Noida: Almost 8,000 birds have flown into Okhla Bird Sanctuary this time with officials claiming that more than 46 species have been spotted already. The park was late in preparing the waters for the visitors, but they have arrived on time and in good numbers.
According to officials, 8,000 is a good number considering it is mid-December and more birds could come in.
The park usually gets over 15,000 migratory birds by the end of March. The sanctuary that had been shut because of the lockdown for about five months has recently opened for visitors.
Northern shovelers, Northern pintails, common teals, Gadwalls, Eurasian coots, Eurasian widgeons, common pochards, black headed gulls, brown headed gulls, Pallas’s gull, glossy Ibis, barn swallows, great crested grebe, bar-headed goose, greylag goose, Eurasian spoonbill, greater flamingos, grey herons and great cormorants are some of the birds that have been seen in the park.
“Now that it has become cold, more birds are expected to migrate. We have a count of around 8,000 birds now, and it is a good number at this time of the year,” the district forest officer (DFO) Gautam Budh Nagar, PK Srivastava, said.
Birders are, however, waiting for more winged visitors to turn up in large numbers.
“One hopes that with snowfall in the hills, more birds will migrate to lower altitudes. While there are a lot of birds here now, we are still waiting for some vibrant species to come. We hope that January will have some surprises for us,” Jaswinder Waraich, a birder from the city, said.
Some of the birders in the city are yet to visit the park.
“I have still not started birding this year because of Covid-related restrictions,” Matthew Joseph, a birder, who leads a bird photographers’ group, said.