Urban birds sing differently and at a higher frequency than woodland birds in an effort to penetrate the wall of constant noise produced by traffic, machines and human activity. However, architecture also has a profound affect on their songs. The study findings have recently been published in the esteemed scientific journal PLoS One.

A new explanation

“Urban architecture is a crucial determinant of how urban birds sing”. Noise amidst the urban landscape is typically composed of lower frequencies. Thus, one might jump to the conclusion that it would be smart for birds to distinguish their song by singing louder in order to drown out the competing noise. However, the recent study demonstrates that the noise explanation is incomplete, according to Professor Torben Dabelsteen of the Section for Ecology and Evolution at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology, one of the authors of the study.

The city’s role in the song

Some researchers have never really bought into the idea that urban noise alone caused birds in the city to sing at higher frequencies. Either directly, because birds tried to sing at a higher tone and away from noise or indirectly, by the birds singing louder to drown out anthropogenic noise.

“Now, with the help of controlled sound recordings, we have shown that the higher frequencies in urban birds’ songs are also transmitted across cities when there isn’t any noise from traffic. This shows that the physical structure of cities must play a considerable role in the heightened frequencies,” explains Torben Dabelsteen.

Structures and variations in the cityscape – houses, streets, open spaces and alleys – all serve to reflect and distort noise in differing ways, things that birds must take into account. Birds in the urban environment can easily spot one another, but must do what they can to reduce echoes from buildings and narrow streets in order to penetrate and communicate effectively.

High-pitched urban birds

Birds living beyond the urban landscape need not tweet away with full force. While the woodland’s trees and abundant foliage also distort sound through reflection, they also serve to obstruct clear lines of sight. Therefore, rural birds may utilize these distortions to help judge distances and locate one another.

“City-dwellers can look forward to the lively song of birds in the coming spring, and even though a side effect of the urban birds’ more powerful song is that they sing at a higher pitch, this is something that we are not typically able to hear,” explains Dabelsteen.

Provided by University of Copenhagen

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-birds-louder-noise-urban-jungle.html

Bangladesh has announced a plan to open three new sanctuaries in the Sundarbans—the world’s largest mangrove forest—to protect both subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin.

“Declaration of these Wildlife Sanctuaries is an essential first step in protecting Ganges River and Irrawaddy dolphins in Bangladesh,” Brian D. Smith, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asian Freshwater and Coastal Cetacean Program, explained, “as biological indicators of ecosystem-level impacts, freshwater dolphins can inform adaptive human-wildlife management to cope with climate change suggesting a broader potential for conservation and sustainable development.”

Currently, the dolphins face threats from dam projects, by-catch, pollution, prey loss due to overfishing, changes in salinity levels, and hunting—many of the same pressures that drove the Baiji to extinction.

The sanctuaries will also protect a range of other endangered species the make their homes in the Sundarbans.

Swallows dart around and there are a few resplendent bee-eaters here and there. A lonely parrot preens itself and in a still pond, a few large egrets fish and cause ripples. At the end of the road to Sriharikota, thousands of migratory ducks occupy the mud-brown lake. A pod of pelicans, the big birds of the lake, cruise along effortlessly as painted storks poke around the pristine waters in search of their breakfast.

A kingfisher, a beauty to behold, sits on a lone pole craning its neck left and right. Further down the road, the blackish coots with pink-red little ones wade through the reefs. In Pulicat, life is as normal and natural as it can be. The flamingos, the flagship species of the lake, were seen deep in the waters over the past two months, much to the disappointment of bird photographers, and not in great numbers as it used to be, says K. Thirunaranan of Nature Trust. The highlights this year was the spotting of Red Crested Pochards and Bar Headed Geese, he adds.

Some 20 km north, open billed storks, white ibis and pelicans, all parent birds, circle the late morning sky with their newborn ones in the nests on Barringtonia trees in the centre of the lake waiting to be fed in the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh. Cormorants criss-cross the lake often. Amidst a pile of dry sticks, the new-borns laze around and play with one other as they wait for food. A few small monkeys scurry on, to the dismay of the little birds, picking up the spilled fruits.

Hussain, a guide with the Andhra Pradesh tourism, presents binoculars to visiting school children, who take wings to watch the birds up close and vivid. Many open billed storks, still busy with building nests, thoughtfully pick and choose the branch they want.

A few pond herons jump into catch a fish and, once back in the branch, begin to munch. Now and then, a parent pelican swims across the greenish lake to quench its thirst. Soon, the birds circling above descend to their respective nests. The young pelicans are seen sticking their bills into their parents’ throat. “Each parent bird has a throat pouch which can store 2.5 kg of fish,” says Hussain. On Monday, foresters at the sanctuary had a rough count of the birds.

“There are 1,611 pelicans with 1,558 chicks; 1,327 open billed storks with 1,316 chicks; 1,318 white ibises with 332 young ones and 1,313 cormorants with 384 new-borns,” said N. Balaji, range officer, Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary. “The young ones will learn to swim and fly in March and the winged wonders will take off from the sanctuary one species after another, heralding the end of nesting season, with the pelicans leaving last in April,” says Hussain.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article2894633.ece

BBC Video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16881107

AWC’s Delhi State Coordinator T. K. Roy, who led a team of volunteers to conduct the census from January 14 to 29 with the help of forest staff of Okhla Bird Sanctuary, says some of the findings are very disturbing.

For one, the arrival of water birds along the Wazirabad Barrage-Nizamuddin Bridge stretch of the Yamuna has diminished sharply over the past five years. While in 2008, as many as 20 species of migratory birds were spotted along this stretch, the number has dropped to just six this year.

Even among these six species, only a pair each of common sandpiper, red wattled lapwing and grey wagtail were spotted. “Due to various levels of threats in the river, the bird habitat in Delhi, the resident bird species have almost disappeared and regular migratory water bird species too have abandoned the river habitat,” says Mr. Roy.

He says this year hardly any winter migratory species has been spotted except small flocks of black-headed gulls, brown-headed gulls and black-winged stilts.

These birds too were seen more towards the beginning of winter when they came in search of food.

But later, they sheltered in the much upper stretch of Yamuna near Hindon and in the smaller floodplain wetlands adjacent to the Yamuna due to habitat shrinkage and shortage of food, primarily fish, he adds.

Part of the largest and longest running internationally coordinated faunal monitoring programme in the world for many years now, Mr. Roy says the census has also narrowed down on the reasons for the decline in the arrival of water birds.

Reasons

The main reason for their staying away from the Wazirabad Barrage-Nizamuddin Bridge stretch of the Yamuna has been fishing, cutting and clearance of vegetation, vegetable cultivation and human disturbance, presence of open crematorium, dumping of non-biodegradable waste, concrete urban developments on riverbed and water pollution caused by flow of sewage and industrial effluents.

As for the Okhla Bird Sanctuary, Mr. Roy says this year 13 species of major migratory water birds (ducks, geese, coots), 11 species of waders, four species of gulls, three species of storks, three species of ibises, three of wagtails and 25 of resident water birds have been recorded.

She—bird lovers identified her to be a Blue Rock Thrush as per Salim Ali’s Book of Indian Birds —was on her routine winter jaunt to this part of the world from her home in the frozen Himalayan foothills.

The bird landed on the property belonging to Geetha Srinivasan, convenor of the Nilgiris chapter of Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH), off Udhagamandalam-Kotagiri Road and abutting the Kodappamund Channel. Ms. Srinivasan’s property is a haven for birds for its rich green foliage and flowering shrubs.

The bird was found in a bush inside the property, its feet heavily entangled in a plastic rope that snapped the bird’s flight over the hills.

Those at the property responded quick, picked up the bird, and snipped the strings with a scissor to set the bird free. It was then Ms. Srinivasan identified the visitor to her property to be a Blue Rock Thrush from the migratory cult.

According to Salim Ali’s book, the bird leaves the Himalayan foothills in winter and drops by the Subcontinent, including Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Satisfaction writ large on her face for being able to host the rare visitor and for freeing it from its ordeal, Ms. Srinivasan said the incident stressed the need to step up the war against plastic.

Acknowledging the efforts taken by the district administration and various NGOs to make the Nilgiris a plastic-free district, she said a lot more still needed to be done.

Though the public and the traders here were, to a large extent, sensitised to the after-effects of plastic, very few are aware of the damage plastic did to bio-diversity, she said.

In a place known both as a vacation spot and a natural heritage hotspot, tourists, both humans from the plains and migratory birds, have to be cared for.

We walked quietly watching the various migratory birds. The first one that caught our sight was the Rosy starling, flocked and huddled together on a wire.

Picture: Booted warbler

Picture: Pied crested cuckoo

Yellow wagtail

Spotted munia

Here are the list of birds we saw.

1. Parakeet
2. Rosy starling
3. Common coot
4. Small blue kingfisher
5. White throated kingfisher
6. Turtle dove
7. Peacock
8. Small egret
9. Large egret
10. Pied wagtail
11. Yellow wagtail
12. Booted warbler
13. Common sandpiper
14. Painted stork
15. Grey Heron
16. Purple heron
17. White breasted waterhen
18. Black kite
19. Pond heron
20. Spotted munia
21. Purple sunbird (male)
22. Purple sunbird (female)
23. Black Drongo
24. Indian treepie
25. Pied crested cuckoo
26. Baybacked shrike
27. Darter
28. Greater Coucal
29. White headed babbler
30. Blue tailed bee eater
31. Green bee eater
32. Common swallow
33. Spot billed duck
34. Black winged stilt
35. Common ringed plover
36. Red wattled lapwing
37. Common sparrow
38. Intermediate egret

Picture: Black Drongo amidst yellow fields

Picture: Darters

Rosy Starling

This was done as a part of census by BNHS on Asiatic water birds.

Text and Pictures: Sharada Balasubramanian

As my interest in wildlife grew, I witnessed this lovely animal in many wildlife sanctuaries. There was a stark difference of course. There was silence all around me. The animals were quietly fanning themselves, and walking in groups, drinking water, splashing mud over their bodies. I realised I enjoyed this sight more than watching them in temples.

The feeling of watching an elephant in the wild is inexpressible.

Until, yesterday I did not know that elephants suffer when they are kept captive.  I had an opportunity to hear the talks of Dr. Shiela Rao from CUPA at the 2nd Annual animal welfare and conservation symposium held in coimbatore. CUPA works on saving the captive elephants. I heard some appalling facts. Captive elephants in temples are not treated well. Though Kerala might seem like an animal loving state, where is the love when animals are treated badly in temples. That’s one. In states across India, this animal in captivity is taken around on the road in hot sun without water. How cruel is that? Next time when you are in Kerala and you see an elephant, please look at the chains and how they are tied. I am sure, you have little bit of empathy towards living beings, you would have tears in your eyes.

We talk about human rights and animal rights. Do we really care about this animal whom we worship as Lord Ganesha. In the name of religion, we are committing atrocities towards these animals.

Fact 1: Elephants love silence. They do. They hate sounds. Can you imagine how they survive in temples? You never know when they might get agitated. Elephants are one among the unpredictable animals. As noise haters, they could get aggravated at any point. There have been many cases of mahout deaths.

Once, a mahout repeatedly was beating the elephant to make him do a task. After umpteen times, the elephant reacted. Pulled the mahout’s legs and flung it. That was it. Is it not fair that these animals are left in their own space or freedom than keeping them in temples and ill treating them.

Fact 2: You see elephants shaking their head. It is not fun. When it becomes stereotypical, it is a sign of stress for animals. This is not particular to elephants, but to any animal. Animals do go through psychological depressions and these are signs.

Fact 3: Elephants do not breed in captivity. No they absolutely do not. Given such horrendous conditions, can they?

Fact 4: Elephants cannot bear heat. If you walk down to forests in summer afternoons, you will find them probably under a thick tree fanning themselves. There are no sweat glands present in the animal, hence they cannot withstand heat. You will never find them in the sun, but imagine in the roads of Rajasthan, these animals are made to walk for miles in the sun without water? Think about it!

A baby elephant was once reaching the gate of Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and natural history. The mother elephant was pushing the baby elephant to walk further to drink water. The baby walked and suddenly collapsed and died, right near the water tank kept for these animals to drink water. On post portem it was found that, the baby had human parasites in its body-the clear reason for its death. We keep dirtying places, throwing trash and when these animals feed on them, this is what happens?

For a change, how about humans being put in a cage, and these elephants chaining them without food or water? Will they survive? No. We consider ourselves superior. But think about it, animals and insects have been living in this planet for crores of years and humans..approximately 5 lakh years and we dominate them?  Like Salim Ali said, the day when the birds are gone, there will be no humans left to survive and even if humans are trashed out of this planet, birds and animals and worms will still exist.

Next time, I don’t even think I would want to see an elephant in a temple. I would shudder to watch my animal being tormented. In the name of religion, we are torturing animals when even our great scriptures like Mahabharata tells us to protect nature.

People, wake up!