I am new to bird
watching and I am glad to say I am enjoying it. In the last two months, I have
come across more than 40 species of avian diversity. From the smallest of
hummingbirds to the biggest, the Cormorants; the avian world is beautiful and
beyond any comparisons. In recent times,
I am very fond of two birds; sparrows
as a whole and a common mynah particularly the one I had recently discovered
that had a deformed upper mandible and I named him “Machindra”.
A couple of days back, we
observed World Sparrow Day at Chisopani JHS, where I am a primary school
teacher. The programme was a successful one and we saw large numbers of
students participating at the event. From a bird hunter to surrendering their
catapults was itself an achievement of the event. There were students who had
been hunting birds in the wild for more than three years.
To hear those
students saying that they were wrong in doing so and they will in near future
protect those harmless birds tell us the success of our programme. We might
have been late in introducing such kinds of the programme but it is for sure our
intention and motive have hit the right cord. It was only during the awareness
interaction between the resource persons and the students I came to know most
of the beautiful birds and beautifully singing birds belonging to the male category.
Little did I have
thought that the concrete jungles we humans are creating are one of the reasons
for the downfall of the House Sparrow locally called “Bhangerra” (Nepali language). That small creature likes wooden
houses and live in the cavities of old houses which are now very hard to find.
Due to lack of house factors, the house sparrow’s eggs get destroyed and their
population is in a decrease. Today’s highly qualified civilization do not
prefer to catch hold on nestling materials being dropped at their houses or
gardens, is the other reason that people have left appreciating these small
birds Feeding sparrows are limited to
lesser people compared to a few decades back.
There are various other reasons for
the downfall of the sparrow population but I am sure we all need to come together
and save this small creature for the survival of our environment, for the
balancing of nature. Why not support these birds by having a bird's nest and
bird feeders at your house?
A few days back I came across
a strange-looking Common Mynah (“rupp-pee”
as we call it in Nepali) at the verandah of my home, surprisingly its upper
mandible had scrolled towards the sky. I found it very strange and close to her was
another rupp-pee walking side by
side. I could not believe that the other bird was feeding grains to the malformed
one. Amazingly I came to learn from a source that male Common Mynahs are larger
in size compared to the female. I found that normal-looking Common Mynah’s bill
was shorter than the deformed bird. To my notice, the deformed bird was larger
than the other bird when together. So, does that mean a female bird was feeding
the male one!!
The deformed bird
visited me yesterday and since then I had given him (though still confused with
its gender) a name “Machindra” that means mysterious. Several questions of how
(!) were raised within my small mind and believe me the bird seems so healthy
despite its abnormality.
I saw no sign of abnormality affecting him. I saw him
walking perfectly, scratching his dorsal part as any other bird does and even
recorded its high-pitched scream. Being a nature lover Machindra has caught my
fancy and every day in the morning I try to look for him, expecting something
different to watch! Bird watching is fun and it is a pleasurable experience, do
try it….!!
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