Inle Lake sits at around 880 metres in the hills of Shan State, and the combination of open water, reed beds, floating gardens, and surrounding scrubby hillside gives you a surprisingly varied set of habitats within a compact area.
Much of your birding happens from long-tail boats, which can feel awkward at first — engine noise and vibration are genuine problems — but patient boatmen will cut the motor when you signal, and early mornings on the water before the tourist traffic builds are genuinely productive.
The floating gardens and their margins are where you'll find Hooded Treepie moving through taller vegetation, and Jerdon's Minivet shows well in the scrub and light woodland on the lake's eastern and western edges. Burmese Bushlark haunts the drier grassland patches and agricultural margins inland from the shore; you'll need to walk a little to find it, but it isn't particularly elusive once you're in the right ground.
White-rumped Falcon is the trickiest of the four — scan open perches and telegraph wires from late afternoon, and you'll improve your chances considerably.
Local guides based in Nyaungshwe, the main hub, are easy to arrange through guesthouses and vary widely in skill; ask specifically for someone with birding experience rather than a general boat guide. Accommodation ranges from budget guesthouses in Nyaungshwe to mid-range lake stilted hotels. Heho airport connects the area to Yangon and Mandalay, making access straightforward.
November through February gives you the clearest skies, comfortable temperatures, and peak bird activity; the wet season from June to September makes road access to surrounding hillside sites difficult and visibility on the water poor.