Bihar is all set to become India’s first state in the north to get a “bird ringing station” for observation, monitoring and research on migratory birds. It is overall the fourth state of India after Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Orissa to have bird ringing station.
It will be in Bihar’s Bhgalapur, which is one of the three known breeding places after Cambodia and Assam.
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Amit Kumar, who is the director of Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park alias Patna zoo, was present on the occasion of conservation of Migratory species-conference of parties (CMS-COP13) at Gandhinagar in Gujarat,where the principal secretary of Bihar government’s department of environment, forest and climate changes, and Deepak Kumar Singh has signed an Memorandum of Understanding or MoU with the Natural History Society ( Bombay ) for establishing the ‘birds- ringing station’ in Bihar”.
He said that the proposed ‘birds ringing station’ in Bhagalpur would be the 1st ringing station to be set up by the support of any state government and 4th in the country and the 1st in the entire north India.
“The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be valid for 5 years in which the state government of Bihar will spend almost Rs five crore,” Amit Kumar said.
A total of 130 countries are participating now for wider discussion at the CMS-COP13 on the characteristics, behaviour and other information of migratory species. Detailing about the 1st government-supported ‘birds ringing station’, he said that the station will be manned by trained scientists and other technical manpower from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
It will also be watching arrivals of migratory birds in areas including Nakti (Jamui), Baraila wetland in Vaishali, Kusheswarasthan in Darbhanga, and the Kanwar wetland in Begusarai. In this procedure, the rings are utilized which are used to be affixed with chips containing the details about route taken and the origin of the migratory birds and other subordinate activities of the birds,” he said.
What is ring bird?
Bird ringing also known as bird banding is the attachment of a small, uniquely numbered metal or plastic tag to the leg or wing of a wild bird to enable its identification.
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What is a bird ringing station and what is the purpose of bird rings?
Bird ringing is a useful research instrument used to collect information on the survival, productivity and movements of migratory birds, helping us to keep and eye on bird populations and to understand why they are changing.
The primary purpose of bird ringing was to learn the secrets of bird migration. Bird ringing for scientific purposes first began in 1889 in Denmark, when Hans Christian Cornelius Mortensen discharged starlings (Oscine Bird) that were fitted with metal rings etched with ordered numbers. In a very short period of time, ringing helped to keep a track on the complicated migration routes of many migrant bird species and as early as 1931. The 1st atlas of bird migration was publicized. Nowadays, within some countries the broad patterns of migration are now known for most of the migrant bird species.
Ringing birds is important to know how long they live and when and where they travel, questions that are critical for bird conservation. The uniquely numbered metal ring which is attached to the bird’s leg gives a dependable and harmless method of distinguishing birds as individuals.
On top of all these, bird ringing is extremely important for the study of migratory birds and their preservation because it allows to track the movements and other life history attribute of the birds over time. Identifying the birds helps to determine the crucial sites along their migratory routes and gives important information for conservation planning and site management. Moreover, through ringing we have the opportunity to obtain information on the dispersion, behaviour, migration, longevity,survival rate, population trends and reproductive success of migratory birds. Therefore, all this observation gives us a better insight of the birds’ ecology and biology and their demographic modification over time giving the possibility for successful conservation measures that can be adopted.
Bird ringing can be used as a monitoring technique and to understand population dynamics and continuity. Moreover, bird ringing can be used in evolutionary and behavioural studies (e.g. inbreeding in the wild, foraging strategies, the existence of infanticide etc) and in study of bird-transmitted diseases like the avian influenza virus of the H5N1 type.
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Although there are a lot of uses of bird ringing, it is very important that the ringing must be done by experienced ringers who have gained the required license after training, in order to make sure that the birds are safe. Moreover, ringing will need delicate handling and experience on how the bird should be held, how the ring will be placed on the bird’s leg without injuring it and how the different morphometric measurements like the wing and tail length, fat score, mass etc are taken.
The information obtained from ringing usually consists of three characteristics: geographical, demographic and biological status. Geographical data gives information about habitats within a breeding territory a bird preferentially selects for hunting and for the migratory routes and the important stopover places. Demographic data such as data on the population processes of productivity, survival and immigration or emigration can interpret population changes by understanding differences in demographic rates with environmental changes. Lastly, biological status data can give us information on environmental conditions experienced by the individual bird, or its ancestors. For example, the diet composition of a bird over the few hours prior to housing can be known as well as the evolutionary relationships and current taxonomy which are obtained from the genetic information from biological samples.
There are a lot of work showing that ringing can play an important role in answering a variety of research questions. The importance of movement flyway networks of wintering and stopover sites for water birds has been highlighted by ringing studies. Such ringing data have been the base to many international efforts to generate networks of key protected areas along these flyways, and has helped to form the principle that such migratory populations can be well protected only by mutual multinational conservation action.
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Bird Ringing Station: Quiz
- _____________ is a bird ringing station of North India.
a) Chilika
b) Nagarjuna Sagar
c) Periyar
d) Harike
Ans (d) Harike
- ______________ is an extinction of biodiversity caused due to Human modifications of nature.
a) Triassic extinction
b) Quaternary extinction
c) Permian extinction
d) Cretaceous extinction
Ans (c) Quaternary extinction
- _______ constitute the trophic level one of the food chain.
a) Omnivorous
b) Autotrophs
c) Herbivorous
d) Carnivorous
Ans (b) Autotrophs
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- The term wild life was used by William Hornaday for the first time in the year _______.
a) 1943
b) 1933
c) 1923
d) 1913
Ans (d) 1913
- Among the following which of them have largest numbers in the tropic pyramid.
a) Omnivorous
b) Autotrophs
c) Herbivorous
d) Carnivorous
Ans (b) Autotrophs
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