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Time for birds to flock near water bodies

The state has many water bodies that are visited by migratory birds.

Hyderabad: The season for migratory birds, local and international, to visit the state has started. With good rains this year and rejuvenation of many water bodies under Mission Kakatiya, ornithologists from the city said this was the time the forest department to begin scientific documentation of various aspects of migratory birds. This is not done as of now. The season for migratory birds starts November-end and increases from January to March.

Dr V. Vasudeva Rao, senior ornithologist from Hyderabad and principal scientist at the Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, said, "Just drawing up a list of birds that are seen at water bodies during the migratory season is not going to help. There is a need for scientific documentation of various aspects like for how long do the migratory birds stay at a particular water body. This is necessary to understand if the water body is just a stopover site or a destination for migratory birds. Testing of water quality needs to be done as poor quality will not attract many birds."

Dr Rao said the most important part was that the data should be monitored annually so the trends of arrival, population, and species diversity of birds, duration of stay and other aspects could be studied. He said an agency should be constituted by the forest department to undertake this work and maintain data with the help of bird watchers.

The state has many water bodies that are visited by migratory birds. It may be recalled that recently the Telangana state government declared Ameenpur lake as a biodiversity heritage site, one of the reasons being the presence of 171 species of migratory and local birds.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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