Annual Monsoon Bird Census Starts in Bhitarkanika National Park

Kendrapara: The annual census of monsoon birds at the Bhitarkanika National Park commenced on Monday. This process is meant for enumeration of monsoon birds that throng the wetland sites of the national park for nesting.

Four teams comprising ornithologists and wildlife personnel of the park are engaged in this enumeration of avian species. These teams will take five days to cover all the major bird congregation zones inside and outside the national park.

This year the arrival of birds for the monsoon season at the Bhitarkanika National park was delayed because of lack of uniform rains. Yet as per forest officials, a large number of monsoon birds have already arrived at the mangrove covers of the park.

Apart from the core area of the national park, peripheral wetland sites like Satabhaya and Barunei are also part of this bird census.

Every year over a dozen species of local residential birds congregate in and around the Bhitarkanika National Park for nesting and breeding. They include, open bill stork, little cormorant, intermediary egret, large egret, little egret, purple heron, grey heron, night heron, darter, white ibis and cattle egret.