Three-day residential monsoon bird census begins at Odisha’s Bhitarkanika park

Bhubaneswar, Aug 30 (UNI) Authorities of Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha’s Kendrapara district on Saturday launched a three-day-long census of residential monsoon birds, who throng the wetland sites for nesting every year in large numbers.

Two teams comprising seven members each including ornithologists and wildlife personnel of the national park, are on the job to conduct the head count of these avian species, said Assistant Conservator of Forest Manas Das.

The onset of monsoon triggered chirpy cacophony along the marshy wetland spots in Bhitarkanika National Park. As the spell of rain was not uniform, their arrival was delayed this time. “Still we have spotted an impressive congregation of monsoon birds along the mangrove covers of the park,” said a park official.

The enumerators would cover all the major congregation zones both in and outside the national park. Besides the core area of the national park, peripheral wetland sites like Mathadiha, Laxmiprasaddiha, and Durgaprasaddiha are also being taken up for census programmes.
The lack of human interference, ideal climatic conditions, cool breeze and the river system have emerged to the liking of these delicate chirpy winged species.

Over a dozen types of local residential birds congregate in and around the national park for nesting and breeding every year.

The species are Open Bill Stork, Little cormorant, Intermediary Egret, Large Egret, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Grey Heron, Night Heron, Darter, White Ibis and Cattle Egret, said forest officials.

As many as 1,30,123 monsoon residential birds belonging to ten species were sighted in 27, 282 nests on 1,300 trees were counted during the 2024 census.