Birds of Pakistan Dedicated to Bird Lovers Anywhere and Everywhere in the World

Birds ofA PictorialPakistan Glimpse of Natural Heritage ARIF AMIN I GHULAM RASOOL I FAKHR E ALAM A tribute to the birds of Pakistan Dedicated to bird lovers anywhere and everywhere in the world Birds ofA PictorialPakistan Glimpse of Natural Heritage Infor PrefacePakistan is an amazing country with diverse geography, climate and culture. This diversity is reflected in the way humans, animals and plants inhabit this beautiful country in its deserts, forests, plains, rivers, lakes and mountains. The birdlife is also very rich and diverse because of the topography and the variety of natural habitats offered to them. This book is an attempt to capture the beauty and glory of birds in their natural habitats, as well as their visiting places across Pakistan. Each photograph is a tribute to their freedom and splendor. The opportunity to experience the rich diversity of Pakistan, during my childhood and my professional career, developed my love and fascination for nature. I was also lucky to have jobs that required extensive travel across Pakistan. However, the intense pleasure in watching and photographing wildlife, particularly birds, started many years ago, when I first visited Deosai Plains in Gilgit-Baltistan. I was amazed by the vast expanse of land covered with millions of flowers and the colorful birds freely flying among them. My initial attempts of photographing those birds with a small 4 megapixel camera were very dismal. However, over the last ten years, my treks to reach the birds and the technology to capture them have vastly improved. I have sought them in the plains of Punjab, the hills and mountains of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in the high pastures of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan and a few attempts on the shores and lakes of Sindh and Balochistan along the Arabian Sea. My wife, Umbreen, an active partner in these journeys as a companion, nature lover and a bird spotter, has always encouraged and supported me to present my collection in the form of a book. During one of our bird watching treks more than five years ago, I met Ghulam Rasool, who has since become my teacher and mentor. Our mutual passion for birds is displayed in this book which is a first attempt of its kind in the country. GR, as he is known among fellow photographers and nature lovers, is an accomplished photographer who not only carved a niche in photographing birds but pioneered the art of wildlife photography in Pakistan as well. His work has been featured in prestigious publications both nationally and internationally. GR has also worked as a professional wildlife photographer with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to implement the Pakistan Wetlands Programme. He captured digital images of Pakistan’s diversity from salt marshes and the Photography Ghulam Rasool I Arif Amin I Fakhr e Alam marine wetlands of the Makran Coast to the icy alpine lakes of the Hindukush, Himalayas and the Karakoram Photo Editing Cordilleras. He has also displayed his collections in a recent exhibition “My Eyes are Witness” at Asia House, Ghulam Rasool London, UK. Graphic Design Fakhr e Alam Fakhr e Alam, the third member of our team, is a professional graphic designer, nature lover and an enthusiast Research traveller and photographer. He has designed a number of publications for WWF Pakistan during his stint in the Umbreen Arif organization as a graphic designer. Project Directed by Arif Amin This book is our combined effort to document not only the beauty of birds present in Pakistan but also where they T: +92 300 8544672 E: [email protected] were captured on camera and the time of the year they visited that place. This, we hope will provide knowledge Original Edition 2016 about their presence and activity to people and will help develop a respect for their lives and their habitats. Number of copies 1,500 We are extremely thankful to Engro Foods Limited in supporting the publication of this book and enabling us to All Images © 2016 by the photographers unless otherwise specified share our love for birds and our first step towards awareness and conservation of nature and wildlife in Pakistan. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means – photographic, electronic or mechanical or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. ISBN 978-969-23111-0-6 Publication Supported by ARIF AMIN Printed in Pakistan by TOPICAL PRINTERS From the world’s biggest permanent freshwater glacier Baltoro (Gilgit-Baltistan) to the hot deserts of TharIntroduction (Sindh) and Makran Coastline (Balochistan), Pakistan with approximately 800,000 km2 area, is the only country in the world with the most altitudinal variation. K-2, the second highest mountain (8,611m) in the Karakorum Range, in the north of the country and more than 1,000 kilometers long coastline in the south are two extremes. This huge variation in topography within approximately 2,600 kilometers Arif Amin has been working for more than twenty years on education policy and from the northern tip of the country to the southern border reflects unique flora and fauna as well as reformsOur with internationalteam development partners, private organizations and NGOs geography, cultures and people, and therefore, makes this land an aspiring and challenging place for to support and guide public education service delivery. Arif is an ardent traveller, explorers and nature lovers. birder, and nature & wildlife photographer. He has travelled extensively across Pakistan and has photographed more than 300 bird species in the past ten years. Pakistan is home to an impressive number of bird species. More than 780 species have been recorded so He lives in Islamabad and is working as a freelance consultant. far. These include permanent residents that stay all year long, others that come to breed and raise their young ones, wintering birds that spend most of the winter season in Pakistan and migratory birds that Ghulam Rasool is a professional fine art nature photographer. He has been interested pass through in spring and autumn along the Indus Basin which has been referred to as one of the world’s in photography since his childhood, however, started this more professionally greatest flyways for migratory birds. The many canals, irrigation channels and lakes around the Indus after joining World Wide Fund for Nature in 2005 as wildlife photographer. Since Basin offer a large landscape to bird watchers and wildlife photographers. then, he has extensively worked on biodiversity and landscapes of Pakistan while in the field. He is presently living in UK and is a freelance consultant. This book is an attempt to capture the diversity of birds across Pakistan. The selected bird photographs provide altitudinal as well as geographic diversity and represent all the provinces and main areas in Fakhr e Alam is a nature lover, traveller and photographer by profession. He is a Pakistan. The photographs have been grouped according to their families, following, to some extent, the graphic designer but has extensive experience of wildlife and conservation due to sequence given in the “Birds of Pakistan” - Helm Field Guides. Each photograph was taken in the bird’s his involvement with World Wide Fund for Nature Pakistan as Graphic Designer natural environment and carries information of the place and time of the year. The book carries a total and Nature Photographer. Fakhr has also worked as Graphic Designer/visualizer of 121 photographs of birds, representing 93 species. The book opens with the first photograph of Chukar at Inkpot Graphics Brooklyn, NY, USA. He presently lives in Abbottabad and is (Alectoris chukar), the national bird of Pakistan. It also includes photographs of three globally threatened working as a freelance consultant. species – Greater Spotted Eagle, Sociable Lapwing and Jerdon’s Babbler. These are among the 29 globally threatened species in Pakistan, which if remain unprotected, may not be sighted by our future generations. With a rapidly growing use of land for humans, whether for industry, agriculture, housing societies or entertainment, the natural habitats for birds are rapidly changing and disappearing. The unchecked and brutal bird hunting may also be contributing to the rapid reduction in the number of migratory birds and change in their routes of travel. We hope that this book will make people fall in love with the birds in the same way as we have and will contribute in the preservation of natural habitats and champion the right of birds to fly and sing without fear. We apologize to the birds not included in this book and hope that future publications will cover the ones missed from this book. 06 BIRDS OF PAKISTAN BIRDS OF PAKISTAN 07 CHUKAR Alectoris chukar SEE-SEE PARTRIDGE Ammoperdix griseogularis Hushe, Ghanche, Gilgit-Baltistan Torghar Mountains, Torghar, Balochistan October, 2011 May, 2009 a1 a KALIJ PHEASANT Lophura leucomelanos BLACK FRANCOLIN Francolinus francolinus 1 male Margalla Hills, Islamabad, ICT Nara Canal Wetlands, Sukkur, Sindh April, 2011 February, 2008 2 female Margalla Hills, Islamabad, ICT March, 2013 a2 10 BIRDS OF PAKISTAN a1 a PHEASANT-TAILED JACANA Hydrophasianus chirurgus 1 Kamoke, Gujaranwala, Punjab August, 2012 2 Marala headworks, Sialkot, Punjab June, 2014 a2 12 BIRDS OF PAKISTAN a a COMMON REDSHANK Alectoris chukar Broghil Valley, Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa July, 2010 b RED-CRESTED POCHARD

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