NOW BIRDS ARE FLYING UP

Earlier there were reports that big animals like snow leopards, common leopards and tigers are moving up in the Himalayas from their current habitats due to change in temperature because of climate change. Now new reports suggest that even birds are also flying up in the mountains due to climate change and destruction of forests, their prime habitat in a lesser height.

A new study from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has found that logging and climate change are threatening bird communities in the eastern Himalayas. The researchers analysed more than 10 years of data on understory insect-eating birds captured in mist nets in the Eagle nest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh. Tropical montane forests are unique ecosystems that can start at about 150- 200 metres and reach up to 3,500 metres high up on mountains around the world. They are critical centres of biodiversity, the report said.

Studies found that many species are shifting to higher elevations as temperatures rise, but logged forests are warmer than intact forests. This means birds reach unsuitable habitats sooner as they move uphill. “Logged forests have higher average temperatures and lower humidity than primary forests, thus hastening the transition,” IISc said.

While smaller birds seem to tolerate logged areas better, larger birds do best in primary forest. Logging leads to a loss of large bird species adapted to old-dense forest and an overall decline in diversity. “Understory insectivores that occupy narrow niches show steep declines in logged areas, likely because of lower insect availability. Large birds, with higher energy needs, are hit hardest by this insect decline,” IISc report said.Researchers say primary forests across elevation gradients must be protected to give birds room to shift upward as the climate warms. If birds instead encounter logged forest; local extinctions are likely for some species. In tropical mountains, each species has a particular niche where it is found. “This restriction creates much more diversity in a small space, explains Ritobroto

Chanda, former project associate at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), IISc, and corresponding author of the study published in Global Ecology and Conservation. Pointing out that forest loss and climate change present major threats to these ecosystems, Umesh Srinivasan, assistant professor at CES and another author, said birds - and indeed much of the flora and fauna – of tropical mountain ranges are extremely temperature-sensitive and are responding to global warming rapidly.

BIRDS OF PARADOX

Two rare black-throated parrotbills often placed with the Old-World babblers were spotted in Cherrapunjee area in Meghalaya after a gap of nearly two centuries, the last one in 1851 by a British ornithologist. Earlier the rare bird used to be found in most parts of Himalayan region. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Earlier, flocks of reed parrotbill were spotted in the reed marsh of Lianyungang City in eastern China.

The parrotbills (Paradoxornithidae, meaning “birds of paradox,”) are a group of Old-World passerines with perplexing taxonomic histories due to substantial morphological and ecological variation at various levels. The sparrow size birds with beaks like that of parrot are primarily native to East, Southeast and South Asia.

These are generally small birds weighing about ten grams with different colours. The little birds inhabit reedbeds, forests and similar habitats. Continued degradation and land reclamation have threatened its population.

Source: Himalayan News Chronicle