The Bhitarkanika forest and wildlife personnel have geared up to organise monsoon bird census at the park in the first week of August.
The census will be carried out for a week by two teams. The tourists will be restricted from visiting Bagagahan and several other areas inside the park in order to conduct the census in a hassle-free way.
According to official sources, the forest personnel earlier had scheduled to conduct the census work on July18, but later they deferred it to August first week. It may be noted here that every year, the monsoon bird census is conducted in third or fourth week of July at the Bhitarkanika National Park. The residential birds start their nesting process with the onset of monsoon rains.
Basically, 11 types of local birds, which throng Bhitarkanika for nesting and breeding are open bill stork, little cormorant, intermediate egret, large egret, little egret, purple heron, grey heron, night heron, darter, white ibis and cattle egret. The avian species selectively use tree species like Guan, Sundari, Sinduka, Bani and Jagula to form their nests.
Notably, an estimated 70, 105 monsoon bird species had visited Bagagahan and Mathadia forests in Bhitarkanika last year. About 15,422 nests were sighted in 4,924 mangrove trees.