Owls are many and most of them are breeding in this sanctuary. Swifts & Swallows are come thousands during certain days and roost on telegraph & electric wires in and around the sanctuary. The sanctuary has a small breeding area of the crested tree swift.

The long distance migrants, warblers and fly catchers arrive first in the sanctuary , a large number of fly catchers use thattekkad as a transit point. A large population of Warbles stay back for a long duration.Wagtails like Forest wagtails , Grey wagtails, etc are some of the migratory species which stay for a long time.

Water birds like the Little cormorant, Large cormorant, Darter, Shag, Dabchick, Whistling teal, Blue winged teal, Pintail duck, etc were not recoreded by Mr.Salin ali but have now become very common in the water spred area.

The grey jungle fowl & the Red spur fowl population in the sanctuary is fairly good.

Thattekkad is a fairly good population of birds like Malabar trogon, Shama, Frogmouth.The pennisular bay owl which has only been recorded from parambikulam so far was noticed in Thattekkad also. The balck crested baza is a breeding resident of this area.

Most of the sanctuary is under monoculture mainly of teak & mahagony.It also has evergreen, semi evergreen , moist decideous too.Rainfall is seasonal and so the climate is hot and humid. The mean annual temperature being from 18-37 degree celsius.The monsoon carry haevy rainfall and speed winds.

Thattekkad bird sanctuary with an area of 25 sq.km is bordered by four rivers namely Periyar, Kuttampuzha, Kolom bathodu & Orulamthanni. And directly uphill of Thattekkad is the anamudi peak , the heighest point in western ghat .

Thattekkad was declared the first bird sanctuary in kerala in 1983.It was Mr.salim ali during his ornithological survey noted the richest avifaunal diversity of Thattekkad.