Diary On The Nesting Behaviour Of Indian Birds

This is a brief account of the nesting behaviour of the little ringed plover a tiny wader which can also fly fast in the Diary On The Nesting Behaviour of Indian Birds authored by amateur ornithologists Chinna Sathan a Central Excise employee in Coimbatore and Bal Pandi a villager taking care of orphaned birds at Koothankulam bird sanctuary in Tirunelveli district Salim Ali once stressed on the need to study the nesting behaviour of common birds of India The last studies were done at the beginning of the 20th century The diary is the result of four years of field work and countless hours of observation said Chinna Sathan The next time you walk through an estuary look for the little ringed plover he says The nesting behaviour is instinctive for birds says Bal Pandi A young Painted Stork brought up by him instinctively began building a nest on black stone boulders above a forest guest house at Koothankulam Initially the little one piled thick twigs in a circular manner then small twigs and after that used leafy twigs as cushion It was a lonely five month old juvenile bird which automatically got into nest building he recalls The diary is adorned with 300 photographs 50 sketches and unique information on the nesting behaviour of 50 birds gathered from observations in the field for four years If you have noticed the juveniles of spot billed pelicans can call with a sound resembling amma but when they become adults they lose their voice says Pandi who has been taking care of orphaned birds which fall from treetops and get injured in the sanctuary for the past twenty years 223 pp.…