THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Is the city becoming less polluted and more bird-friendly? Seems to be so, for the HSBC Bird Run 2010 on Sunday found some extremely rare birds right in the heart of the city, on the Museum premises. On the contrary, there has been a fall in the number of bird species recorded from the Kallar-Ponmudi area, compared to previous years.
Organised by the WWF India and the Warblers and Waders, the bird run found a very rare bird, the Orange Breasted Green Pigeon, scientifically called Treron bicincta, right in the city. The local name for the bird is ‘Manjaviriyan Pacha Pravu’ and is an uncommon winter visitor.
‘’We had earlier sighted this bird in 2005 from Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary. It is usually seen in riverine forests and sighting of this bird in city environment is extremely significant,’’ said Warblers and Waders executive director C Sushanth, who accompanied the group of bird watchers in the Museum area. Not surprisingly, the ‘Pacha Pravu’ was crowned the ‘Bird of the Day’.
The Paradise Flycatcher was the other favourite bird among the group. ‘’It was black and white and had a beautiful long tail,’’ gushed an excited young participant Sneha S Najeeb, a student of Shantiniketan School. The Paradise Flycatcher is scientifically called Terpsiphone paradisi and is a common winter visitor.
The bird-watching exercise in eight different locations in and around the city took off in the wee hours when bird watchers in groups armed with binoculars and cameras moved stealthily into the forest and wetland areas. Arippa, Palode, Kallar, Vithura, Chathankode, Neyyar Dam, Kottoor, Ponmudi, Akkulam, Vellayani and Punchakkiri saw battalions of this green brigade marching up the slopes, down the hillocks and even across marshy areas.
The birders, who were instructed to wear dull shades of blue or grey not to disturb the birds, kept their eyes and ears fully alert to sight a bird among the foliage and to listen to the faintest of bird songs. Not only were they looking for birds, but also their habitats and nesting behaviour too. The Museum group found the nesting of the water-bird Little Grebe in the Zoo pond. ‘’The bird was seen incubating a nest. The floating nest was built with water weeds and decaying dry leaves and twigs. The nesting of Little Grebe has not been recorded from even the wetlands of Thiruvananthapuram. This is the first nesting record from Thiruvananthapuram and another significant sighting of the Bird Race 2010,’’ said Sushanth. Little Grebe is scientifically called Tachybaptus ruficollis.
The sighting of the Red-necked Falcon, Falco chioquera, from Punchakari-Vellayani lake has been a significant sighting of the race as it has not been recorded earlier from the district. The other significant sightings at Punchakkiri were that of the endangered Greater Spotted Eagle and the Black-capped Kingfisher, a rather uncommon kingfisher. The team that went to Punchakkiri and Vellayani recorded 70 species of birds, the second highest among the groups.
The Arippa team walked away with the prize for recording the largest number of birds - a whopping 87 species. The Neyyar Dam - Kottoor group bagged the third prize with 58 species of birds.
The disappointments of the day were the Vithura-Chathankode area and the Kallar-Ponmudi area, which recorded 52 and 40 species each. Even the Museum team scored much more, spotting 50 species. Even in the concrete zones of Peroorkada and Kowdiar, the bird watchers spotted 31 types of birds. However, the Kallar team did make a significant sighting, that of the Black Baza.
The prize for the oldest participant went to O M Mathew and that for the youngest went to Shalini Anil. The prizes were given away by Forest Minister Binoy Viswam.
trivandrum@expressbuzz.com