Feathered friends seem set to give Jayanti Sarovar a miss once again.

Morning walkers and bird watchers are disappointed by the absence of migratory birds at the lake inside Jubilee Park that usually comes alive with chirps and tweets by this time every year.

Migratory birds from northwest Himalayas, Baluchistan and sometime even from the Arctic region flock to the scenic water reservoir in the end of September or by November and leave in January-February.

They sometime overstay because of extended winter.

Grey plovers (Pluvialis squatarola), tufted pochards (Nyroca fuligula), gadwalls (Anas strepera), Eurasian wigeons (Anas penelope), common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos), spotted sandpipers (Actitis macularius) and northern pintails (Anas acuta) used to spend their winter vacations in and around the steel city.

Bird watchers believe the birds may skip the lake this winter.

This will be the third consecutive year that the birds have stayed away from the water body.

“Migratory birds have not even flocked to the marshy farmlands at Sidhgora and the Dimna Lake. The scene will be pretty much the same at Jayanti Sarovar, too,” said Siddharth Mishra, an avid bird watcher who has been coming to Jubilee Park for over two decades.

He blamed the haphazard urban development near the lake.

“Too much construction activities prevent birds from coming to the lake. Birds prefer peace. Increasing picnic crowd and boating at the lake are other factor behind the no-show,” Mishra added.

College student Pratyush Singh said he came to the park daily in the hope of spotting migratory birds.

“I come to the park at 8am daily to in watch the birds at their playful best. But I am yet to come across a migratory bird. I am keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.

A private security guard at Tata Steel Zoological Park said the birds should have arrived at the lake by this time of the year.

“I haven’t spotted any migratory bird till now,” he added.

A part of Jayanti Sarovar falls inside Tata zoo.

Ornithologist K.K. Sharma said the water level at Jayanti Sarovar had come down and it might be one of the reasons behind the absence of the birds.

“Birds generally prefer reservoirs where the level of water is deep,” Sharma, a member of Ornithological Society of India, said, adding that the high-rises along the Marine Drive has also affected the navigation pattern of the birds.