Increased temperature force migratory birds to return early

Unprecedented increase in maximum temperature in February and March has forced the altitudinal migrant birds to return to higher altitudes before their scheduled time.

Rare bird species Jack Snipe spotted at Mote Majra water body. (Photo via Express News Service)

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Unprecedented increase in maximum temperature in February and March has forced the altitudinal migrant birds to return to higher altitudes before their scheduled time. This point came to fore at the 13th Chandigarh-HSBC Bird Race that was organised on Sunday.

At least 210 bird species were spotted by 11 teams this time under the supervision of Rima Dhillon, who coordinated the event. Last year 257 bird species were spotted.

“The Inter State Chandigarh Region (ISCR) is a hub of altitudinal migrant birds, which come here to escape the harsh winter in the upper Himalayas and higher altitude areas. February end and begening of of March is not the time for these birds to return. But the sudden changes in the weather and rising temperature has forced them to return before their scheduled time,” Mitinder Pal Sekhon, president, Chandigarh Bird Club (CBC), said.

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Interestingly, two rare bird species — Fire Capped Tit and Jack Snipe — were spotted at ISCR.

The Fire Capped Tit was spotted by Team Black Baza at Bhojnagar near Chakkimode in Solan. The bird Jack Snipe was spotted at the waterbody Mote Majra in Mohali by Team Fantail. The birds were counted at Sukhna Lake, Morni Hills, Siswan Dam, Mirzaur dam, Chhatbir and Chakimor.

Team Falcon of Rick Toor, Gajinder Bains, Baljit Kaur and Pranav won the 1st prize for spotting 178 bird species while Team Kestrel of Mohit, Rajiv Dass, Sidharth Nagar and Sanjay Nagar bagged the 2nd prize for spotting 166 species. Team Black Baza of Shruti Jain, Sandeep Singh, Gurjeet King and Kuldip Jaswal secured the 3rd position for spotting 165 bird species.

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