THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At Bonacaud in the city suburbs, the days are now a cacophony of chirps, cheeps, squeals, grating calls and loud, piercing cries. "If you are not used to seeing these birds, you would think it is a whole bunch of different types of birds. The whole lot of calls come from a single bird, the black bulbul," said C Sushanth, co-ordinator of Warblers and Waders, a city-based bird and nature lovers’ group. The Warblers and Waders came across these happy active flocks of black bulbuls at one of their regular bird watching camps at Bonacaud forest region, a part of the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary. While it is difficult to spot these birds against the dark green canopy, what gives them away are the coral red bills, say the bird watchers.
Raucous flocks of these smoky black birds have happily occupied the forest canopy in Bonacaud, thanks to the rain and mist in the upper reaches. "These birds are commonly observed in the higher elevations of the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary such as Athirumala, Pongalappara and Agasthyakoodam region. These birds make movement related to rain, migrating to lower elevations every year,’’ explained Sushanth.
The bird watchers noticed large flocks of Black Bulbul on the trek path from Bonacaud picket station to Karamana. The bird watching camps, held with the support of the Kerala Forest Department, are aimed at studying the migratory birds, which start coming into the state right from September. Sixty bird species were recorded in the Bonacaud-Karamana trek path during the camp.
Some of the major migratory birds that were noticed at the one-day camp were the Grey wagtail, Forest wagtail, Greenish leaf warbler, Large-billed leaf warbler, Ashy drongo, Brown shrike, Long-billed pipit and the Asian brown flycatcher.
But what made the bird watchers depressed was the sighting of Indian peafowl at Bonacaud estate. ‘’We have never spotted the peafowl at Bonacaud. Peacocks and peafowls are usually seen only in dry areas. The sighting here points to the drying up of the area. Peafowls are now being spotted in Thenmala too,’’ said Sushanth.
The bird species endemic to Western Ghats that were observed include the Rufous babbler, White-bellied blue flycatcher, Malabar parakeet and Malabar grey hornbill. Other significant birds sighted were the Mountain imperial pigeon, Oriental white eye, Oriental honey buzzard, Black eagle, Crested serpent eagle, Scarlet minivet, Ruby-throated bulbul, Malabar whistling thrush, Grey jungle fowl, Heart-spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Velvet-fronted nuthatch, Black-naped monarch, Spotted babbler and Crested tree swift.
The Warblers and Waders will be conducting migratory bird watching camps at different forest regions of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts in the coming months. The next one will be at the Nambikovil forest region of Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu, an area continuous to the Agasthyakoodam biosphere region, on November 12, in connection with India’s Great Bird Man Dr Salim Ali’s birth anniversary celebrations.
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