NIT-Tiruchy smiles as rare feathers flock together on campus

Enumerators, who took part in the exercise held between February 19 and 20, spotted more than 100 species on the campus. The Campus Bird Count (CBC) is a subevent of the larger Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). It is a coordinated effort to document the birdlife in multiple campuses across India. Incredible NIT-T, the nature club of the institute, organised a bird walk on February 19 as part of the CBC event. 

Members of the club and participants were able to identify 40 different species of birds in a span of just one hour. The details of the species that were spotted during the exercise were loaded on to a portal of the institution. 

“The nature club has been systematically recording data about birds on the campus over the past two years. A total of 137 bird species have been documented so far, apart from 53 species of butterflies, 12 species of snakes, and various other creatures of the wilderness such as the monitor lizard, mongoose, Indian hare, etc.,” said Dr A K Bakthavatsalam, Faculty Advisor of NIT-T.

During the bird count, 85 were found to be local species and 20 other species could be found in different parts of the country. Apart from this, 20 migratory species come to the campus during winter. 

“Over 12 species of raptors and 30 species of water birds also frequent the campus. This time, rare species such as the Barred Buttonquail, which is found in South China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, rare species of cuckoo variety seen in Thailand, the Philippines and Sri Lanka also formed part of the count for the first time,” Bakthavatsalam stressed. “It is refreshing and reassuring,” said Sujitha, student president of NIT-T’s nature club. 

It has dark glossy upper parts, a black head with long crest chestnut wings, a long graduated glossy black tail. They breed along the Himalayas and migrate south in winter to Sri Lanka, southern India and tropical Southeast Asia.

Mainly insect eaters and they are found in grassland, thin scrub and forest often quite far from water. Widely found across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal and the Gambia to Ethiopia, the Nile valley, western Arabia and Asia.

Two of the approximately 37 species are native to Australia. Resident breeding birds in Africa, Sri Lanka Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

Species of oriole family Found in Indian subcontinent, and Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhastan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Nepal.

Known for the aerobatic displays of the male during breeding season Found widely across tropical Asia stretching from Iraq eastward across India.