Nearly 200 species of birds were recorded in 14 districts of Bengal on Saturday, the first day of the two-day Poila Baishakh Bird Count.
Low participation in north Bengal districts was a worry for the organisers, who felt the heat and the upcoming Lok Sabha elections (some of the constituencies in the north will go to the polls on April 19 and the rest on April 26 and May 4) might have resulted in the unsatisfactory response.
The data for Sunday was not available till the evening.
The Poila Baishakh Bird Count, the only summer bird survey in Bengal, started last year.
“The survey had a poor response in north Bengal. I have spoken with some birdwatchers from north Bengal. Some of them are schoolteachers and they are now involved in election duty,” said Kanad Baidya, a member of the Birdwatchers Society, which is organising the Poila Baishakh Bird Count in collaboration with the Bird Count India.
Several winter migrants were spotted on Saturday and Sunday. Birdwatchers had said on Saturday that the presence of so many migrants, who come to this region to escape the harsh winter in their breeding places, was unexpected.
An organiser said 5 Chestnut-eared Buntings, a species that breeds in Mongolia, China and North and South Korea, were spotted in the Baruipur marshlands. The birds were seen standing on a burnt grassland, which suggested destruction of its habitat, said Baidya.
In Kolkata’s Rabindra Sarobar, a Siberian Ruby Throat, also a winter migrant, was spotted.
A birdwatcher said one of the objectives of the annual count was to know in detail about the presence of birds during this time of the year.
“If it is seen over the next five years that some winter migrants stay back till the peak of summer, we will know that is the trend. May be this has been happening for years but we were thinking that all winter migrants left with the onset of summer,” he said.
All the entries were made in the eBird account, a platform created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology of Cornell University in the US.
Some of the resident birds of Bengal that were frequently spotted in the last two days were Asian Koel, Common Myna, Spotted Dove, Red-vented Bulbul, House Crow and Black Drongo.
Any decline in population or destruction of habitat will show up in annual counts, bird watchers said.