A daylong bird census was conducted across 52 wildlife divisions of Odisha on Saturday, with officials hoping for an increase in the number of avian visitors.

Wildlife officials said that a large number of birds arrived at the state’s water bodies, including Chilika, the largest brackish water lagoon, the Hirakud Reservoir in Sambalpur, the Ansupa Lake in Cuttack and the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in Kendrapara district.

For the first time, the bird census was held on a single day. Earlier, the counting used to continue for a few days to cover the entire state.

The divisional forest officer (DFO) of Chilika wildlife division, Anshuman Nayak, told The Telegraph: “Once the counting is over, the final estimation of the number of birds reaching the state will be known. There is a good congregation of birds this year. We are hoping for a positive result. The results will be declared late on Saturday evening.”

On January 11, for the first time, the forest department, in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), fitted two GPS-GSM solar-powered trackers on two Greater Flamingos at the Chilika and released them.

This move was aimed at tracking the travel trajectory of these migratory birds, who travel thousands of miles from Eurasian countries to reach the Chilika lake during
winter.

Forest officials said the 21 groups, comprising 115 expert members, were engaged in Chilika for the bird-counting. They were equipped with binoculars, GPS systems and spotting cameras. The counting, which started early on Saturday morning and continued till late evening.

The Chilika lake was divided into five zones for the bird census — Balogaon, Satapada, Rambha, Chilika and Tangi. The members from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), wildlife officials and the students of Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology University (OUAT) joined the counting exercise.

As many as 11,37,759 birds of 189 categories arrived at the Chilika lake in 2024. “We are hopeful of an equal number of birds or even more this year at the Chilika lake. The atmosphere is conducive to the congregation of birds. Once we receive data from all the groups, it will be compiled and released,” officials said.

Around 3.42 lakh birds visited the Hirakud reservoir last year and 1.3 lakh birds were spotted in the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary.

The DFO of Hirakud wildlife division, Anshu Pragyan Das, said: “The Hirakud Wetland was divided into 21 sectors — starting from the Hirakud Lake up to the Odisha-Chhattisgarh borders. A total of 32 teams with 70 birders were engaged in counting birds. All were given GPS systems, binoculars and lifesaving jackets.”

Das said: “In 2024, the Hirakud Wetland recorded 113 species of migratory birds, and 3.42 lakh were counted. 20 new species, which were never spotted in the past, were also recorded. In 2024, there were highest congregation of Tufted Ducks (52,000), followed by Lesser Whistling Ducks (49,000) followed by 33,000 Red Crested Pochard.”