Kendrapara: With the arrival of monsoon, thousands of visiting avian have started arriving at the Matha-adiha heronry inside the Bhitarkanika National Park in Kendrapara district for nesting and breeding, informed Subrat Kumar Patra, the ACF-cum-Range in-charge of Kanika Forest Range.
According to Forest officials, Matha-adiha and Bagagahan heronry are the favourite nesting and breeding places in Bhitarkanika National Park for these visiting birds. These places wear a colourful look during the monsoon season. The dense mangrove vegetation and its serene pollution-free environment have always allured thousands of winged visitors.
Basically, 11 types of visiting birds throng the Bhitarkanika National Park every year during the monsoon. Some of these avian species are the Open bill stork, Little cormorant, Intermediate Egret, Large Egret, Little Egret, Purple Heron, Grey Heron, Night Heron, Darter, White Ibis and Cattle Egret, Patra said.
This year, over 10,000 visiting birds from more than eight species already arrived in Bhitarkanika National Park.
They selectively use mangroves like Guan, Sundari, Sinduka, Bani and Jagula for making their nests.
These birds start coming to Bhitarkanika National Park with the onset of monsoon and the nesting process gets over by the end of November.
Darter, Grey heron and Purple heron start breeding early and their chicks are often seen during August, whereas Open bill stork and White ibis are among the late breeders with their young are seen in September, added forest officials.
According to officials in Bhitarkanika National Park, Open bill stork forms 60 per cent of the total nesting population there. This species prefers to form its nest in atop Guan trees, while the lower most branches are preferred by smaller birds like Little cormorants.
Surprisingly, this year the monsoon visitors have not been sighted at the Bagagahan heronry, which was earlier the favourite place for the visiting birds.
Notably, as many as 10 out of 11 species, which usually throng Bhitarkanika every monsoon, visited the Matha-adiha heronry. As per the census conducted last monsoon, an estimated 91,224 avian species, including 51,444 chicks, and 19,890 nests were sighted at Matha-adhia heronry, informed Patra.
PNN