It’s a happy time for bird lovers in Delhi as the season for bird watching has finally arrived. In fact, migratory birds from Central Asia have already started arriving in hotspots like the Sultanpur Bird sanctuary in Gurgaon and Tilpat in Faridabad but one doesn’t even have to venture that far to see these birds. Instead of driving all the way to Gurgaon or Faridabad, one just has to move a few kilometres to the east towards Noida and enjoy watching those rarely found coot from China and Tibet, shovellers from Siberia and common teal, pin-tailed ducks and many more species of birds in the waters near the Okhla Bird Sanctuary and the Okhla Barrage.

According to the Assistant Wildlife Warden of Noida, despite poor monsoons the migratory birds had already started reaching Okhla from far-off places like Burma, China, Sri Lanka, Canada and Siberia. At the moment there were over 20 species of migratory birds in the area and, while it was difficult to assess their population, it was estimated to be well in excess of 70,000. Every morning thousands of these birds could be seen soaring in the skies to far off places and returning to the area in the evening.

It starts to snow in the Central Asian countries sometime around October which leads to the birds migrating to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan from November onwards. Unlike India, hunting is not prohibited in Afghanistan and Pakistan, so these birds feel safer in India. They will stay here till mid-March depending upon the climatic conditions and then make the long flight back home.

Of late Okhla has started attracting a large number of these birds. According to expers the biggest reason for this was the fact that Okhla fell on the bird’s route to Bharatpur in Rajasthan and the Chilka lake in Orissa and since these birds get a good habitat here, most of them prefer to stop here itself. Most migratory birds are vegetarian, their favorite food being gram, wheat, pea and mustard which were all available plentifully in this area adding to its appeal.

However, following a court directive, the road through the Okhla Bird Sanctuary was closed last year which means that to get there one has to now walk a distance of over two kilometers. This has led to bird lovers finding it difficult to enjoy the pleasure of watching these rare species that are not otherwise seen in this part of the country.

Still, the rewards will be much more than the effort so get moving.