Rise in seasonal monsoon birds' number in Bhitarkanika national park

The number of seasonal monsoon birds who thronged mangrove forest belts in Bhitarkanika national park in Odisha for their annual nesting has registered an impressive rise this year, officials said. This year, monsoon birds had erected 21,185 nests while 19,298 nests were counted by enumerators in 2019. The pertinent feature of this year's census findings was that the monsoon birds skipped visiting their favourite nesting site at Bagagahana.

The number of seasonal monsoon birds who thronged mangrove forest belts in Bhitarkanika national park in Odisha for their annual nesting has registered an impressive rise this year, officials said. The avian species have also switched over the nesting spots to newer locations inside the park in Kendrapara district, they said.

The number of local migrant birds visiting the wetland sites is quite impressive, thus re-establishing Bhitarkanika as one of the prominent heronries of the state as per the latest headcount of these winged species, said Bikash Ranjan Dash, Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division. This year, 97,866 birds of ten species were counted while 88,614 monsoon birds were sighted at the park last year.

It marked a 10.44 per cent rise in the number of birds. The sizeable chunk of monsoon guests were open bill stork species, he said. This year, monsoon birds had erected 21,185 nests while 19,298 nests were counted by enumerators in 2019.

The pertinent feature of this year's census findings was that the monsoon birds skipped visiting their favourite nesting site at Bagagahana. Instead, they nested at Mathadia, Laxmiprasaddia and Durga Prasadia wetland sites in the national park. The depleting water sources might have prompted the birds to skip Bagagahana site to three other sites for nesting, the DFO added. Lack of human interference, ideal climatic condition, cool breeze and the river system always attracted the monsoon birds towards Bhitarkanika, forest officials said.

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