Birders’ network finds rare pelagic birds on Karnataka’s coast

Some 180 birdwatchers from across India were able to document rare ‘pelagic’ (who spend a large portion of their lives on the open ocean) birds throughout 2023 just off the Karnataka coast.

Significant sightings included Sooty Shearwater, Brown Skua, Brown Booby, Streaked Shearwater and Masked Booby.

Pomarine Skua, Arctic skua, Long-tailed skua, Swinhoes storm-petrel, Wilson’s storm-petrel, Flesh-footed shearwater, Persian shearwater, greater crested tern, lesser crested tern, common tern, and Bridled tern were also documented during the year.

Shivashankar, a techie and avid bird watcher, organised the expeditions. He told this reporter:

Our expeditions last for an entire day, and we have logged 14 days of bird watching and documenting sightings of rare pelagic birds. In April this year, we encountered Sooty Shearwater. It was the first such sighting in Karnataka as well as India. Sooty Shearwater is generally found in the United States. More sightings are reported in Australia and Africa. This was an individual bird and was alone when we documented it. In terms of rarity of sighting, this is a significant find.

Another prized sighting was that of the Brown Skua, also for the first time in Karnataka. The birdwatchers sighted an unusually big sized individual in this case as well.

“We know very little about pelagic birds. We, the coastal Karnataka bird watchers network, are happy that the surveys are conducted regularly from the state’s coast with the support of the Forest Department. We are hoping there will be more such initiatives for long-term surveys,” said the members of the network.

The birders found that the density of pelagic birds had come down from last year. This points to food available for the birds in the ocean, mainly fish. The decline in fish populations has a direct effect on the density of birds in sea waters. “It could be attributed to many reasons, especially rains over the sea, which send fish to deeper waters,” Shivashankar observed.

Apart from pelagic birds, Karnataka has also kindled interest among birders about land-based species. Karnataka’s only major port — the New Mangalore Port (NMP) — began changing into a green one following its then-deputy chairman T S N Murthy taking up the port area’s greening.

The fruits of his efforts started showing in 2016. Today, the port boasts of having 33 per cent of its 2,055 acre area under a green canopy.

“We had chosen the species of trees carefully from a wide array of Western Ghats species. Many of them were shade-giving, fruit and berry-bearing as well as flowering. They were chosen not because of their ornamental qualities but because they spur life — avian and entomological,” TSN Murthy, who is now a top bureaucrat of the Government of India in Hyderabad, told this reporter.

Pelagic bird survey. Photo: Shivashankar and Gopalkrishna, Coastal Birders’ Network

Amateur bird watchers say it is a rare thing to have all varieties of birds absent for over 30 years return to their habitat. They usually come when they get shelter and food.

Birds of the Southern Coastal Karnataka, authored by the late K Prabhakar Acharya and Shivashankar of Karkala, noted that there are 224 varieties of birds in different areas of Dakshina Kannada district.

Babblers, barbets, boobys, bulbuls, cormorants, plovers, wagtails, drongos, egrets, flycatchers, hoopoes, woodpeckers, lapwings, magpie robins, kites, white-breasted eagles, orioles, petrels, koels, munias, herons and many others are seen visiting the green areas.

Many residents have started keeping bird feeders and a pot of water on their rooftops, following the inflow of birds into their colonies. They have also begun building birdbaths in their gardens.

The NMP has documented sightings of at least 40 different species.

The bird diversity and population have also become a point of interest around Kaiga Nuclear Power Generating Station (KGS) in Uttara Kannada district. Every year, The Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) organises a 42-kilometre (km) bird-watching marathon around the plant.

Birders travelled 6-7 km in various terrains that host birds like aquatic, wetland, grassland, raptor, and land birds.

A total of 213 species of birds have been identified so far in the area around the Kaiga Generating Station and Kaiga Township at Mallapuram, about 17 km from KGS.

The avian population is an indicator that the nuclear plant is safe for habitation of all living beings, which has been vindicated by the growing and stable population of avian beings, NPCIL authorities said.