page_title: Birding in Chennai
section_title: Kelambakkam backwaters
hierarchical_section_title: Birding in Chennai / Kelambakkam backwaters
caption_attribution_description: English: EurasianCurlew-Kelambakkam
context_page_description: Housing more than 200 resident and wintering bird species, Chennai has long been a haven for bird watchers. It is the one of the few urban areas in India with diverse range of birds including greater flamingo, black baza, osprey, Indian eagle-owl, Coppersmith barbet, Spot billed pelican and pied avocet can be seen. The following are some known birding hotspots in and around Chennai.
context_section_description: Kelambakkam backwaters is a brackish water lagoon adjacent to the Bay of Bengal in the East Coast Road. This place is a haven for waders, terns, gulls and other winter migrants. More than 80 species of bird have been recorded so far.
  The habitat consists of coastal water mudflats, sand banks, salt pans and small scrubs.
  Highlights: Thousands of gulls and terns are recorded during the winter months. Eurasian curlew, whimbrel, greater flamingo, great crested tern, Sandwich tern, white-winged black tern can be spotted during February and March. Black ibis were recorded for the first time in Chennai recently.
  The resident birds seen here include little cormorant, spot-billed pelican, little grebe, common kingfisher, pied kingfisher, white-breasted kingfisher, little green or striated heron, little green bee-eater, black drongo, red-wattled lapwing, pond heron.
  Thousands of waders can be seen here during winter. Some of the winter migrants seen here are common tern, little tern, whiskered tern, gull-billed tern, great crested tern, Sandwich tern, white-winged black tern, Caspian tern, brown headed/black headed/Pallas gulls, Kentish/lesser sand/Pacific golden/grey plovers, common sandpiper, wood sandpiper, curlew sandpiper, Terek sandpiper, Eurasian curlew, whimbrel, osprey, little stint, Temminck's stint, dunlin, black-tailed godwit, common redshank, greenshank, painted stork, openbill stork and grey heron. 
  How to reach Kelambakkam backwaters: Google Maps
caption: Eurasian curlew with crab at Kelambakkam backwaters
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