Yesterday, our enthusiastic local birdwatchers spotted a new bird at our Dhanusha Bird Park project in Dhanusha District, Madhesh Province. It’s a Brown-Capped Pygmy Woodpecker, pictured below (photograph by Dev Narayan Mandal).
An excited Dev Narayan Mandal, Founder of our local implementing partner NGO wrote:

We’re thrilled to share that early morning on 17th May 2025, we sighted a Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker/Indian Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus nanus) in Dhanusha Bird Park located in Mithila Bihari Municipality, Dhanusha District, Madhesh Province — a species that appears to be recorded here for the first time!

While this tiny woodpecker has been seen in other parts of Madhesh Province, such as Rautahat, we couldn’t find any documented sightings from Dhanusha until now. This observation could help expand our understanding of the birdlife in this region!

With this, we have recorded a total of 87 species of birds at Dhanusha Bird Park, established 3 years ago through the fast growing Miyawaki Plantation Method with support of Pipal Tree, Division Forest Office, Department of Herbs and local communities. Let’s keep exploring and documenting the rich biodiversity of Madhesh!

This will have been a wonderful sight for the local birdwatching group of up to 45 children and young people who visit our Dhanusha Bird Park each Saturday morning. To find out about this, check out the film below:

Our Dhanusha Bird Park project has grown incrementally since its launch in December 2021, converting exhausted community land and farmland into forests. But those forests have grown rapidly thanks to our pioneering use of The Miyawaki Method; we create forests in three years that look like they’ve been there for thirty!

The image below shows a drone view of the site where you can see Phases 1-7 marked out:

We’re now aiming to purchase the pond you can see in the middle of the site and restore it back to its natural state after years of contamination from commercial fishing. The estimated price is £18,000. And to the west of that you can see land that’s available for reforestation at £7,400. If you or your organisation can help us meet either or both of these costs please let me know.

Finally, this is a project that we can continue to expand for many years to come, including through gifts in Wills. Please think about that if you are writing or updating your Will. It’s a great way to be remembered! To find out more, see this link.