Highlights
- The wintering bar-headed geese.
- The 130-plus bird species on the tank.
- Its Ramsar-listed wetland status.
The Magadi Bird Sanctuary is a wetland tank near Magadi in Shirahatti taluk that fills each winter with migratory birds.
Up to several thousand bar-headed geese and 130-plus species gather here from December to March; it is now a Conservation Reserve and a Ramsar site of international importance.
Road km to Gadag; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.
December to March, when the migratory geese are present.
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Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.
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This protected dry-hill landscape is visited only on currently authorised forest routes. Confirm entry, guide and fire-season restrictions before leaving town.
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One more place around Shirahatti worth a day of its own.

26.7 km · ~45 min by cab
A range of dry-deciduous hills spanning the Gadag, Mundargi and Shirahatti taluks — notified as a sanctuary in 2019, rich in medicinal herbs, wolves, hyenas and blackbuck, with the Nandiveri math at its foot.
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~26 km from Gadag near Magadi/Shirahatti; by road
If you are travelling by bus or ferry, check the return service with the operator before setting out. Leave time to reach the stop or jetty after your visit.
Ask at the bus stand for the time of the last service back, not the next one. If you miss it, an auto or app cab is the fallback — agree the fare before you get in.
If you need step-free access, contact the site before travelling. Ask about a level entrance, steps along the route, the nearest drop-off point, seating and accessible toilets.
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
An 11th-century Chalukya Shiva temple in the walled compound of Lakshmeshwar (ancient Puligere), carrying scores of old Kannada inscriptions — a major centre of the Chalukyan temple country.
10.9 km · ~18 min by cab · straight line
The Sankha Jinalaya at Lakshmeshwar, an 8th-century Jain basadi to Neminatha (whose emblem is the conch, shankha), built under the Chalukya queen Kumkuma Mahadevi and holding a monolithic Sahasrakuta pillar of a thousand Tirthankaras.
11.2 km · ~19 min by cab · straight line
A small state zoo and deer park at Binkadakatti on the edge of Gadag, opened in 1972 in a dry-scrub reserve — spotted deer, blackbuck, birds and a green picnic stop for families.
23.7 km · ~40 min by cab · straight lineA Kalyani-Chalukya Shaiva complex in Gadag town enshrining a three-linga (trikuta) pedestal, famous for its adjoining Saraswati shrine with intricately lathe-turned stone pillars — a masterwork of 12th-century Deccan carving.
26.2 km · ~44 min by cab · straight line
A range of dry-deciduous hills spanning the Gadag, Mundargi and Shirahatti taluks — notified as a sanctuary in 2019, rich in medicinal herbs, wolves, hyenas and blackbuck, with the Nandiveri math at its foot.
26.7 km · ~45 min by cab · straight lineAn early-12th-century Vishnu temple in Gadag town, linked to the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, where the 15th-century poet Kumaravyasa is said to have composed his Kannada Mahabharata (the Karnata Bharata Katha Manjari).
26.9 km · ~45 min by cab · straight lineThe oldest and largest temple at Lakkundi, an early-11th-century Jain basadi dedicated to Mahavira and built by the poet-patron Attimabbe — a landmark of the Chalukyan "city of 101 temples and 101 wells".
29.0 km · ~48 min by cab · straight lineA compact Chalukya Shiva temple at Lakkundi, considered a stylistic forerunner to the grander Kasivisvesvara that stands close by — finely proportioned and richly moulded.
29.0 km · ~48 min by cab · straight lineThe marquee of Lakkundi (c. 1087 CE) — a twin temple whose Shiva and Surya sanctums face each other across a shared mandapa, its walls a lacework of Kalyani-Chalukya carving blending Dravida and Nagara styles.
29.1 km · ~48 min by cab · straight line
An ASI gallery in Lakkundi displaying sculptures, hero-stones and inscriptions recovered from the town’s scores of Chalukya temples and stepwells — a useful key to the whole heritage cluster.
29.3 km · ~49 min by cab · straight lineA Western Chalukya Shiva temple at Dambal (c. 1124 CE) built on a rare 24-point stellate plan, its polygonal star-shaped vimana ringed by bands of carving and fronted by a large Nandi.
29.4 km · ~49 min by cab · straight lineA Chalukya Shiva temple at Lakkundi paired with the ornate Musukina Bhavi stepwell, one of the finely carved kalyanis for which the old capital is famed, with niched shrines around the water.
29.7 km · ~50 min by cab · straight lineDecember to March, when the migratory geese are present.
Entry: Free or nominal. Timings: Best at dawn and dusk.
About 26 km from Gadag near Magadi/Shirahatti; reached by road with a vehicle. Go at dawn or dusk, keep quiet and watch from a distance; carry binoculars.
1.5 to 2 hours.
Nearby you can pair Someshwara Temple, Lakshmeshwar (10.9 km), Shankha Basadi, Lakshmeshwar (11.2 km), Binkadakatti Zoo (23.7 km), Trikuteshwara Temple, Gadag (26.2 km).
Photographs: Bijoyv, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikimedia Commons.