Cold makes Delhi a hot spot for migratory birds (The Hindu 09 January 2012)

The recent rains and cold spell appear to have augured well for the arrival of migratory birds at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary as also along the upper stretch of the Yamuna and their numbers have picked up significantly in the past few days.
As per T.K. Roy, conservationist and AWC Delhi State Coordinator for Wetlands International – South Asia, which conducts an annual survey on the migratory birds in Delhi, the cold weather has brought with it a number of bird species which were hitherto either giving Delhi a go-by or were coming in only in trickles.
“Climate plays a very important role in migration of birds. In turn, birds are a good indicator of climate,” said Mr. Roy, adding that while Okhla Bird Sanctuary had witnessed a decent arrival of migratory birds till late December, they had not been spotted along the upper stretches of the Yamuna.
“But for the moving flocks of black-headed gulls and brown-headed gulls in the upper stretch of Yamuna, who go there in search of food and return to the sanctuary in the evening,” there has been very little movement of birds in the area.
“Unfortunately, the most attractive greater flamingos have not been seen since last year – despite their earlier number being as high as 500. But with the recent showers, the number of birds in the sanctuary has gone up and most of the flocks are now sheltered in the middle part of the sanctuary,” he said.
So far, the prominent species that have arrived in Delhi include the northern shoveller, northern pintail, crested pochard, common pochard, ferruginous pochard, Eurasian wigeon, gadwal, common teal, common coot, graylag geese, bar-headed geese, Eurasian spoonbill, black-tailed godwits, black-headed gull and brown-headed gull.
Even the number of spotbill duck has been higher than the average of the past years.
But some other migratory species like mallard, garganey, cotton teal, comb duck, pallas gull, bar-tailed godwit and local migrants like black-necked stork and Asian openbill stork have not arrived till date.
Among other common waders, certain species such as common sandpiper, green sandpiper, wood sandpiper, marsh sandpiper, common redshank, greenshank, little stint, northern lapwing, river lapwing, white-tailed lapwing and four species of wagtails, pied avocet, painted stork, white ibis and glossy ibis have only come in very small numbers on the middle islands and western bank of the Yamuna on the Delhi side.
Mr. Roy said while the season had begun on a note of desperation since the dried up river bed in October 2011 had led to a sharp fall in the arrival of the migratory birds, later their numbers had swelled with the filling up of water in the portion of the river passing through Delhi.
“After the revival of the water body, the prominent species like cormorants, darter, black-crowned night heron, egrets, herons, little grebe, pheasant-tailed jacana, bronze-winged jacana, purple moorhen, white-breasted waterhen, common moorhen and brahmini ducks returned to the Okhla sanctuary in large numbers,” he said.
The actual bird count or census would begin in the second week of January, Mr. Roy said.