a pair of Coppersmith Barbets and a cluster of Knob Billed Ducks sitting on mounds amongst the water. Sadly when my brother was photographing the Barbets our camera’s battery ran out so now only our father had his camera to photograph. Nevertheless we continued down the path reaching the end stages when we saw a Greater Coucal and Yellow Throated Sparrow crossing our path. We immediately turned and took a few pictures as we were in a hurry to get home as our grandmother was waiting for us.

After seeing the birds we darted for the car skipping the bird hide and straight to the parking trying not to spot anything as if we did then we would feel bad about not photographing it.

Overall I feel Sultanpur over time has become my favourite place to bird near Delhi by far as I feel it has the most diversity and raptors.

– Sikandar

I have been to Sultanpur 3 times once with our grandparents once with our friend and then our aunt Maya Khosla who is also a birder.

When we went with our grandparents it was quite fun so first my mother woke me up at 5 saying that we were going to get late. So I slowly rolled out of bed changed my clothes checked our equipment and got ready. Meanwhile everyone was ready they were all waiting for me to hurry up. So then I ran to the car. Then before the engine even started I was fast asleep. Then there was a lot of talking about the directions and Google Maps failed once again.

Finally! We reached after a bustling car ride. Then we rushed to the gates hoping for good light to shoot. Then our Nana Nani went ahead appreciating the place. And then Atish signaled to us but I was so tired I barely saw him. And at first I thought it was a common bird then my father even signaled to me so I went and saw the Indian Thick-knee. So I got very excited and knew we were going to see much more birds here.

Then we walked slowly and saw lots of birds at first I heard the call of a shikra and looked directly up and saw it overhead. Then we also saw Marsh Harrier and an Oriental Honey Buzzard. Then on the right there was a waterbody with Eurasian Coots pintail ducks and much more so this is a very good park to go for a weekend visit.

When we went with our parents friend Philip it was a lot of fun. First we went to get into the national park and then I minute later we saw a grey headed fish eagle perched on a tree almost at the level we were standing we stood there for at least ten minutes taking pictures.

Then we saw a whole lot of birders shooting at something so we rushed but then we were disappointed because it was just a lesser flameback woodpecker. Then our father started talking to those people about the eagle and they did not see it so all of them went back and we went much ahead of them.

then a few minutes later I spotted what looked like a yellow wagtail but then opened our book and saw it was a Citroen wagtail on the mounds. And around it there were some northern shovelers and Eurasian wigeons and then I spotted a pair of knob billed ducks on another mound and some spot billed ducks. Then after a while we did not see anything but we could hear bhajans in the background. After a while three tractors came rushing down the road which scared a pinkish looking bird that caught my attention and turned out to be a common rosefefinch.

After that there was a lot of sun so we saw no birds but. We got surrounded by at least 20 dogs. And then saw a peacock opening it’s wings. Then after we left the park we asked a person where we can have lunch and the person did not know so we drove to the left aimlessly and saw a hotel called rosy pelican. So we went there with our food and ordered some chai. While we were eating we talked about our sightings and everything. Finally we went back home and said bye to Philip.

On our third trip to Sultanpur we went with our aunt and the night before we were talking about how she studied a raptor nest for two days in a tent. As we arrived in the park we saw a greater spotted eagle in the distance and a golden back woodpecker making it’s nest we were there for 10 minutes then we kept moving on.

And on the way we saw another Citroen wagtail and then we were talking and I looked on the tree on my right and saw that they were two green birds sitting there so when I looked closely they turned out to be coppersmith barbets. So we all took pictures because in delhi you do not see a lot of barbets.

Furthermore we went then I climbed up the watchtower while eating my fruit bar and saw something black coming out of a nest looking thing so we zoomed in from our camera and thought it was a painted stork wing but then our aunt said it is dead because it was not moving so we zoomed into the picture even more and saw the broken neck so we all came to an agreement that it was dead and maybe the chicks also have not survived.

Then we kept walking and the sun was shining on our side so all the birds are silhouette. And we could see no birds but then a black and white strike of a bird crossed us so we followed it and saw it was a black shouldered kite. So then we started scanning and heard the call of a hoopoo. after that we did not see anything special except mainas. but now we had to hurry because aoue aunt had to pack and get ready for her flight so now we were fast walking. and this was the end of our trip to sultanpur.

But sadly when atish went i cold not go because i had a fever and they saw a peregrine falcon and a imperial eagle.

Bird Sighting List –