Bird walk conducted by the Hyderabad Birding Pals

About 50 enthusiasts turned up at the Narsapur forest, 40 km from the city, to take part in a bird walk conducted by the Hyderabad Birding Pals (HBP) on Sunday.

HBP was formed four years ago, and this was its 211th bird walk. The members gather every weekend to record birds found at various places.On Sunday, they spent hours waiting for a glimpse of different birds and photographing them. They spotted a record number of 107 species in the Narsapur forest, the HBP said.Mr Hari Krishan Adepu, founder of Hyderabad Birding Pals, said, “Different bird species are identified through their behaviour. There are different varieties of mynas, such as the common myna, jungle myna and others. We also observe their beak, wing patterns, colour and belly. It is more like studying anatomy and the behaviour of the bird.”

This walk was conducted to document the presence of various bird species in the forest. Enthusiasts spotted birds like Brahminy Kite, yellow bittern and Indian nightjar, fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo, Indian nightjar, crested hawk-eagle, crested serpent eagle, short-toed snake eagle and crested treeswift.Mr Sriram Reddy, a member of HBP, said, “We had spotted a lot of the winter migrants like wood sandpiper, western yellow wagtail, Malabar whistling thrush and ashy drongo in April. We didn’t see any of them during Sunday’s bird walk.”

Mr Reddy added that the fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo was identified with its call. Indian nightjar by its habitat and its colour pattern. The common kingfisher and white-throated kingfisher were distinguished by their size, shape and colour.Some of the bird enthusiasts after the walk expressed their concern over the mining and encroachment inside the forest area.Mr Adepu said, “There is clearly habitat loss in the forest because of the mining which in turn affects the birds’ behaviour. In spite of that we are able to see quite a good number of species.”