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Young World
Watch out for the birds
MALEEHA RAGHAVIAH
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Bird watching will help protect these rare species.
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PHOTO: C.S. Arun
Malabar Pied Hornbill: Found in the Kootoli Wet Land.
KOZHIKODE
Kerala is habitat to hundreds of birds. Many of them are being displaced from their nesting places by urbanisation and developmental projects. The reclamation of wetlands, the habitat of egrets in Kerala, for instance, has resulted in these local birds looking for new homes, and moving on to the beach front. There was a threat to heronries, the breeding place of many water birds such as herons, egrets, cormorants, darter, and ibis. Satyan Meppayur, an ardent birdwatcher, s
ays, efforts are on by different environment clubs to popularise bird watching among the general public. Family members participate in these events with enthusiasm. Parents bring along kids, and vice versa.
Such programmes also help participants in getting to know people and gathering information. Bird sighting programmes helped to create awareness on birds and bird- habitat protection. A major event at all such programmes was the creation of a platform to inform bird watchers on the threats and opportunities for bird conservation at the local level.
The participants are oriented to create a system to monitor urban bird life. Such bird watch programmes are concentrated around cities and not in forest areas. With some effort it is possible to find good places around cities and monitor from here for years together, says Mr. Satyan.
Above all, such bird watch programmes are highly enjoyable, providing a venue for the participants to enjoy the entire day with birds. KeralaBirder, an internet mailing group of bird watchers organised a programme in Kozhikode recently to provide tips on how to spot common as well as rare birds. Participating in a dawn-to-dusk Bird race programme to spot, identify and tabulate names of local birds proved to be highly educative and enlightening for the participants including many children. The programme was conducted simultaneously in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram on November 11, the birth anniversary of Dr. Salim Ali, Bird Man of India.
Protect birds
The teams of bird watchers spent the whole day recording as many species as possible roaming over almost all the bird inhabited areas. The Malabar pied Hornbill is a mid-sized, pied hornbill with a huge casque with forward point and a large black patch and black on the throat that extends only to the upper chest.
Usually it is resident in peninsular hills especially North Eastern peninsula, South West Bengal and Bihar to North Andhra and Western Ghats south of Maharashtra and Sri Lanka. Uncommon bird but declining in deciduous forests,edge of evergreen forest,groves riparian areas. South of Southern Western Ghats it is very rare. As per the bird survey in Kerala, 17 numbers were reported during 2005, in Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary.
C.S. Arun, a keen bird watcher and photographer who sighted the Malabar Pied Hornbill in Kotooly wetlands in Kozhikode recently also captured it in his camera. Sightings of Malabar Pied Hornbill in Kottooli wetland is very unusual. The value of the bio diversity of Kottoli wetland is something precious that need to be conserved, says Satyan Meppayur, bird watcher. The members got an opportunity to learn about the finer points of bird watching from the experts present at the KeralaBirder camp. There were 18 teams, of four members each in the bird race programme conducted in Kozhikode by Malabar Natural History Society. The MNHS team members included those from Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Malappuram Districts.
Prizes galore
Subrahmanyan, Conservator of Forests, who inaugurated the programme said bird races helped protect the wealth of Nature. Dr. C. Sasikumar, ornithologist, Dr. Vijaya Kumar and Dr. Jafer Palot of MNHS, Mr. K. Uthaman and Mr. O. Jayarajan, District Forest Officers, were some of the experts present to guide the participants. Prizes were given to the team that counted the maximum number of bird species. Prizes were also given to the `bird of the day’ for a rare bird sighting and `dip of the day for `non sighting’ of a most common bird. Mr. C. P. Rajan and his team from Mavoor won the first prize for spotting 91 bird species. Second and third prizes were won by Bimal Nath, of Narikkuni and Vinayan of Mananthavadi respectively. Common Peafowl (Peacock) was the bird of the day spotted by Mr. Rajan and seen for the first time in Mavoor area. A rare species of king fisher called Black capped Kingfisher was sighted at the wetlands of Kannur.
Experts highlight bird watching important from the point of view that they are indicators of climatic changes. Later they met over dinner when an interactive session was conducted providing opportunities to birders to clear doubts and get information on different aspects of bird watching.
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