As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday 8 December 2014

Threatened migratory winged guests land at Nangal wetland

Vibhor Mohan, TNN | Dec 5, 2014, 09.06AM IST

CHANDIGARH: In what would strengthen Nangal wetland's claim to an important bird and biodiversity area (IBA) tag, four threatened species of migratory birds have been sighted there this season. The area is these days playing host to painted stork, Egyptian vulture, ferruginous pochard and oriental darter.

IBA is a world bird conservation project of Birdlife International in the US with special focus on globally-threatened bird species. Around 466 IBA sites were identified in India in 2004, including Ramsar sites in Punjab. After 10 years, all the IBA sites were resurveyed by teams in IBA to record the present bird and biodiversity status according to the IBA criteria for re-declaration. Next year, the revised edition of the IBA book will be launched in India and birdwatchers have already proposed Nangal's name.

Experts say this is an encouraging trend considering that due to global climate change impact, migration of long-distance winter migratory water birds has been late and slow with lesser diversity in species and population. As a result, arrival of fewer bird species with lesser population of winter migratory water birds has been recorded.


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