A bird festival was conducted at the Manakudy bird reserve in Kanyakumari district on Saturday. Dr Robert Grubh, renowned ornithologist, spotted birds including spotted painted storks, pelican, red shank, green shank, terns, sand pipers, plovers, open billed stork etc for children and the public through a spotting scope. He said even small birds from the Arcticregion like Little Stint which just weighs 23gm to 25gm visits the reserve for wintering.
Lions governor M A Sundararajan revealed that Lions Associations at the international level was paying keen attention to environmental affairs including forest conservation, conservation of wetland ecosystems, marine conservation and maintaining urban ecology.
Tribal Foundation’s S S Davidson, who organised the program, said that the bird reserve has a vital role in the wetland ecosystem and that it had attracted about 90 species of birds including 45 winter visitors who are our uninvited guests. Terrestrial birds are natural pest controllers that eat insects which destroy agricultural crops.
Students from schools, teachers and the public participated in bird spotting and identified them with specific physical identity characters, plumage colours, body composition, size and behavioural patterns of foraging, congregation pattern and flight movements.