Annual census of monsoon birds begins in Odisha's Bhitarkanika National Park

The Bhitarkanika National Park authorities, on Monday, began the annual census of monsoon birds, which throng the wetland sites for nesting in large numbers every year.

Four teams comprising ornithologists and wildlife personnel of the park are on the job to conduct the headcount of the avian species, park officials said.

As the spell of rain was not uniform, their arrival was delayed this time. Still, an impressive congregation of monsoon birds was spotted along the mangrove covers of the park, they said.

The enumerators would cover all the major congregation zones inside and outside the national park for five days.

Besides the core area of the national park, peripheral wetland sites like Satabhaya and Barunei are also being taken up for the census programme.

Lack of human interference, ideal climatic conditions, cool breeze and the river system here have emerged to the liking of these delicate chirpy-winged species.

Over a dozen types of local residential birds congregate at the heronries 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, the forest officials said.