It’s not only disconcerting but strange to read and be able to understand that the term carnivorous is extended to animals when there’s an awful lot wrong that we humans are doing.
What can be a possibly bigger proof of us humans being dire carnivores other than recounting the sheer number of animal species that are on the endangered-list out there? Move over tigers, leave the leopards aside and think beyond the undoing we’ve done even to animals like the Giraffe, that’s slipped silently into the endangered list.
On a lighter vein, when young, growing minds, coming of an impressionable age begin to get interested in girls, we often loosely attribute a term called “bird watching” to them. Phrases, like he is getting interested in checking out birds, are used often.
But often, we forget that what a simple yet beautiful pleasure it is to engage in real bird-watching. Among the simplest pleasures of life, to be simply out there in the majesty and grandeur of nature and to be able to partake in the magnificent (and free-flowing) spectacle of birds chirping away whilst gliding in the thin air adds a real charm to our lives, isn’t it?
So, could it be that the time to save the following five rare birds is now and here, before there may arrive a situation where it may no longer be possible to engage in “bird-watching”?
Mangrove Pitta
In simple words, the Mangrove Pitta is the colourful bird-watching at it’s very best.
In other words, the Mangrove Pitta is to bird-watching what a rainbow is to the significance of enjoying a feisty shower of rain. This colourful little bird may not make an awful lot of sound, but it can be easily spotted from quite a distance. What distinguishes this bird from the others in its size could be the rather colourful livery of a body that automatically catches one’s attention.
The rather unusual but pleasant site of seeing an orange-yellow breast, green and blue wings and a red-tail in the Mangrove Pitta is a pleasant charmer of sorts for enthusiasts in wildlife. But in here, lies the problem. For this truly colourful bird to be able to survive, it needs a proper upkeep of marshland- its habitat, which is on the verge of silently slipping away.
What can India do to protect its ecology, is something most of us would dearly want to know.
The Yellow Weaver
Against a rapidly declining population, the yellow beaver is another charming marshy grassland inhabitant that is dangerously withering away from the naked view of the human eye.
True to its generic name, the Yellow Weaver may be yellowy in appearance and attraction, but its brightly coloured aura- found in northeastern pockets of a country no longer dense in habitat for the birds and animals- is constantly slipping away.
One of the biggest worries of the country, even as so much of it hardly registers among those who are keepers of the habitat, is the sheer dearth of space and land out on offer for the wild as so much of previously unchartered territories are turning to agricultural lands.
Alexandrine Parakeet
The cousin of the normal green parrot, this magnificently red and pink bird with a familiarly crooked beak is native to South and southeast of Asia. But even as it is not finding its habitat being challenged and it’s home ground depleted by a greedy mankind, what’s alarming is that the bird is constantly being caged and sold for the purposes of being used as a pet. Isn’t that some greed of another sort that needs to be fixed?
The Nilgiri Flycatcher
As the name suggests, the Nilgiri Flycatcher feeds pertinently on the flies suspended in thin air, but, of late, it’s beginning to get caught up in the western ghats of India, that are severely challenged on ecological grounds. Even out in the western ghats of India, the said bird can be found only in a limited parameter and isn’t omnipresent in the entire vicinity. A real delight for bird watching enthusiasts and photographers, this little creature rests on the country for its survival.
Forest Owlet
Another alluring, charming bird and one characteristically nocturnal in personality, the Forest Owlet, is today included in the critically endangered category of birds found in India. As on date, it has an extremely small and fragmented population in India, found only in Central India and parts of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.
Then again, a target of hunters and miscreants in the wild, the forest owlet’s numbers have been constantly declining. Among the five birds in a group of 5 in Maharashtra that includes the White Rumped Vulture, Red Headed Vulture and, Sociable Lapwing, the Forest Owlet’s fate depends on how well it can be concealed from the vile, starting today.