Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary

Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary covers 458.92 hectares near the village of Nelapattu in Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, and is an important nesting ground for the spot-billed pelican. Most of it is southern dry evergreen scrub, including the 288-hectare Kalluru Reserved Forest. The 83-hectare Nelapattu tank holds a Barringtonia swamp forest, dominated by Barringtonia acutangula trees that cope with floods lasting five to seven months, their saplings surviving complete submersion.

Around 189 bird species have been recorded here, 50 of them migratory. Besides the pelicans, the black-headed ibis, little cormorant, Asian openbill and black-crowned night heron breed at the sanctuary. Migratory water birds that call in include northern pintail, common teal, northern shoveler, garganey, gadwall, Eurasian coot, grey heron, Oriental darter and black-winged stilt.