CHITWAN, Jan 5: Birds of various species have started arriving here flying across the Himalayas to escape the biting cold.
President of Ornithologists Association, Dr Hem Sagar Baral said a large number of birds have entered Nepal to escape the cold in Siberia and Tibet flying through mountain passes.
Mostly birds from Tibet travel to the warmer regions of Nepal as temperature in Tibet plummets to minus. According to Dr Baral, some birds have come to Nepal even flying over the Mt Everest. Flocks of birds have come from Siberia.
Siberian birds flock to Rara to escape cold
He said birds of 150 species come to Nepal to avoid cold. Among this many species, duck species alone constitute more than 22. Over 50 species are water fowls.
It is said mostly birds started coming since October and most of the migratory birds have already arrived till now to escape the harsh winter.
The largest number of such migratory birds comes to the Jagadishpur lake in Kapilbastu district. A census conducted last year counted 20 thousand birds inhabiting the Jagdishpur lake and around.
Dr Baral said this year also they plan to count the number of water birds. The bird census is being carried out to know the birds' status so as to augment to the bird conservation strategy.
According to him, bird conservation is becoming challenging in the recent years because of loss of habitat and other problems in the food species of these birds. RSS
