India GO
Nilgiri flycatcher
A Western Ghats endemic flycatcher. The male is a deep indigo blue all over with a brighter forehead; the female is grey-brown with a bluish tail.
How to recognise it
Sits upright on an exposed branch at the edge of a garden or shola and sallies out after insects, returning to the same perch. The blue only reads as blue in good light.
Where to see it
Munnar
Unlike most of the high-range endemics it tolerates gardens and plantation edges, so it is one of the easier Western Ghats specialities to meet without a long walk.
Eravikulam National Park (often) · Botanical Garden and Flower Garden (in season) · Letchmi Hills (in season)
Ooty & Coonoor
It tolerates gardens and plantation edges, which is why the Botanical Garden and Sim's Park, both planted landscapes, reliably hold a bird found nowhere outside the Western Ghats.
Sim's Park Coonoor (often) · Government Botanical Garden (often) · Lamb's Rock (in season)