Nalbana Bird Sanctuary

Nalbana, meaning a weed-covered island in Odia, is a 15.53 sq km island in the middle of Chilika Lake and the core of its Ramsar-listed wetlands; it gained bird sanctuary status in the early 1970s. Each monsoon the island goes completely under water, and as levels fall in winter its broad mudflats reappear and birds arrive in huge numbers to feed.

Greater flamingos arriving from Iran and from Gujarat's Rann of Kutch feed in the shallows alongside lesser flamingos, Goliath and purple herons, spoonbills, storks and black-headed ibis. Plovers, ruff, dunlin and sandpipers work the shorelines, and ducks such as pintails, shovellers and gadwall gather in flocks. Rarities recorded on the lake include the Dalmatian pelican, Pallas's fish eagle and spoon-billed sandpiper, and raptors include the white-bellied sea eagle and peregrine falcon. Terns nest on the island too: a 2002 survey by the Bombay Natural History Society found 540 Indian river tern nests.