A House Sparrow ringed in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur was recovered thousands of miles away in Kazakhstan, while a flight-shy koel or cuckoos, ringed in Andhra Pradesh, was  recovered in Sri lanka.

These unnatural behaviours in birds, attributed to climate  and landscape level changes in India, has been noticed in an ongoing study conducted by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) on the migration pattern of the 565 bird species.

Of total seven lakh birds that have been ringed since the study  started in 1959, around 3,000 recoveries (spotting of birds) have been made in 29 countries spread over  five continents, according to the recently released Indian Bird Migration Atlas.

Bird ringing or bird banding is the attachment of a small, individually numbered metal or plastic tag to the leg or wing of a wild bird to enable its identification as well as tracking of its movements and life history.

Authored by Dr S Balachandran (renowned ornithologist, working for many years on bird migration in India), Tuhina Katti and Dr Ranjit Manakadan and published by the Bombay-based BNHS, the book was  released by Soumitra Dasgupta, Inspector General of Forests, Union Environment Ministry.

Dr Deepak Apte, director of the BNHS, said the much-researched compilation of the bird migration study can help understand climate change related events better.  The birds whose movements were tracked through ring, satellite tracking, colour flag, and neck collars included Greater Flamingos, Bar Headed goose, Tufted duck, Eurasian Wigeon, Ruff, Pallla’s Gull, Caspian Tern, lesser Frigate bird, South Polar Skua, Osprey, house sparrows and koel among others.

Dr Balachandran, Deputy Director of the BNHS, said the study has thrown startling revelations.  “We found that South Polar Skua ringed in Antarctica was found along Karnataka coast, 1,7500 km away from the ringing site! Similarly, lesser  sand plower which is found in Himalaya region, was recovered at the sea beaches of Russia, and  Osprey has been found to have  migrated from Gujarat to Norway.”

Clearly, he said, non-traditional path being undertaken by these winged birds throw lights on valuable scientific data which may help us deal with climate change related issues. Monitoring birds is important because they act as indicators of a region or habitat’s ecological health, he added.