BRT reserve houses several rare birds: census
Eight more birds have been added to the list of rare birds spotted during the census carried out in the Biligiriranganathaswamy Tiger Reserve in the district on Saturday and Sunday.
Some 282 types of birds were counted during the census, held on behalf of the Forest department in the 574.83-sq km reserve forest area.
Of these, the night heron, the thick-billed warbler, the dusky crag martin, the oriental turtle dove, the blue-eyed kingfisher, the bonelli eagle, the cylon frogmouth and the crested tree swift have been identified by ornithologists as being rare.
Nine species on the list of endangered birds are: the greater spotted eagle, the black-headed ibis, the nilgiri wood pigeon, the yellow-throated bulbul, the Egyptian vulture, the black-and-orange flycatcher, the grey-headed bulbul, the white-naped tit and the grey-headed fish eagle. The yellow-throated bulbul was spotted in K Gudi area.
Claiming that this is the first such scientific bird census carried out in a reserve forest area in South India, Vijay Mohanraj, the forest conservator at the tiger reserve, said that the number of rare birds are likely to go up after the verification.
Ornithologist Salim Ali carried out the census first time in the reserve in 1942-43 and spotted 60 species of birds, as per the documents in the Bombay Natural History Society.
