Winged visitors delay flight to Sultanpur

GURGAON: Prolonged summer has delayed the arrival of migratory birds in the region and Sultanpur National Park in particular. Usually the winged visitors from Russia, Europe, China, the Gulf and Siberia start flocking to Sultanpur from September but this year due to comparatively high temperature even in mid-October, the arrival of the avian guests has been delayed.
Wildlife officials, however, are hoping that with a dip in temperature in coming days, a suitable atmosphere will be created for the migratory birds.“With the onset of winters, the migratory birds start coming in during this time, but this year the weather is still warm so the arrival has been delayed,” said district wildlife officer Shyam Sundar Kaushik.
“We expect bar-headed goose, greylag goose, northern pintail, plovers, isabelline shrike, green-winged teal, gadwall, mallard, ruddy shelduck and common pochard to migrate to the park by the end of this month,” he added.
Birds like black-winged stilt, pond heron, pied kingfisher, purple heron, shoveler, white-breasted waterhen, white-throated kingfisher, munia, rosy starling, drongo, ring-necked dove, blue-capped rock thrush, canary-flycatcher and priniacan be spotted at the Sultanpur park at present.
Migratory birds usually start coming from September and fly back in March-April but their duration of stay can vary depending on the weather condition. “There arrival is related to weather condition,” said Kaushik adding that they are hoping a good number of migratory birds this year.
He said migratory birds that frequent the park can be broadly categorised as waders (shallow-water-dependent-birds), ducks and warblers. “The migratory birds that visited Sultanpur in 2015 was 46% more as compared to 2014,” said the wildlife officer. There are over 600 species of fauna, including birds, amphibians and butterflies, at the Sultanpur National Park, according to the Zoological Survey of India book. There are over 417 species of birds reported from the park. There are 16 mammal species, 40 species of butterflies, 16 reptile and five amphibian species.